Could an electric bike pay for itself?

[Anfield800]

Given that my car returns about 35miles to a gallon on my commute to work, and that the cost of charging my electric bike is almost nil, I'm trying to work out how many miles I need to do on the bike before it has paid for itself in saved petrol.

I'm not taking into account things like insurance and tax or maintenance of the car as I have these costs anyway.

So far I've assumed the following;

13-15p per mile in the car.

0.5p per mile on the bike.

Therefore given the Mistral was £450, I'd need to do about 3600 miles before I saved enough in petrol for the bike to pay for itself. Any more would result in savings.

If my commute is a 13 mile round trip that I will do maybe three times a week, will I manage? My guess says it will take 92 weeks.

Any thoughts?

Lee

 

[kraeuterbutter]

any thoughts?
hmm...

lets assume you don´t buy the bike and go with car for further 92 weeks

to get the same training effect you would have got on the bike driving it 3 times a week you will have to go once a week to a fitness-center..
lets say: one unit in the fitness-center -> 10 euros
==> 92 weeks -> 920 Euros

now also take in account, that most fitness-centers are not close to your home, and - because you have not bought the bike - you have to go there and from there afterwoods home..

lets say: together (to-and-from fitnessc.): 8km --> 92 * 8km = 740km

this 740km --> that are another 50 euros on fuel

so: i would say: when you do not buy the electric-bike you will end up with ~1000Euro more costs as you already have calculated

 

[Anfield800]

Very nice, I like your thinking.

We've already bought the bike, my wife has had her first proper run to work on it this morning and loves it.

I'm wondering about my journey now, I do cycle in the summer on a very old mountain bike and the going is very heavy.

Now the Mistral has it's new boots on, I'm going to give it a go over the weekend and see how I get on.

Lee

 

[faphillips]

It's not just about the cost of the fuel (electricity). Aside from the cost of the bike you have to consider maintenance and more particularly the cost of replacing batteries. So much will depend on the battery type and how often you will need to recharge them and thus how often you may have to replace them

Francis

 

[kraeuterbutter]

hmm..
if you can work with an soldering-iron
i would think about A123 Fepo4

a by yourself soldered Fepo4-pack with 33V 6.9Ah
costs (with shipping of Dewalt packs from the US) ~300 Euro
(3 Dewalt-packs needed)

on the very gentle use in an e-bike i would say that you can count with at least 1000cycles (but i would guess that its even double as much, because you can get 1000cycles out of A123 with lot more stress than a ebike makes)

so when there are "only" 1000cycles for a pack, each charge-cycle costs 30cent (+ the costs of electricity)

and one very strong argument (iam a little bit of an ÖKO):
think about, how much liter of fuel you have safed compared to going the same destance with the car !
not for money-reasons (your own personal)...
but for environment-reasons (we all have something from that)

thats a LOT of fuel that is not burned when going with the bike instead of your car !
when regulary used an ebike can safe hundrets of liters of fuel over the ebikes lifetime !

i have bout an bike for my city (vienna) here 3 years ago...
(no electric bike, standard bike.. iam a student with always moneyproblems, so bike was from ebay: ~70Euro the bike + 50Euro for making it fit again)

in the last 3 years: my tacho says: about 5000km
(so i can say: about 300 liter safed on fuel when it had been a car)
i also didn´t buy any sub-way-ticket anymore ==> that alone safed me 1200 Euro the last 3 years...

 

[flecc]

you will have to go once a week to a fitness-center..
lets say: one unit in the fitness-center -> 10 euros
==> 92 weeks -> 920 Euros

Ah, but if you walk to the fitness centre you won't need to go in, just walk back home again.
.

 

[kraeuterbutter]

@flecc:

 

[giguana]

the variable cost of the battery is £15 from the charger plug if you do 20km x 365 days
£1 every 300 miles, it's about the same cost as having a 60w bulb on 24/7.

 

[kraeuterbutter]

interesting..
its talking about penats, but how much Wh have you calculated for a 20km ride?

 

[giguana]

I can't remember but I found all the electricity costs and the calculation guide online and got under 15 pounds with 180w x 6hrs/day

 

[kraeuterbutter]

sounds reasonable to me too...

(20km a day --> a 36V 6Ah battery should be enough)
36A * 6Ah = 216Wh
charger and battery-efficience at charging: 75%
==> 288Wh needed for charging 216Wh
1000Wh costs 17 Euro-cent ==>
charging the battery one time costs 4.8 euro-cent

so for 365days with 20km each day -> 365 * 4,8cent = 17Euro and 30cent

in my calculation: with same energy you can power a 100W bulb 2 hours and 45min each day

 

[essexman]

Theres a similar costing thread running on the CTC forum somewhere.

The running costs of ebikes are very high compared to normal bikes, because of those darned batteries battery replacements. Still a lot cheaper than a car tho.

 

[Tiberius]

Ah, but if you walk to the fitness centre you won't need to go in, just walk back home again.
.

I use the bike to go to the fitness centre. It saves having to fight for a parking spot near the door.

 

[Ian]

A to B quote running costs of 5-10p per mile for various models, that is the total running cost including depreciation. As even an economical car will cost more than that in fuel alone, with overall running costs very much higher there really is no contest.