What is the cost of electricity for an e-bike?
As discussed above, electricity from the grid is significantly cheaper than a corresponding amount of energy gained by burning gasoline in an automobile. Exact price varies based on area, but at a typical cost of 12 per kWhr, your e-bike costs about 2 tenths of a cent per mile with normal riding habits. Compared with the 20-30 per mile to operate a reasonably fuel efficient sedan (not even considering increased costs for car traffic and parking), and you can offset the entire price of the bicycle by saving gas over less than a year of casual use (as few as 3 or 4 months if it is a commute vehicle). If your primary vehicle is an SUV or other high-fuel automobile, or if you find yourself running a lot of local errands in your day-to-day routine, the savings of switching to electric will be even more dramatic. It may be practical to charge your bike battery using a portable solar panel or home wind generator, and we are testing the technologies to see if there is an economical solution, w
