I bought an electric bike a year ago in the belief it would help me to reduce emissions and it has been great. I use it for round journeys that exceed 20 miles and it takes all the effort out of carrying a change of business attire in a pannier.
But some people say that an electric bike is bad because it causes emissions and a conventional bike doesn’t, in fact that seems a fairly widely held view.
Another widely held view is that electric cars are good because they cause less emissions than a conventional car.
But an electric car causes a lot more emissions than an electric bike so an electric bike is better than an electric car, at least environmentally.
That gives us the environmental ranking conventional bike, electric bike, electric car and conventional car.
But by giving my legs some help I still cycle longer distances which keeps me off public transport.
And after a 30 mile journey it takes less than 0.3 kWh to recharge, which is about 150 gCO2, or about 8 gCO2/km far less than the 58 gCO2/km by train or 86 gCO2/km on a London bus.
Posted by: David Collier