Ethan MoreElectric cargo bikes are gaining popularity these days as gasoline prices continue to rise high. As people look for other means of transport that are cheaper than driving cars, electric cargo bikes are steadily getting the spotlight.
Electric cargo bikes can carry multiple passengers and heavy goods as a normal car can, so how can they provide an alternative to conventional cars?
Are these bikes good as compared to cars in every single way? Would you save money? Are these bikes good enough for heavy loads?
To find out, read on below as we cover the factors that make electric cargo bikes a viable alternative to cars!
Passenger Capacity
Electric cargo bikes are not just for cargo. Many models feature multiple seats ranging from 2-3 seats. It’s not much compared to a car’s 5-seater or 7-seater capacity, but if you have a relatively small family, a cargo e-bike can be a good option.
Some cargo e-bike models are also customizable, giving you the option to add more seats or to add more storage options to your unit. If you have a rather large family, you can always use 2 cargo e-bikes to get from point A to point B in no time.
What’s more is that some cargo e-bikes can easily handle several hundred pounds of passengers. Though this feature is usually confined to larger cargo e-bike models which we’ll tackle further below.
Distance
Cargo e-bikes are good at covering several miles of distance—a feature good enough to consider as an alternative to cars. It is said that the majority of the cars Americans drive just travel in a range of 10 miles.
That’s a rather short journey for long-distance capable vehicles, and that’s a rather impractical way to own a car if you can’t use it for long journeys often.
A simple way to go around this is to consider the use of cargo e-bikes. These bikes can cover several miles, enough for you to send your kid to school, and your spouse to work and pick them up again in the late afternoon.
You can also go back and forth to your local supermarket with no problem with a cargo e-bike range. What’s even good is that you save a whole lot of money on gas prices and the huge cost of car ownership nowadays.
Loading Capacity
Cargo e-bikes are not called “cargo” without a reason. These e-bikes are built by engineers with a purpose in mind: carrying heavy stuff from point A to point B with little to no effort.
Conventional two-wheeled cargo e-bikes can carry a payload range of 275-350 pounds which is adequate enough to ferry simple grocery bags from the supermarket to your home. It’s also enough for you to carry several travel bags and suitcases with no overloading problems.
There are also three-wheeled cargo e-bikes that can carry a whole lot more than their two-wheeled siblings. These tricycle-configured cargo e-bikes can carry well beyond 400 pounds of load making them a good solution for small businesses and big families.
Savings
Let’s face it: car ownership is a rather pricey relationship between man and automobile. Buying a car alone, without minding insurance, maintenance, and gas prices is pricey. And it gets more pricey once you let insurance, maintenance, and gas prices enter the conversation.
Fortunately, cargo e-bikes are not that pricey as compared to cars. You can buy a cargo e-bike for just a few grand as compared to the average car price in the US which is upwards of 40 grand. The price difference is too large and if you want to save money, buying a car is a no-go.
With a cargo e-bike, you can save money on gas, insurance, and maintenance. First, you save money on gas since they’re electric-powered. If you have solar panels up on your roof to charge your e-bike, you have more savings.
Second, you can save money on insurance since cargo e-bikes are not required to have insurance. We’d still recommend getting one, but you can still save money as e-bike insurance is not as pricey as car insurance.
Third, maintenance is simpler, thus cheaper for cargo e-bikes. You can even do the maintenance yourself once you familiarise yourself with the important structures of the bike as compared to getting a car regularly maintained in a car shop. You can also order spare parts easier than cars as e-bike parts are almost always readily available.
