Forget the "e-bike bust" headlines. The load-bearing number is this: even at the cautious end of the research, the typical e-bike replaces about a quarter of the car trips its owner used to drive. It is a car substitute that happens to have pedals, not a bicycle upgrade.
The warehouse glut is real, a pandemic hangover, not a verdict on the machine. Underneath it, e-bikes have outsold regular bicycles in Germany since 2023, and Norway's transport institute watched new owners more than double their daily cycling. On cost, AAA puts a new car at $12,297 a year; an e-bike runs on the order of a thousand.
If your daily trips are under 10 kilometers and you own a second car you resent, this is the rare gadget that pays you back. If you already bike everywhere, you are the person it helps least.
