A lot. E-Bikes can save you a lot of gas money. That’s not really the way to start a piece of service journalism meant to educate people about e-bikes, but we’re cutting to the chase because the difference is so vast we want to begin with the message that the difference an e-bike makes becomes most apparent when looking at a bank statement. The difference isn’t a matter of driving a hybrid vs. a car with an internal combustion engine, i.e., the difference between buying gas and buying less gas. The difference is between buying gas and not buying gas.
The effort of the Best Electric Bikes team, then, is to try to quantify just how much a rider can save, in actual dollars. Because cars vary from Mini Cooper to Suburban, we will present a few different answers to give folks a sense of just how great the savings can be on a scale that might be relevant to their driving.
What is the average commute?
In our effort to quantify the savings we must define what the average commute is. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has calculated that the average commute is 41 miles round trip. Kelly Blue Book estimates people drive an average of 35 mi. per day.
Average isn’t a very useful number, though, because it’s the midpoint between the longest and the shortest. The question is, what sort of commute does the bulk of our population make? The median commute for Americans is roughly 7 mi. Looking at commutes state-by-state, the longest median commute can be found in Maine, at 9.8 mi. The shortest can be found in Wyoming, at 4.7. Forty one states have a median commute that falls between 6 and 8 mi.
Were we asking the question do most people live close enough to work to be able to commute by e-bike, we could answer yes. In a study by the advocacy organization CalBike, they found that nearly 99 percent (89.9) of e-bike commuters were willing to ride 14.3 mi for a work commute.
According to the Department of Energy, the average car gets 24.2 miles per gallon and the average light truck gets 17.5 mpg.
Spending actual dollars
Of course, what someone pays for gas at the pump is, after the length of the commute, the next biggest factor in what someone will spend on their commute.
According to AAA, gas prices currently range from $3.02 for a gallon of regular unleaded in Mississippi up to a whopping $4.83 in California. North Carolina sits in the middle of what people spend, at $3.36 per gallon for regular.
Here are our assumptions:
- 14 mi. round trip commute
- Commuting 250 days (5 days per week, 50 weeks per year)
- Annual commuting distance of 3500 mi.
- Fuel efficiency of either 24.2 mpg or 17.5 mph (car/truck)
- Gas cost of $3.02, $3.36 or $4.83 (Mississippi, North Carolina or California)
We’re including the gas prices for Mississippi, North Carolina and California to give readers a sense of the two extremes along with a midpoint to help people get a sense of what their average spend costs.
Here’s how the results stack up:
- $343.18: Commuting by car in Mississippi
- $381.82: Commuting by truck in Mississippi
- $548.86: Commuting by car in North Carolina
- $474.57: Commuting by truck in North Carolina
- $528.00: Commuting by car in California
- $759.00: Commuting by truck in California
What’s remarkable is that where someone lives matters even more than what they drive. It’s cheaper to drive a car in North Carolina than it is to drive an SUV in Mississippi.
How much can I save on gas riding an e-bike?
Now that we have some idea of what people may be spending on gas just to commute to and from work, let’s talk about what someone spends to charge their e-bike. According to our database, the 672Wh battery is the most common battery size we see in e-bikes. A battery that size would be paired with a hub motor; e-bikes with mid-drive motors are likely to be spec’d with a 250Wh battery.
The US average cost per kilowatt/hour (kWh) in the US is 11 cents per kilowatt hour. Idaho is the lowest at $.08kWh, while Californians are praying for a cool summer thanks to a cost of $.20kWh.
A rider with an e-bike equipped with a 672Wh battery is paying something like 7 cents ($.07) to fully charge their e-bike. Someone riding an e-bike with a mid-drive motor is paying more like 3 cents ($.03). Even if we go full worst-case scenario on this and plug in California’s cost, it only runs 13 cents ($.13) to charge a 672Wh battery. Those with more expensive mid-drive motors will shell out 5 cents ($.05).
So the answer to what someone can save is simple: What someone will save in gas by purchasing an e-bike will pay for the e-bike and leave plenty of money to spare. For what someone commuting by car in Mississippi will save they could buy a very nice e-bike with a mid-drive motor. The SUV driver in California could outfit a family of four with e-bikes.
One last perspective
Unlike a subsidy where the government would simply lop off a portion of someone’s tax bill, the savings in gas is incremental. The savings comes in fewer trips to the gas station. How big are those savings? The typical gas tank in a car is 16 gallons, while the most common size in SUVs is 26 gal. (pity the soul filling a 31 gal. tank).
Here’s how much someone saves:
- $48.32: Filling up a car in Mississippi
- $78.52: Filling up a truck in Mississippi
- $53.76: Filling up a car in North Carolina
- $87.36: Filling up a truck in North Carolina
- $77.28: Filling up a car in California
- $125.58: Filling up a truck in California
For most of us, that adds up to date night with our sweetie or a night out with the kids. And for the SUV driver in California, feel free to order a bottle of wine, too.
The savings mean seven fewer trips to the gas station for the car driver or six for the truck/SUV owner. As we like to say, it adds up. This is, perhaps, the best argument for purchasing an e-bike. Extra money in the bank sells itself.
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