Electricity consumption e-bike: These are the costs you have to reckon with

If you decide to buy an e-bike, you may be interested in the electricity consumption in view of the ever-increasing electricity prices. Because if you use your e-bike regularly, this will definitely be noticeable in your electricity bill.

Electricity consumption of your e-bike: This is how easy it is to estimate it

Most battery packs for electric bikes usually have the same capacity.

• With an average capacity of 500 watt-hours (Wh), a battery charge therefore requires half a kilowatt-hour (kWh) of energy.
• Assuming an electricity price of 36 cents/kWh (as of January 2022), you are looking at a cost of 18 cents per battery charge.
• The average life of a battery is 500 to 1,000 charge cycles. After that, you will need to buy a new battery.

Example calculation for illustration

In this example, a man uses his e-bike to commute 20km to and from work each working day. The route is mostly flat.

• On one battery charge, the e-bike can cover a distance of 100km on the flat. So the man can commute to work and back five times before he has to charge the battery again.
• With 30 days of holiday per year, or 6 weeks, this results in 46 working weeks per year. This therefore corresponds to 46 loads per year.
• As each charge costs about 18 cents, the annual cost is only 8.28 euros. As the battery ages, its capacity usually decreases. This reduces the range, which requires more recharges. This increases the annual cost over time, but only slightly – especially when compared to the cost of other means of transport, such as petrol or diesel.