Are Electric Bikes Worth It? Electric Bike Pros and Cons

Deciding to switch from a traditional bike to an electric bike or e-bike is certainly the transition. You’ve heard good things about e-bikes but can’t help but feel uncertain about them. What are the pros and cons of electric bikes? And are electric bikes worth it if you’re in the market for a new bike?

Electric bikes allow you to travel at consistently fast speeds without expending manual effort. They’re a lot cheaper than owning a car and more convenient than taking a bus or train. However, e-bikes are expensive, require frequent charging, and can be rather dangerous.

In today’s extensive guide, I’ll seek to help you answer once and for all the question of whether electric bikes are worth your while. I’ll expand on the pros and cons list above so you can make an educated purchasing decision.

Let’s begin!

Electric Bike Pros

I want to start with what’s so advantageous about riding an electric bike, as there are certainly a lot of benefits. 

There is a reason, after all, why e-bikes are selling like hotcakes. Actually, it comes down to a slew of reasons, so let’s take a look now. 

Requires Far Less Manual Effort

Cycling is a fun, fulfilling physical activity, but it does come with some rather unappealing downsides. 

To get anywhere on a traditional bike, you have to expend manual effort. Even on a leisurely ride, if you’re crossing enough distance, you could find yourself pretty tired by the time you reach your destination.

If you’re considering a bike to get to and from work, the gym, or anywhere around town, you don’t want to spend your day in a fog after all that strenuous effort.

An electric bike eliminates the degree of physicality that a traditional bike requires. The bike will move on its own once the motor begins running.

You’re still in charge of braking and other forms of navigation such as turning, but the e-bike does the rest. 

Since braking and turning aren’t exactly physically demanding tasks, you’ll walk into work or spin class feeling as clear-headed and energetic as ever! 

Sweat-Free Traveling

Another unfortunate consequence of riding a traditional bike is that you can work up a sweat rather quickly.

That’s no big deal if you’re pedaling around your town solely to get some exercise. You’re probably wearing athletic gear with moisture-wicking properties.

However, if you’re going to work, then the dress code is entirely different. You’re wearing a business suit, slacks, maybe even a long skirt or a blouse.

You do not want sweat soaking through these materials. They cannot wick moisture away because they’re not designed to, and so the sweat sits and accumulates.

It will soak your skin, make your clothes stick, lead to unsightly sweat stains, and generate a terrible body odor.

Even though you might have put deodorant on before you left for the office this morning, it won’t have mattered. You’ll still stink to high heaven.

You’ll also give off a very unprofessional appearance. There’s not too much you could do about it, either.

After all, what are you supposed to do, go home and change during lunch? If you did that, then you’d have to ride your bike back to the office. You’d sweat in your new clothes the same way you did your old ones.

An electric bike solves the conundrum for people who want to ride their bikes to the office but without coming in as a sweaty mess each and every day.

You can save your social reputation and perhaps even your job. 

Cheaper Than a Car

I’ll be upfront with you. Electric bikes cost anywhere from $600 to $8,000, with a typical price around $1,000.

Compared to buying a car, the cost of owning an e-bike is a lot lower. Cars in the 2020s retail for about $47,000 on average.

Even if your electric bike cost $8k, you’re still saving $39,000 by choosing an e-bike versus a car. 

That’s not an insignificant sum of money by any stretch of the imagination. 

What you could do with an extra $39k is your choice, but that’s enough cash to make huge life changes like upgrade your house (or even make a down payment on a new house).

More Convenient Than Riding a Train or Bus

Those who don’t own a car do have other options for getting around. They can ride the local bus or the train.

However, there are issues with both modes of transportation. 

For one, it’s expensive to ride day in and day out. 

Maybe bus fare isn’t terrible, but train tickets can be rather costly. You can save by purchasing a monthly plan, but this mode of transportation is still not cheap.

You also have to spend a lot of time waiting around for the bus or the train to come. Your schedule is extremely tight, as if you miss the bus or train, even by a minute, then you’re shut out and have to get the next ride.

These modes of transportation can be rather slow, too. You don’t have to sit in traffic like most commuters, but you know that most people who drive likely get home faster than you, who’s stuck on the train or bus.

An electric bike can liberate you from the demanding bus or train schedules. You won’t have to worry about having exact fares either.

You can travel on your own time when the mood strikes, no need to wait. You’re also not limited in where you can go like you are on a bus or train route. 

Lets You Enjoy Fresh Air

How much time do you spend getting fresh air? 

I’m talking about spending time outside, not looking at a window outside all day at work or opening the window to let the breeze in.

The fresh air is good for you in a variety of ways. You could shrug off mind fog and feel sharper and more focused, for one.

Fresh air can also boost your immunity, moderate your heart rate and blood pressure, and even help your digestive system work better.

Further, spending time outside exposes you to the sunlight, which your body converts into usable vitamin D. This can, in turn, alleviate your anxiety and stress and enhance your mood. 

Whether you’re driving, taking a train, or riding a bus, you can’t get fresh air the same way that you can on an electric bicycle. 

Better yet, your outdoor time will be scheduled, consistent time, probably at least four or five days a week but possibly even every day. 

The more fresh air you get, the easier it is to reap the above benefits! 

Still Burns Calories 

You may worry that the passivity of riding an electric bike would prohibit you from burning calories. Fortunately, that simply isn’t true.

If you ride an electric bike for 60 minutes, you could burn up to 300 calories according to bike company Flyer. That’s at least the equivalent of a small breakfast or a snack! 

You burn more calories by riding an e-bike than by driving a car, that’s for sure. Insurance resource Jerry states that drivers burn 150 to 250 calories an hour when driving. 

As a passenger in a car, you burn between 80 and 130 calories, which should apply when riding a train or a bus as well. 

Sitting still does burn calories, which is why your body continues to shed calories even when at rest. 

Of all the modes of transportation though, you’ll burn the most calories by riding an e-bike. 

Better for Our Planet

All of us have a carbon footprint, which is our impact on the environment. You should strive to reduce the size of your carbon footprint as much as possible, and with an electric bike, it’s possible. 

This chart from EbikesHQ.com shows how much more watt-hours of energy a car requires than taking an e-bike. It’s a difference of 5 to 15 kWh for the electric bike and 400 kWh for the car. 

Of course, cars produce more than merely electricity but also emissions. Those emissions include nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. 

The more carbon dioxide that enters the environment, the worse the greenhouse effect becomes. 

This is how global temperatures have risen to the extent that they already have and will continue to rise in the future unless something changes.

A 2022 article from sustainability resource Anthropocene cites a study from the journal Transport Policy that found that using e-bikes more frequently can save 24.4 million metric tons of CO2 emissions from entering the environment per year. 

Electric bikes do still have a bigger carbon footprint than traditional bikes because the former run on electricity. That said, compared to cars, your carbon footprint would be majorly minimized! 

You Can Still Use Your Bike Even on a Dead Battery 

Speaking of electricity, one of the electrical components of an e-bike is the battery. 

The battery does not render an electric bike useless if it runs out of juice and you can’t recharge it on your route.

The e-bike at that point becomes a traditional bike. You could pedal it to reach your destination, but don’t exert too much effort or you’ll work up a sweat! 

Electric Bike Cons

Just as I examined the advantages of electric bikes, it’s now only fair to give the downsides of e-bikes the same sort of attention. 

Here are some issues to think hard about before deciding to buy an e-bike. 

Takes a Lot of Getting Used To

If you read my article about the dangers of electric bikes, then you’ll recall that e-bikes and traditional bikes aren’t as similar as you might think.

The rate of acceleration can be a surprise, as you can go a lot faster on an e-bike initially than you can when pedaling on a traditional bike.

The brakes of an electric bike are heavier and don’t always work identically to the way a traditional bike’s brakes do, which means that stopping can be hard to do at first.

The lack of control that can accompany those first few nerve-wracking rides on an electric bike can increase your risk of injury.

In the aforementioned post, I went over the injury risks of riding an electric bike, and they can be rather serious. The injuries include fractures or broken bones, head trauma, internal bleeding, and spinal damage. 

Surprisingly Expensive 

You’ll recall that e-bikes cost between $600 and $8,000 with an average price of $1,000.

To many people, four figures is a lot of money to spend on a bike, even one that’s equipped with a motor and a battery. 

Traditional bikes, by comparison, are far more cost-effective. 

If you’re looking for an entry-level road bike, then you’ll pay $350 to $800. 

A single-speed bike costs about $400, a beach cruiser between $200 and $300, and a kids’ bike up to $300.

It’s only when you get into specialist types of bikes like a recumbent bike or a mountain bike that you’ll begin seeing price tags of up to $1,000 and sometimes over.

An electric bike is a financial investment and has a steep learning curve, which are already two fairly big strikes against it.  

Doesn’t Burn as Many Calories as Traditional Cycling 

I established before that riding an electric bike does burn more calories than driving a car or sitting as a passenger on a train or bus as well as in a car.

However, between riding an e-bike or a traditional bike, it’s a traditional bike for the more significant calorie burn all the way.

CaloriesBurnedHQ.com states that for every hour of cycling on a traditional bike, you burn anywhere from 450 to 750 calories depending on your weight. 

That’s at least 150 calories more than what you’d burn after 60 minutes an on e-bike and up to 450 more calories.

If you’re trying to lose weight, then you’re much better off riding a traditional bike than an e-bike. 

Frequent and Long Battery Charging Times

E-bikes require a battery to power your bike with electricity. That battery gives you between 15 and 100 miles of use, and then you have to charge it again.

Charging your electric bike battery is not like charging your smartphone battery. You have to stop riding, remove the battery pack, turn it off, and then find a power source.

I mentioned before that if you don’t have a power source handy to charge your battery, then you can pedal your electric bike like a traditional bike. However, by that point, it behaves just as any regular bike does. 

The frequency of charging can be a pain. 

It’s one thing if your battery needs to be charged every 100 miles. That should at least get you about a week’s worth of usage out of the battery depending on how far you go each time you use your e-bike.

However, only 15 miles of use before you have to recharge will go especially fast.

It’s not exactly a speedy process to recharge your e-bike battery. It takes anywhere from three and a half hours to six hours for the battery to finish charging.

You’d have to revamp your travel plans for the day while your electric bike is out of commission unless you’re ready to do a lot of pedaling.

E-bike batteries don’t even last as long as you might have imagined. Their average lifespan is two to four years, so you’ll repeatedly have to shell out for a new battery if you continue using your electric bike. 

Heavier Than a Traditional Bike

If you hoped you could easily load an electric bike onto a bike rack or travel with it, transporting an e-bike outside of riding it can also be an aggravating experience.

The average electric bike weighs 40 to 80 pounds. Compare that to the weight of a traditional bike, which is 17 to 25 pounds for most types of bikes and up to 80 pounds for specialty bikes like mountain bikes.

Mountain bikes have a lot of gears and components, which explains their weight. E-bikes include both a motor and a battery that make the bike heavier than it looks. 

Costly to Repair 

All those electrical components don’t only make an e-bike weigh more, but if they break down, they’re also going to be very expensive to fix. 

I can’t say for certain how much money you’d spend, as that’s at the discretion of the bike repair shop and is also dependent on which part of your electric bike failed. 

That said, you should expect the repair charges to be expensive. 

Speed Laws Aren’t Crystal Clear

Electric bikes are considered a new form of technology. Like any new technology, the rules are a little fuzzy regarding what’s legally allowed and what isn’t. 

Although the laws vary, in many parts of the United States, if your electric bike has a motor that’s under 750 watts and can achieve speeds of only 20 miles per hour, then you can ride it in a bike lane like any traditional cyclist can.

However, if your bike has more wattage and goes faster, then some states might require you to ride in a different lane or even register or license your bike. 

I’d recommend looking up the ordinances in place in your city, town, or neighborhood as well as on a statewide level to be sure of what you can and cannot do on an e-bike. 

You don’t want to get slapped with a fine or worse for noncompliance! 

Could Explode 

By far, the biggest downside to riding an e-bike is the bike’s risk of exploding.

This is something else I discussed in my article about the dangers of electric bikes. The motor–but much more often the battery–can go kaput and explode in the middle of a ride or when you’re not using the bike.

Either way, you’re out an e-bike. If the bike explodes while you’re on it, you could get very seriously injured or even killed.

So, Are E-Bikes Worth It?

That brings us to the main question – is it worth it to own an electric bike?

As long as you’re made well aware of all the downsides of e-bike ownership and are willing to either pay for them or deal with them, then yes, owning an electric bike can be very beneficial.

You’re doing yourself a favor by spending more time outside and doing our planet a favor by reducing your carbon footprint. 

The battery charging time will always be annoying, and the risk of battery explosions should always be in the back of your head.

If you’re safe, smart, and conscientious, there’s no reason why riding an e-bike won’t work out spectacularly for you!