How much mileage do we get from electric bike compared to petrol bike?

The future of EV’s in India is Bright. But there are still some things that one needs to ponder about before buying one. Since maximum people use conventional vehicles where petrol becomes the major factor but prices for the same is also hiking day by day. Although Ebikes are a good option for a short daily commute, they make little sense for long-distance rides with a limited number of charging stations. This is bound to improve in the future but is an important point to consider currently. On the other hand, Petrol stations are present across the country, hence, the range of a conventional bike is not bounded.

Coming to pricing and range An electric bike will offer the same mileage as a petrol bike at 15% of the cost of one liter of fuel, making it very pocket-friendly over the long-term whereas the average petrol bike offers about 50-60 kilometers per liter. However, some fuel-efficient options also can deliver up to 100 kilometers per liter. Let’s dive more deeply into it.

Assume, that petrol, ( with or without added oil ), costs Rs.75 per liter and assume that you have a petrol bike that gives you 50 km per liter. So, you are paying Rs.1.50 per km when you use a petrol bike.

Now, Assume that your e-bike batteries cost Rs.12, Given that you are paying this money upfront, at 10% simple interest per annum you have lost Rs.1200 at the end of the first year; that's, you've got paid Rs.13,200 for the batteries.

Therefore, to break even relative to a petrol bike, you have to get (13,200/1.5) km, that is, 8,800 km out of your batteries.

Batteries usually don't last beyond one to one and a half years, and they do not give more than 5000-6000 km (often less). Therefore, when one accounts for other factors such as electricity costs, e-bikes can be far more expensive to run than petrol bikes. However, do take into consideration all the factors involved and do your calculations based on your use. Also, take under consideration that each one of the mileage that you simply get out of your first set of batteries is transported for free of charge, so you're way before the reckoning at the outset.

So for Further considerations and adjustments, you will need to add a little to the above number to make up for what you are paying for the electricity (if your electricity bill goes up by Rs.750 a year due to your e-bike, you'll get to run a further 500 km to interrupt even). However, You will need to add a little to the above number in case you do not run this distance during the first year. This is because you want to include the interest on the value of your batteries for the extra months of the second year that it takes you to run the required distance. You need to adjust the above calculations for the actual mileage that your present petrol bike gives, and for the actual sum that you are paying for your petrol, with or without the added oil.

If you run your e-bike for a greater distance than what you would like to interrupt even, every extra kilometer that you simply run is like transport nearly for free of charge (because the electricity costs are negligible). But If the cost of your e-bike is not much different from the cost of the petrol bike that you planned to buy, then you do not need to break even for the value of your initial set of batteries. The distance that you run on these batteries is like transport for free because the electricity costs are negligible.

Lead-acid batteries are claimed to have a life of about 300 cycles. If your e-bike is stated to possess a variety of 40 km per cycle, you'll expect only about 25-30 km per cycle in city traffic. Thus, if you are doing not lose your battery early thanks to overcharging and if your battery runs a traditional life, you'll expect a maximum of about 300 x 25 km, that is, 7500 km from it. If you divide the value of the battery by 7500, you'll get a thought of what proportion you are going to pay per kilometer. Use this logic to calculate your expected costs based on the stated range of the bike you propose to buy, the real-life range (60-70% of the stated range, and less because of the batteries age), the value of the batteries, and therefore the interest lost due to the upfront cost at the time of purchase of the batteries.

The maximum distance that any set of batteries could give is about 5000-6000 km. The batteries themselves last for longer than 12-18 months, regardless of the distance traveled.