The costs of living is ever so increasing which means that the costs of transportation to and from your goals is also part of that increase. But is there a way to fight this? Yes there is.
The latest report from the Australian Automotive Association shows the typical household now spends around 15.8 percent of its income on transport costs, in Perth that comes to an average of $21,485 per year spent (or $413.17 per week). The vehicle in question is a traditional car.
Now what would happen if the car was exchanged for an electric bike? Yes you are right, the costs would come down dramatically. Now let us break them down for you, being 15 years in the business we know what they look like.
An entry level ebike will set you back between $500 and $1500. A mid level ebike will be between $1500 and $3000 and the high end ebikes will start from $3000 and go up. Depending on what your route looks like choosing the correct level of ebike is important to keep the costs down. As a rule cheaper ebikes will cost you more in the long run if they are “cheap””cheap”.
Lets say you travel 40km a day in the car. Your ebike route would at least be the same distance as in the car and the time will be almost the same. Since you are on an ebike traffic, lights and jams are on obstacle for you. The endorphins start pumping and you arrive with a smile on your face. If you don’t you are doing something wrong. The cost to ride the same distance come to 4 cents! 4 cents!!
Parking is another factor most don’t take into account for travel costs. Ebike parking is free. Just make sure you have a good alarm lock. Parking your car can add up to $8 a day or more.
Maintenance is where huge savings can be made if you are willing to learn from Youtube. Youtube is your friend. One of our clients after our advice started to check his tyre pressure regularly, adjust his brakes, cleaned and lubricated up his chain once a month and only needed a full service after 5000km, which was almost a year of riding his ebike. One of our other clients who is the canary in the gold mine does 130000km a year. He spends $550 per year on maintaining his ebike with us as he no longer owns a car. And this is all done on a $2500 ebike. He is saving thousands of dollars a year.
Now are there any drawbacks? Yes, rain. We Perthians don’t like rain for some reason. You can see this on the freeway when the rain slow down traffic from 100km/hr to 80km/hr. Now on an ebike you wont have to slow down but you may get wet, unless you get yourself a rain poncho. Then it’s like riding a coned yellow submarine.
The other issue we have with ebike is that they are too slow. 25km/hr is a rule we adopted from the European Union. There is a reason they have a limit of 25. Do you know what the limit is in New Zeleand? 32km/hr! That is a massive difference when you consider riding times, bike lanes, traffic. More here
We are not Europe, not even close. In infrastructure and demographics we are nowhere near the EU. So why did we adopt their rule? Ask you transport minister but it all came down to their thinking that we as a society are not mature enough to go faster. That may be a valid argument as when we look at the riding culture in New Zealand but increasing the speed from 25 to 32 will change Perth. We know this as we test our ebikes in Perth all the time. Just this little increase will shave off on average 15minutes from a commute, because time is also money. One of our clients just recently cut about an hour from her normal commute she did on her normal bike. The only things she says is that she would prefer to go a little faster than just be stuck at 25km/hr, but she still is happy with the 2 extras hours she has after work. She is now putting her car up for sale.
So in the end all it comes down to this – What is your comfort worth?
$21480 a year in a car.
$1000 (max) a year on an ebike.
Visit us at Bikemore and we will help you find the right ebike for your needs.
Ride safe out there!