Summary:
Electric bikes and mopeds are surpassing electric cars in reducing oil demand. Globally, over 280 million electric two- and three-wheelers are already making a significant impact. These vehicles are especially beneficial for short urban trips, effectively decreasing oil consumption by about 1%. While electric cars are celebrated for zero tailpipe emissions, their production involves substantial electricity and rare earth elements for batteries. In contrast, electric bikes and mopeds offer a more affordable and efficient option for everyday urban commutes. As battery costs decrease and petrol prices rise, the shift towards electric micromobility is poised to accelerate, offering a sustainable and practical solution for city transportation.
I just have a regular mechanical bike that’s sufficient enough for most local things.
Haha there are dozens of us left! Dozens!
Nope, there are 27 of us!
Ebikes have been a game changer for old people.
Plenty of people can’t ride bikes because of hills and health. Most people don’t want to show up drenched in sweat and out of breath.
Ebikes and pedal assist are awesome. People can get out and about and get exercise. Or they can just cruise along and chit chat.
Ebikes aren’t supposed to replace EVs that have a climate controlled interior.
As a 57 year old who got my first ebike last year, having not been on a bike much in the last 10 years or more - I friggin love it. Makes a person feel like a kid again, there really is nothing like it. That elated feeling when you’re a kid burning it down the hills, you get that all the time on an ebike. That motor assist as you pedal and you get that fun downhill feeling even on level or rising ground. I love showing my ebike to older people when they come over and ask me about it. I see so many older people out on them now, it’s awesome.
What bike do you have?
A RadExpand 5. I really like it. I do wish though it had a front suspension. I’ve been taking it on some bumpy trails and If I had my choice now I’d get one with front and rear suspension.
https://radpowerbikes.ca/collections/electric-bikes/products/radexpand-electric-folding-bikeYou can get a seat that has suspension in it. How well it works depends on price and your weight but if you find one that works it can be very helpful. Especially for certain hits.
Makes a person feel like a kid again
Yup. Ebikes are awesome.
Zoom Zoom.
My mother in her 60s is getting her first ebike after riding mine!
Awesome !
I really like my e-bike because it’s easy to start from a complete stop at signs/lights/crossings using the throttle to get me going again. With a regular bike, it can be awkward for a second, so you don’t want to stop. This can be extremely dangerous. I’ve seen too much stupid shit because people didn’t want to stop for 5 seconds and check.
A much better solution than a car in so many countries
I’d say most countries, including the rich ones.
IMO the main place where an ebike is more practical than a car is in cities. They’ll be faster, way cheaper and more fun. And if you need to use a car you can just use uber or a car sharing service
Even in small towns most car journeys are very short and replaceable with bike travel
I wish they were viable in the LA suburbs. Everything’s too spread out, and there are nowhere near enough bike lanes.
Not a good solution for the use-cases cars are designed for. (Transporting multiple people long distances etc.) However an excelent solution for the use-cases people most often cover using their cars.
Yup, saved my family from needing two cars. My wife and I both have e-bikes and can get around town pretty easily. I’ll even do a long ride into Boston 25 miles away each way. I sit at cubicle all day, so riding is always a blast
Ebikes are huge for developing countries or people can’t afford or are unable to buy a car.
If I didn’t have a 45mi round trip commute, I’d absolutely consider getting one.
Last time I looked Lectric had the best bang for buck at $1,000. Not to use for your commute but just FYI if you’d think you’d want for not work commute.
I have had 2 Lectric e-bikes. For the price they are great and the customer service is great. The quality isn’t the best though. If space is an issue Lectric is great because it can fold up. I originally got a XP 2.0 to fit in my train station bike locker.
When I started looking at ebikes I was like oh cool $10,000 ebike… but why? I started working my way down on price until I got to Lectric and stopped there.
I could be wrong here but I think a Dad and son started importing a Chinese model for a good price with good service. Seemed like a great option for people on the fence who want to try it out before they start dropping a lot more money. Aside from only being a grand it has a step thru frame which was important and enough youtube videos to answer most of my questions.
I ended up getting a deal on a motor and controller. Got a used bike and just used the batteries I use for my Ryobi 40 volt tools.
Those $10k bikes are for competitive mountain biking.
I do recommend getting an e-bike from a local bike retailer so that stuff can be serviced by warranty if you are not much of a bike mechanic
Trust me, when I was pricing like maybe 2-3 years ago ebikes still had high prices. Even used. I just looked real quick and Trek starts at $3,500. The Rad version of the Lectric starts at $2,300. Moral of the story, I thought Ebikes cost too much. For me, I did not see a reason to buy something other than Lectric. Except I got parts for stupid cheap so I went that route but I still recommend Lectric as the standard to compare against. The price creep after Lectric happens really quick.
As far as service goes I recommend finding a good bike shop if you are not a bike person. Same with EVs and ICE cars. When I was putting mine together it didn’t take long to find one with nice people. For bike stuff. Finding someone that knows anything about the black magic that is electricity is another adventure.
A comfortable bike route is the most important thing. I bike 28 miles each way using my e-bike (Lectric XPremium with 20ah batteries) in Massachusetts to Boston 2 days a week. It’s not the distance but the comfort in riding. I can get up to 25mph with my bike (level 3) which helps with car traffic. But I have a rail trail and protected bike lanes for the last 16 miles. I hope MA connects the rail trails to my town eventually. On comfortable routes, you can go really far with pedal assist and the bike does most of the work. It is also the most fun way to get around. I love my Lightning but car traffic in Boston is insane. Every time I have driven to my office in downtown, I ask myself why have I done this. Parking the bike is free at my office garage, I charge the batteries at my work desk with a regular 110 outlet and a charger that’s about the size of a laptop charger. Saves me $20+ in parking fees or train tickets.
The other half of making travel more efficient is needing to travel less by building homes near workplaces.
45mi is pretty good by car dependent standards, but we can do way better. It should be affordable (and desirable) to live with a commute under 15 minutes by bike, or better, walking (which would be like sub 5 by bike). 15 minutes by mass transit would also be acceptable given sufficient frequency.
To do that, it has to be legal to build homes near workplaces and in high enough density that anyone who wants to live close to their workplace can afford to do so (and that home be a desirable place to live outside of simply having a short commute).
What about people who like driving? Do we get a say in this?
Ah well, a lot developing nations have to build a functioning grid in the first place…
If you live in some little village don’t have a grid, it’s likely that getting gasoline is not easy/close and it is also very expensive to you. Little off grid solar packages are dirt cheap by comparison… like shockingly dirt cheap. Panel prices are rock bottom now. If someone in some little village gets a few solar panels and a mini inverter with a small battery they have electricity for light as well as enough to charge an ebike and they never have to pay for gasoline which is very expensive. It can be a huge step up in their lives to have electricity and some kind of electric mobility.
We use our cargo ebike for most short trips especially in the city. Kids love it and parking is non issue. Hoping for safer streets for kids on bikes and older folks so they can join.
I feel like so many American cities would be immensely improved by having separate paths for people on bikes, scooters, foot just to get around away from the loud stinky cars and impatient distracted drivers.
This is the main reason I don’t bike around town. I can pedal a few miles no problem, but I don’t trust a painted line on the pavement to keep me safe from distracted drivers.
We have a cargo bike that’s electric assist. You’re underselling how much kids love it. They go mad. We do school runs in it and kids always want to go for rides.
Our kids love it too except 80% of the year it is 38-48 F and raining. Which is pretty miserable on our school runs. And the kids keep fighting me on their rain gear.
I wonder if such bikes and mopeds are available around the world or mostly in Europe?
Look at local bike shops. They are particularly popular with older people
Wait… a vehicle that weighs 200 pounds uses less energy than a vehicle that weighs 3000 pounds? Bullshit, citation needed.
More like 60lbs and 5000lbs
Fine for trips nearby, but there’s no way I’m commuting on one… 🫡
The elite push for 15-minute cities may be starting in emerging. Counties but won’t fly in the U.S.
More importantly, they are replacing the most polluting ICE motors on the planet. I could barely breathe last time I was in Vietnam. Very curious to go back in 5 years and see how much things have changed.
Awesome
It cannot be understated how important electric scooters will be for developing markets in Asia and Africa in the coming years. Replacing the noisy and highly polluting 2 stroke engines in those vehicles will do way more for the environment and quality of life than any $50k electric SUV will ever do.
Replacing the noisy and highly polluting 2 stroke engines
I think you may have a misconception. I lived in Vietnam. Most two wheeled vehicles are four stroke engines. I wonder if there are really any places where two stroke are the majority.
It cannot be overstated how important electric scooters will be for developing markets in Asia and Africa in the coming years.
I’ll take a shot: Electric scooters in Asia will eliminate anthropogenic climate change singlehandedly.
Not only that, but they will be the key to trillions of people in Asia and Africa achieving immortality. Our transhuman future begins with them! Soon humanity will literally spread our wings (made of energy – clean energy) as we set out to explore our galaxy, and it will all be thanks to electric scooters.
9.5/10 good overstating. You got a small deduction from one of the judges for failing to mention how electric scooters will also solve peace in the middle east along the way.
How’s that possible when we had climate change when those people were living in a rural are using less electricity in a year for their entire lives than our refrigerators do?
Yeah, but the 2-stroke pollution is mainly a local problem. All that HC/CO/NOX/particulates/SO2 stuff that your vehicle smog test is all about, that doesn’t really leave your region. Mt Shasta doesn’t care about Sacramento’s smog problem.
That’s why smog tests were a big deal even before Al Gore first heard about global warming.
Nitric acid is regional, not local problem.
Think of all the gas powered lawn tools in the US.
I seriously hate gas powered air blowers. Loud, heavy and cumbersome vs a proper electric air blower.
I think you meant, “Overstated”.
They already are hugely important in Asia.
It cannot be understated how important electric
For the world. But yeah, Africa is interesting to watch.
India and rural areas of China and other developing countries too… a small electric vehicle is much more affordable than any kind of ICE vehicle. Little cars, little trucks and bikes are closer to their price range and are more than good enough for driving around small towns and around villages.
E-Scooters have the great advantage that you can just take the batteries with you and plug them into any standard socket. No need for special charging infrastructure
In Vietnam they sell recharged batteries on the street. You can just swap and go. It helps when the batteries don’t weigh 800 pounds.
Now we also need those batteries standardized.
Same as power equipment. Electric is infinitely better than small engines and it’s taking off.
Two years ago my wife and I bought a battery electric lawn mower (Ego). It’s worked out very well, so we bought a string trimmer from the same company. Both are really quiet and I like that, for the lawn mower, it folds up into about the space of a big suitcase and can stand upright, so it doesn’t take a lot of space in the autumn and winter when it isn’t being used.
Cutting the grass at 7am in the morning with a electric mower in the summer and not feeling like a dick since its so quite makes electric mowers worth it alone.
What if I want to wake up my hungover neighbors who were keeping me up to 3 am though ?
Interesting. I’ve cut a lot of grass with “riding” mowers whose ICE makes some attempt at a muffler. The blade type mower decks seem MUCH louder than the ICE. I wear hearing protection when I mow, I don’t when using the mower to tow a trailer around.
I could see it being rather different on reel mowers.
Our Ego’s going on five years old. Heavily abused and cutting as well as ever. The snowblower does a fine job, too.
So much more bang for your buck.
I didn’t think biking was viable in the US, but for fun I bought an ebike. Turns out it was able to replace the vast majority of my car trips here in Austin.
Same in the Boston metro. I rode it 28 miles each way to my office in Boston the other day when it was in the high 30s (F). Having a good route planned, especially rail trails and protected bike lanes helps immensely. Also good gear. This time of year, I’ll still ride but dress like I’m going skiing. I actually over dressed and was sweating after 10 miles. You warm up pretty quickly with layer and biking, much faster than walking.
It’s not always easy, but fuck is it fun. I find it’s a great way to get ready for work in the office and on the way home. Biggest issue is riding next to car traffic. Some people just suck at driving.
It’s funny how quickly people are to dismiss biking as “too dangerous,” regardless of the reality in the area. Without a doubt there are locales where it’s truly an invitation to get yourself killed, but I live in a small “Gold” bike friendly city and used to commute 14mi to an adjacent city that’s rated “Bronze.” Other than a single narrow bridge I had constant access to 6-10ft of shoulder, yet most people I talked to mentioned that it’s crazy. With an ebike that commute wasn’t much slower vs if I was driving, and I basically recouped the cost of my bike within the first 6-9mo of riding depending on how you considered depreciation if I was driving that route instead.
Yeah anything within a mile or two is actually quicker for me to get to on my escooter than driving. Was in a rush to pick up eggs from a local grocery store a mile down the road after realizing we forgot to buy them for a recipie. Normally I’d scooter but I hopped into he the car to “save time”.
Between the traffic, needing to do two u turns round trip thanks to medians, and needing to find parking, it ended up taking me 5 minutes longer to get there than if I just put the safety gear on and hopped on my scooter.
The other big advantage is you can just nimble your way around anything. Go through parking lots without needing to slowly inch around everywhere, go along a side walk a bit if the two way bike lane ends on your side of the road and there’s no way to quickly cross the street thanks to medians, ability to avoid intersections at times thanks to the above, etc. You’re never not moving except when you need to cross a busy street and your only option is that intersection.
I found out it’s actually quicker shopping by bike because I’m loading the bike in the store like a cart and when i walk out, I’m instantly off and riding. No walking to the end of a massive parking lot and loading the car.
My grocery store won’t let me bring my ebike indoors :(
I wish we had the same legislation on max speed in Europe. 25km/h just cuts off on flats. Even with a heavy mountain bike you do more than 25km/h. 32km/h (20mph) would be a dream.
Yes, 25 km/h (15.5) mph is ridiculous. I can cruise way faster on a normal bike. And the assist to hit 15.5 mph likely cuts out a couple mph earlier, making the real cruise speed lower.
Cars barely have any computer controlled limits for speed or acceleration.
You might like John Zimmerman https://youtu.be/NyD6yFMRbHg?si=f8_M_fcQua_lfj4u
Thanks! Yep, I know his channel. Great content.
Same here in LA. My wife calls it the ultimate cheat code, cuz it’s often the fastest method too
Oh man, most of my trips are basically unaffected by traffic. We now frequent areas that were too annoying to drive to.
If LA put in express walking/biking ways every few avenues, it would be a game changer. The climate there is perfect for riding year round. The Strand is pretty nice on the shore. Are there other good spots?
There’s fair number of decent bike paths through dense portions of the city. But the LA River and flood channel system is the sleeping giant.
LA Metro is designing/ planning to close the 8- mile gap in the LA River Bike Path, which cuts through downtown. That could be the backbone of the region’s active transportation system.
Sadly though, No one is really taking the reins. The state and Feds are focused on EVs. Metro is transit-centric. And cities, with a few exceptions, clutch their pearls at mere mention of protected bike infrastructure at the cost of a parking space or car lane.
My KYMCO Grand Vista 250 gets around 80 to 90 miles per gallon depending on how fast I am with the throttle. I can go almost 200 miles before getting 2 1/2 gallons of gas. I can take it on the highway and easily go 60-70 or 80 if needed. Can carry stuff in the trunk and side bags and back trunk. Can have a passenger. Ebike might be nice if you live in a city but anywhere else a gas powered scooter is the way to go.
I keep reading that they have the unfortunate quality of bursting into unquenchable flames sometimes though and burning down the apartment buildings they are in.
FUD
Cheap Chinese crap and DIY people who do don’t know what they are doing. If you don’t charge correctly or store the batteries appropriately, that will happen.
Yes, but steady improvements in explosion mitigation continue to appear. Meanwhile, ICE vehicles explode in far greater numbers.
True, but ICE vehicles are not stored inside apartment buildings and lithium battery fires are harder to extinguish.