EVs are expensive. These city commuters ditched cars altogether — for e-bikes
Lelac Almagor carries her son, 3-year-old Oren, and infant daughter, Tamar, in her e-cargo bike.
Electric cars are seen as a key way to reduce climate change causing emissions — but they are expensive. The average price paid for a new electric vehicle towards the end of 2022 was over 65,000, according to Kelley Blue Book.
While running costs are typically lower than a gas-powered vehicle, there are tax, insurance and parking costs.
Lelac Almagor thinks there’s a better way to ditch a fossil-fueled car.
“I just really hate driving. The sitting and the being stuck and the waiting is just really not for me,” said the mother of three from Washington D.C.
She takes her family almost everywhere by electric bike.
She proved it by taking me on a ride, along with her 3-year-old son Oren strapped in next to me, and her infant daughter Tamar snugly secured in a baby seat.
Lelac Almagor and two of her children take NPR’s Adam Bearne for a ride in their e-cargo bike. Eric Bourland hide caption
Lelac Almagor and two of her children take NPR’s Adam Bearne for a ride in their e-cargo bike.
Despite clutching her tambourine, Tamar got a little fussy — perhaps because of the 200-pound stranger now crowding her space — but was quickly lulled to sleep once we got underway.
Oren was enjoying the crests and dips of the DC Metropolitan Branch Trail.
“I like the up and down and up and down,” he squealed.
Almagor had tried other options for commuting, such as public transportation, but that became problematic once she had children.
“I used to Metro a lot and take the bus a lot, and then when I had kids, it just became a little bit too complicated to get to where we were going with the kids and the stuff that the kids have,” she said.
Almagor had also tried to ride with a regular bike in the past, but describes herself as a “failed bike commuter.”
“I’m not that spandex cyclist type of person, that’s not me. I really hate biking up hills,” she added.
Gas Power To Electric Power To. Foot Power?
Electric bikes use a battery and an electric motor to boost the rider’s own input, or in some cases, to take over entirely.
Replacing car trips for those kinds of errands has an obvious environmental impact, even if that’s not Alamgor’s main motivation for riding.
“I felt guilty every time I used the car, partly because of my concern about fossil fuels and my family’s carbon footprint, but if there hadn’t been a way to fix it that was convenient and joyful, we would probably still be driving and feeling guilty about it,” she said.
Buying an e-bike has changed more than the way Almagor gets around.
After 19 years as a teacher, she’s loving ‘bike life’ so much that she ended up working for the company she bought the bike from.
The ease and convenience Almagor experiences could convince more people to give up their car for these short trips, and there are many of them.
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics found that in 2021, 52% of all trips were three miles or less, a distance most people could cover by e-bike.
That’s why the City and County of Denver is giving out vouchers towards the purchase of an e-bike.
“We have a fairly car-dependent culture, so there’s a fairly high rate of single occupancy vehicle trips,” said Grace Troccolo Rink, executive director of the city‘s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability, and Resiliency.
Some streets closed during the pandemic to allow pedestrians will remain car-free
The program was launched last year on Earth Day.
Denver residents could get 400 for an e-bike, or 1200 if they have a lower income. And that amount is right around the price of an entry-level e-bike, which is more expensive than most regular bikes.
If they wanted an e-cargo bike, the kind really suited to replacing car trips, they got an additional 500. The vouchers were so popular, the city‘s funding for all of 2022 was quickly allocated.
The program will resume at the end of January 2023, although the voucher amounts will be slightly lower. The city says this will help them make the funding available to more new e-bike riders.
Troccolo Rink said the vouchers “got people off the fence” when it came to buying an e-bike.
That cost can be sizable, with e-bikes usually costing more than what are becoming known as “acoustic bikes.”
But the Denver program has the intended effect, according to preliminary survey results of voucher recipients.
“On average, the people who have responded are saying they are biking 26.2 miles overall per week, and they’re replacing 3.4 car trips for an average of 21.6 miles of replaced car trips per week. I think that’s a pretty good result,” noted Troccolo Rink.
National Parks Trying To Get A Handle On E-Bikes
Numbers like that are why bike advocates like Noa Banayan of People for Bikes want to see incentives at a federal level.
“Every community should be thinking about the fastest ways to cut their emissions. It’s not building out, necessarily, an electric-vehicle charging network that’ll be live in five, 10 years. It’s giving people an e-bike and giving them a safe place to ride it,” she said.
Noa Banayan with her e-bike in the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lane. Adam Bearne hide caption
Noa Banayan with her e-bike in the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lane.
Banayan is hoping that lawmakers in Washington will pass the kind of incentives for electric bikes that are available to people who buy electric cars.
“It’s about giving people choice in how they move. And if we’re giving people an incentive to choose cars, electric vehicles, and not necessarily an electric bicycle, then we’re locking our transportation system into the way it has been, which is really car dominated,” she added.
One problem with e-bike adoption will be with people living in rural areas, according to Skyler McKinley of AAA Colorado.
“It is incredibly expensive across America to live in cities right now. Folks increasingly are not living in urban centers. They are further flung, where they might have to drive a significant amount of time to get to, say, the grocery store. In that case, they’re probably going to go with an internal combustion engine over an e-bike,” he said.
Officials search for solutions to exploding electric bike batteries
McKinley says that gasoline-powered vehicles are likely to be the preferred option for a while because of the high price of electric cars.
“The problem with electric vehicles from an equity perspective is that the average cost of an electric vehicle in the United States is north of 65,000. And while rebates and refunds and incentives are available, that is steep for anyone buying a new car. Certainly there’s a very limited used car market for EVs because they’re relatively new. So finding an affordable electric car is not in the cards for many, many working Americans.”
Despite working in the automotive field, McKinley can see the appeal of e-bikes.
“If you live in a city and need to go buy some groceries in a supermarket that’s two miles away, that absolutely does not need to be a car trip. You can get a cargo e-bike and do that task safely, efficiently and just about as easily as you would with an automobile,” he said.
But long-distance travel isn’t an issue for Almagor in Washington.
“Between me and my husband, we’ve put 12 thousand miles on our bikes in the last couple of years. When I think about that number, what it means most to me is how many minutes I spent having fun with my kids outside.”
The audio version of this piece was edited by Miranda Kennedy. The digital story was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi.
The incredible, Earth-saving electric bike is having a moment
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The clean-transportation revolution won’t arrive by way of futuristic hyperloops, driverless taxi pods, or drones the size of minivans — not anytime soon, at least.
And while electric cars get all the hype, a game-changing solution to getting around without warming the planet has flourished right under our noses.
Electric bicycles of all shapes and sizes have whirred and zipped their way into the mainstream in recent years as the pandemic has supercharged an e-biking boom that was already well underway. And that’s a great thing, because while replacing gas-burning cars with electric ones is key to heading off global warming, research has found Americans also need to drive less altogether to avoid climate catastrophe.
The Earth-saving potential of e-bikes
Transportation is the single biggest contributor to US greenhouse-gas emissions. And light-duty vehicles (cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs, not semis and airplanes) make up the largest chunk of that. Gains in vehicle efficiency are being dragged down by rising sales of large SUVs and trucks, while practically no progress has been made in reducing the number of miles people drive, Carter Rubin, a transportation lead at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Insider.
All that makes enticing people to step out of the driver’s seat and onto a bike, bus, or sidewalk increasingly important for meeting climate goals.
“Cleaner cars are an important solution, but we can’t just FOCUS on cars,” Katherine García, the director of the Clean Transportation for All Campaign at the Sierra Club, told Insider. “We need to make sure we are putting programs in place that really encourage people to take alternatives.”
E-bikes have loads of potential to pry Americans away from their beloved automobiles, advocates told Insider, especially since short trips could easily be made on two wheels instead. According to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, more than half of all trips in the US are under 3 miles.
A University of Oxford study found that swapping a car for a bike just once a day slashed an individual’s transportation emissions by a whopping 67%. Another study found choosing an e-bike for 15% of one’s miles traveled cut their transportation emissions by 12%.
Fast, fun, and convenient, e-bikes are already helping people make that kind of shift in their daily lives.
Victor Silva, a product manager in the suburbs of Washington, DC, bought a RadRunner Plus from Rad Power Bikes for 1,900 in the summer after realizing most of his car trips were only a few miles. Now he’s hooked. He recently bought another e-bike and is looking to sell his and his wife’s second car since it barely gets any use. He said he wasn’t going to miss the insurance payments or traffic jams.
“I’m trading an activity that I absolutely hate doing, which is getting stuck in traffic, with something that I actually like doing, which is getting some exercise and riding my bike,” he told Insider.
After Wesley Cook and his wife sold their second car last year, they test-rode a pair of e-bikes from a local, Atlanta-based company called Edison Bicycles and never looked back. While they had never biked much before, they’ve slowly replaced daily errands like getting groceries or taking their son to school with e-bike rides.
Cook, a software engineer, just made an addition to the couple’s fleet — a cargo bike from Urban Arrow that has plenty of room for their son and their baby who’s arriving later this year.
The e-bike advantage
The power of e-bikes to alter peoples’ habits and help save the planet is simple and maybe a little obvious. But it’s important and worth spelling out nonetheless: By making biking easier, e-bikes encourage people to ride more.
A little electrical assistance goes a long way toward helping people overcome the obstacles keeping them from biking, whether that’s steep hills, a lengthy commute, physical limitations, or the mortifying thought of showing up somewhere with pit stains, John MacArthur, a professor at Portland State University who researches sustainable transportation, told Insider.
“A lot of those barriers can be broken down by putting a motor on a bike,” he said.
National surveys he’s conducted have indicated that e-bikes motivate people to ride farther and more often — plus they broaden interest in cycling beyond the stereotypical spandex-clad white man.
Lyft, which operates bike-sharing systems across the US, has noticed similar trends. It’s seen ridership boom by more than 50% since 2020 and attributes much of that growth to e-bikes. In 2021, e-bikes made up just 20% of Lyft’s New York City fleet but 40% of total rides and nearly two-thirds of journeys between boroughs, which typically involve a steep climb over a bridge.
As many people who have ridden an e-bike will tell you, they’re just plain fun — and they can often get you places faster and with less hassle than a car or bus. They’re that rare thing in life that’s both good and good for you.
“They’re kind of a rocket fuel for regular biking,” Rubin, a daily e-biker, told Insider.
Electric cars are important, too, but they’re expensive and far off for a lot of drivers, MacArthur said. Just consider someone who recently bought a gas car and doesn’t plan on trading it in for a decade. E-bikes, on the other hand, are an option that’s right here, right now.
The most popular electric vehicles in the US don’t have a Tesla logo
While electric cars get all the attention, e-bikes have for years been the best-selling electric vehicles in the US.
Last year, Americans bought just over 800,000 electric cars, according to Kelley Blue Book, a record. E-bike imports (a good proxy for sales since most e-bikes aren’t made in the US) numbered around 1.1 million, surging from 880,000 in 2021 and 437,000 the year before, according to an e-bike-industry trade group.
In dollar terms, e-bike retail sales nearly quadrupled in the past four years, rising from 240.1 million in 2019 to 885.5 million in 2022, the market-research firm Circana estimates. While sales of leg-powered bicycles slumped 16% last year, e-bike sales jumped by 100 million.
Ed Benjamin, the Light Electric Vehicle Association’s chair, chalks up the trend to growing awareness among consumers and more interest and know-how among bike sellers. The pandemic, which made people wary of close-quarters public transit, boosted e-bike fandom to new heights, he said. And sales show no sign of slowing down. In China and some parts of Europe, one out of every two bikes sold has a motor, Benjamin said, which indicates there’s plenty of room for growth in the US.
Improving tech and new form factors for different types of shoppers have fueled public appetite, too, MacArthur of Portland State said. Now buyers can choose from a wide variety of regular-looking bikes, folding bikes, tricycles, fat-tire mopeds, and even cargo bikes, which have extra room for groceries and seats for children.
The demand explosion has meant boom times for e-bike makers who played their cards right, like California’s Aventon, which got its start in 2013 selling (nonelectric) fixed-gear bikes.
Seeing the potential in e-bikes, the young firm went all in on the technology in 2020, at what turned out to be a very opportune time. Since then, it’s expanded its lineup to seven models and multiplied its revenues by a factor of 42, Aventon’s chief marketing officer, Adele Nasr, told Insider. One key driver of the success, Nasr said: Customers are increasingly seeing e-bikes as legitimate tools for replacing car trips, rather than just toys for recreation.
“They’re starting to think about them differently, starting to imagine use cases that are so much more evolved than they were even three years ago, which is incredible,” Nasr said.
Congress could give the e-bike boom another jolt
While the federal government has committed billions of dollars to public EV charging and 7,500 tax refunds to buyers of Teslas and electric Ford F-150s, it’s largely left e-bikes out in the cold.
That’s a big mistake, said Noa Banayan, the director of federal affairs at PeopleForBikes, an advocacy group that represents the bike industry. Since e-bikes are much cheaper than electric cars, “you can get them into the hands of consumers faster,” she said.
But times are changing. In March, a group of congresspeople reintroduced the Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment (E-BIKE) Act, which proposes a 30% discount (up to 1,500) for the purchase of a new e-bike. The law could not only make e-bikes more accessible to more Americans, Rubin of the Natural Resources Defense Council said, but also send a powerful message to state and local governments to get serious about safer cycling infrastructure such as protected bike lanes.
Unlike when it was first introduced (then scrapped) in 2021, the bill now has support from major environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and Environment America.
“Now they’re realizing that electric bicycles and active transportation, and micromobility more broadly, should be a part of their larger transportation and climate agendas,” Banayan said. “That’s really exciting.”
This article is part of “The Great Transition,” a series covering the big changes across industries that are leading to a more sustainable future. For more climate-action news, visit Insider’s One Planet hub.
Who Knew There Were So Many Cool Uses For Electric Bikes?
Consumers’ increasing awareness of environmental issues is connected to the demand for green innovations, particularly in the transport sector. E-bikes are gaining quickly in popularity — and in some expected places.
The uses for electric bikes (e-bikes) are extensive. Most people enjoy comfortable, longer range riding with an e-bike. Others reduce the cost of their commute due to affordable electricity vs. gas. For older riders or riders recuperating from an injury, an e-bike helps with hills, inclines, and rough terrain, allowing for a smoother ride, thus reducing stress on joints. People of different fitness levels can ride together when e-bikes are involved.
Other than the customary uses for electric bikes, however, there are some inspiring stories emerging about how e-bikes are providing extraordinary and unexpected benefits.
Poachers Beware! No Bells On These E-Bikes
The night poachers use torchlights to blind whole herds of antelopes. Brutal and full of bravado, the poachers hear the rangers’ noisy motorbikes from more than a mile off. With thousands of square miles of terrain surrounding them, the Mozambique national park poachers identify the location of rangers through sound and orient their hunting away from the authorities.
But, in an ironic twist of cleantech fate, the poachers have become prey, as a team of rangers in off-road e-bikes descend on them without sound. As reported by Wired, having e-bikes means an illegal hunt can be halted.
“The petrol bikes we’ve used previously have all been loud, heavy, and expensive to keep running in these areas. These bikes are quiet, which makes it easier for us to approach poachers undetected,” says Mfana Xaba, anti-poaching team leader of Southern African Wildlife College (SAWC), a nonprofit organization based near South Africa’s Kruger National Park. SAWC supplies trained rangers to 127 parks across Africa, including the one in Mozambique.
The rangers’ e-bike weighs 80 kilograms (176 pounds) and can reach speeds of 56 miles per hour, with around 5 hours of ride time. CAKE switched its standard tires for 18-inch off-road tires like the ones used in motocross. It also supplied a software system providing navigation, communication, and location identification, enabling CAKE to retrieve vehicle data and continue to monitor and improve each bike’s performance.
Fifty Kalk anti-poaching bikes, made by the Swedish company CAKE, are now being used across SAWC’s African parks, after being tested across the continent’s varied terrain, including plains, forests, and jungle. Originating from the Anti-Poaching initiative, CAKE’s Electric Bush Bike demonstrates durability, functionality, and the opportunities of creating innovative solutions to urgent and difficult challenges. As CAKE reminds us in its promotional literature, with combustion engine motorcycles, buying and transporting fuel to the remote areas prove both costly, inconvenient, and unsustainable. The fuel is shipped long distance via petrol-driven trucks or even helicopters, driving both costs further and polluting the area.
With the new electric Kalk AP, rangers are equipped with a power kit and solar panels from solar power company Goal Zero, which outfits the bikes with renewable power from the sun. The bikes can be charged via the power kit independently from any power outlet, creating less pollution in the area.
Several park poaching attempts have been stopped this year already, saving a variety of animals, including tiny antelopes — suni, red duikers, and blue duikers — which poachers kill in huge numbers for bushmeat. While these species are not classed as “at risk” themselves, they form an essential part of fragile ecosystems on which endangered animals rely, says Alan Gardiner, an ecology professor and head of the Applied Learning Unit at SAWC. “Suni and the other small antelope form prey items for many predators such as leopards, crowned eagles, and pythons, as well as influencing vegetation growth. When any species is impacted in a system, it has a knock-on effect.”
Solar-powered mobile charging points mean rangers can camp in the bush for weeks. The charger, called the Goal Zero Solar Hub, can charge at least two bike batteries from empty to full in just 3 hours, and it takes 18 hours to charge itself from zero using the sun’s rays. “The charging points are a bit heavy — 45 kilograms — but they can be pulled around on their built-in wheels like a suitcase,” says Ytterborn. “That means that at every station, there is a fresh battery on charge and ready to be swapped to the one on the motorcycle.”
What’s All the Excitement about E-Bikes?
An e-bike is a pedal-assisted electric bicycle. It is equipped with a central motor that’s either integrated with the cranks or placed in the front or rear hub, which aids pedaling by reducing the effort. E-bikes can be classified based on different criteria such as power, speed, and design. The provided power of e-bikes can be classified into 3 types including pure e-bikes, power-assisted e-bikes, and the combination of the pure and power-assisted types.
Of course, the Kalk e-bikes being used in Mozambique are quite heavy duty — 176 pounds. My Lectric Lite is a mere 45 pounds, with an entirely different purpose.
E-bikes are the fastest growing means in the transport market in several regions of the world. “Over the last few years, we’ve seen them explode in popularity in Europe, and now that’s expanding to the U.S.,” says Kate Fillin-Yeh, director of strategy for the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO). “Ebike are poised to go down, while distribution is increasing.”
Electric cargo bikes are expected to become a preferred answer for last-mile deliveries in cities. They have zero carbon emissions and need far less road space than cars when parked or in use. Logistics companies are using data to find out when using electric cargo bikes instead of cars or vans improves delivery times and reduces costs.
Deloitte predicts that between 2020 and 2023 there will be 130 million electric bikes will be sold around the globe.
Final Thoughts about Uses for Electric Bikes
A research study for the Bureau of Transportation Statistics focused on the number of daily trips taken in the United States. In 2021, 52% of all trips, including all modes of transportation, were less than three miles, with 28% of trips less than one mile. Just 2% of all trips were greater than 50 miles. If a substantial number of those trips, especially shopping errands that might require hauling some heavy items or bags of groceries, can be replaced with trips on an electric bike, the emissions savings would be significant.
A randomized controlled trial with GPS data from 98 frequent drivers in Sweden was conducted to investigate the effect of the e-bike on modal choice, the number of trips, distance, as well as perceptions of the e-bike as a substitute for the car. The results demonstrate that the treatment group increased cycling on average with 1 trip and 6.5 km per day and person, which led to a 25% increase in total cycling. The whole increase was at the expense of car use, which on average decreased by 1 trip and 14 km per person and day, a decrease in car mileage of 37%.
Yes, electric cars and trucks get the most media attention these days when the topic of decarbonizing transportation comes up. But, with the extensive and varied uses of e-bikes available to huge segments of the global population — including park rangers trying to stymie poachers — the transition to all-electric transportation is continuing on full force from a whole bunch of sectors.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
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I don’t like paywalls. You don’t like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don’t like paywalls, and so we’ve decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It’s a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So.
If you like what we do and want to support us, please chip in a bit monthly via PayPal or Patreon to help our team do what we do! Thank you! Advertisement
Who Knew There Were So Many Cool Uses For Electric Bikes?
Consumers’ increasing awareness of environmental issues is connected to the demand for green innovations, particularly in the transport sector. E-bikes are gaining quickly in popularity — and in some expected places.
The uses for electric bikes (e-bikes) are extensive. Most people enjoy comfortable, longer range riding with an e-bike. Others reduce the cost of their commute due to affordable electricity vs. gas. For older riders or riders recuperating from an injury, an e-bike helps with hills, inclines, and rough terrain, allowing for a smoother ride, thus reducing stress on joints. People of different fitness levels can ride together when e-bikes are involved.
Other than the customary uses for electric bikes, however, there are some inspiring stories emerging about how e-bikes are providing extraordinary and unexpected benefits.
Poachers Beware! No Bells On These E-Bikes
The night poachers use torchlights to blind whole herds of antelopes. Brutal and full of bravado, the poachers hear the rangers’ noisy motorbikes from more than a mile off. With thousands of square miles of terrain surrounding them, the Mozambique national park poachers identify the location of rangers through sound and orient their hunting away from the authorities.
But, in an ironic twist of cleantech fate, the poachers have become prey, as a team of rangers in off-road e-bikes descend on them without sound. As reported by Wired, having e-bikes means an illegal hunt can be halted.
“The petrol bikes we’ve used previously have all been loud, heavy, and expensive to keep running in these areas. These bikes are quiet, which makes it easier for us to approach poachers undetected,” says Mfana Xaba, anti-poaching team leader of Southern African Wildlife College (SAWC), a nonprofit organization based near South Africa’s Kruger National Park. SAWC supplies trained rangers to 127 parks across Africa, including the one in Mozambique.
The rangers’ e-bike weighs 80 kilograms (176 pounds) and can reach speeds of 56 miles per hour, with around 5 hours of ride time. CAKE switched its standard tires for 18-inch off-road tires like the ones used in motocross. It also supplied a software system providing navigation, communication, and location identification, enabling CAKE to retrieve vehicle data and continue to monitor and improve each bike’s performance.
Fifty Kalk anti-poaching bikes, made by the Swedish company CAKE, are now being used across SAWC’s African parks, after being tested across the continent’s varied terrain, including plains, forests, and jungle. Originating from the Anti-Poaching initiative, CAKE’s Electric Bush Bike demonstrates durability, functionality, and the opportunities of creating innovative solutions to urgent and difficult challenges. As CAKE reminds us in its promotional literature, with combustion engine motorcycles, buying and transporting fuel to the remote areas prove both costly, inconvenient, and unsustainable. The fuel is shipped long distance via petrol-driven trucks or even helicopters, driving both costs further and polluting the area.
With the new electric Kalk AP, rangers are equipped with a power kit and solar panels from solar power company Goal Zero, which outfits the bikes with renewable power from the sun. The bikes can be charged via the power kit independently from any power outlet, creating less pollution in the area.
Several park poaching attempts have been stopped this year already, saving a variety of animals, including tiny antelopes — suni, red duikers, and blue duikers — which poachers kill in huge numbers for bushmeat. While these species are not classed as “at risk” themselves, they form an essential part of fragile ecosystems on which endangered animals rely, says Alan Gardiner, an ecology professor and head of the Applied Learning Unit at SAWC. “Suni and the other small antelope form prey items for many predators such as leopards, crowned eagles, and pythons, as well as influencing vegetation growth. When any species is impacted in a system, it has a knock-on effect.”
Solar-powered mobile charging points mean rangers can camp in the bush for weeks. The charger, called the Goal Zero Solar Hub, can charge at least two bike batteries from empty to full in just 3 hours, and it takes 18 hours to charge itself from zero using the sun’s rays. “The charging points are a bit heavy — 45 kilograms — but they can be pulled around on their built-in wheels like a suitcase,” says Ytterborn. “That means that at every station, there is a fresh battery on charge and ready to be swapped to the one on the motorcycle.”
What’s All the Excitement about E-Bikes?
An e-bike is a pedal-assisted electric bicycle. It is equipped with a central motor that’s either integrated with the cranks or placed in the front or rear hub, which aids pedaling by reducing the effort. E-bikes can be classified based on different criteria such as power, speed, and design. The provided power of e-bikes can be classified into 3 types including pure e-bikes, power-assisted e-bikes, and the combination of the pure and power-assisted types.
Of course, the Kalk e-bikes being used in Mozambique are quite heavy duty — 176 pounds. My Lectric Lite is a mere 45 pounds, with an entirely different purpose.
E-bikes are the fastest growing means in the transport market in several regions of the world. “Over the last few years, we’ve seen them explode in popularity in Europe, and now that’s expanding to the U.S.,” says Kate Fillin-Yeh, director of strategy for the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO). “Ebike are poised to go down, while distribution is increasing.”
Electric cargo bikes are expected to become a preferred answer for last-mile deliveries in cities. They have zero carbon emissions and need far less road space than cars when parked or in use. Logistics companies are using data to find out when using electric cargo bikes instead of cars or vans improves delivery times and reduces costs.
Deloitte predicts that between 2020 and 2023 there will be 130 million electric bikes will be sold around the globe.
Final Thoughts about Uses for Electric Bikes
A research study for the Bureau of Transportation Statistics focused on the number of daily trips taken in the United States. In 2021, 52% of all trips, including all modes of transportation, were less than three miles, with 28% of trips less than one mile. Just 2% of all trips were greater than 50 miles. If a substantial number of those trips, especially shopping errands that might require hauling some heavy items or bags of groceries, can be replaced with trips on an electric bike, the emissions savings would be significant.
A randomized controlled trial with GPS data from 98 frequent drivers in Sweden was conducted to investigate the effect of the e-bike on modal choice, the number of trips, distance, as well as perceptions of the e-bike as a substitute for the car. The results demonstrate that the treatment group increased cycling on average with 1 trip and 6.5 km per day and person, which led to a 25% increase in total cycling. The whole increase was at the expense of car use, which on average decreased by 1 trip and 14 km per person and day, a decrease in car mileage of 37%.
Yes, electric cars and trucks get the most media attention these days when the topic of decarbonizing transportation comes up. But, with the extensive and varied uses of e-bikes available to huge segments of the global population — including park rangers trying to stymie poachers — the transition to all-electric transportation is continuing on full force from a whole bunch of sectors.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Former Tesla Battery Expert Leading Lyten Into New Lithium-Sulfur Battery Era — Podcast:
I don’t like paywalls. You don’t like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don’t like paywalls, and so we’ve decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It’s a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So.
If you like what we do and want to support us, please chip in a bit monthly via PayPal or Patreon to help our team do what we do! Thank you! Advertisement