I’d be really curious how far the average person rides on an e-bike. It would seem to me like most people use them to go about town; and don’t need much range
10 km is my usual. Longest trip, 36km+36km out and back.
Have a Gaint 29er dual susoension MTB. It sees duty as a gravel bike and MTB and road bike in that order. 60km trip and I ran out of power taking it as easy as I could to go the diatance a few km from home. Unbekown to me you can’t just pedal it when it runs out, it feel like the motors have the magents engaged and its nearly impossible to pedal :( it freewheels fine though
I rode 15km to my MTB trials on occasion, ride the trails and ride home , ride (40km return) via firetrails to a lake for breakfast and 30km rail trial ride to town one way (which is why I ran out as i tired it return one day) and adventure rides exploring firetrials are 50km loops through the forest. A staid road loop on asphalt is 25km but the river views are special.
Ok, so, yes, but…
If we were talking about a single battery that has excellent range, then you could argue that you are sparing “charge cycles” by not having to charge all the time.
But for an e-bike (or phone, or any other battery-powered device that uses rechargeable batteries), the shorter the range (i.e. lower the capacity), the more quickly you put charge cycles on it, which reduce the overall lifespan of the device/battery.
I had an e-scooter that could get 100km. When compared to one that gets 40km, I was rarely charging the thing! It was glorious.
Also keep in mind that this particular bike, with the 3-battery configuration, is designed for “touring”, so yeah, you want range, just in case. Even then, 147 miles (approx. 240km) isn’t very far for a three-battery e-bike that uses a low-powered motor!
More capacity = more weight + cost
It’s all a tradeoff.
For sure, but in an ebike, weight isn’t really a concern. Especially not in a touring model with THREE batteries 😮
Cost, for sure. But we’d be talking short term vs long term cost. Since batteries are one of the most expensive components in an ebike, I’d rather be replacing a large capacity battery after 5 years, than a low capacity one after 2 or 3.
And if you ride in cold temps, low capacity batteries will be perform much worse.
Surely correct for the average user. But we shouldn’t overlook the possibility of a feedback effect: range anxiety might be what’s stopping people from being more adventurous.
That’s a good point; maybe this will drive demand
My ebike rides are under 10 miles, any further and I switch to a bicycle or car.
Yeah; that’s pretty much the boat I’m in. My e-bike rides tend to be pretty utilitarian (going to work, going to the store). For longer rides, I use a normal bike
its motor will be restricted to an output of 250W on its impending European launch
More of this please.
