Advanced options
Based on ~40 miles per 0.5kWh charge and 46 commuting weeks. Add ~GBP 100/year for e-bike servicing, brake pads and the occasional tube: still pennies per mile. Cycle to Work schemes take the bike's price off gross salary, and battery lifespan (500-1,000 full cycles) means the pack outlasts most commutes.
What The E-Bike Commute Calculator Works Out
- E-bike charging per year: annual miles (daily round trip x days x 46 weeks) divided by about 40 miles per 0.5 kWh charge, multiplied by the electricity price (defaulting to the current Ofgem price cap unit rate). A 500 Wh battery costs around 13p to fill, a third of a penny per mile, so a four-day, eight-mile commuting year of nearly 1,500 miles charges for about GBP 5.
- Same commute by bus: the day ticket multiplied by commuting days and weeks, typically GBP 800 plus.
- By car: annual miles at 45p a mile, HMRC's approved rate and a fair all-in figure once fuel, depreciation, insurance, servicing and tyres are counted.
- Weeks, electricity price, range and battery (advanced): the simple mode's hidden assumptions, exposed. Your tariff's unit rate, your bike's real range and the battery size all change the charging cost, though it stays pennies per mile whatever you enter.
- E-bike all-in per year (advanced): charging plus servicing, pads and tubes (a real but modest GBP 100 or so) plus any insurance and lock. A Sold Secure lock, frame marking and specialist cover are standard kit in theft-heavy postcodes.
- Payback vs the bus and the car (advanced): the bike's price, after any Cycle to Work saving, divided by the annual saving against each alternative. A mid-range e-bike repays itself inside two years of bus fares.
- Cycle to Work saving (advanced): salary-sacrifice schemes route the bike through gross pay, saving roughly 28% to 32% for basic-rate taxpayers and 42% or more for higher-rate. Employer mileage for business rides pays the approved 20p cycling rate.
- Cost per mile (advanced): all three modes side by side. UK law treats a pedelec (assistance to 15.5 mph, 250 W continuous) as a bicycle: no licence, tax or helmet law; derestricted or throttle-heavy imports cross into unregistered motor vehicle territory.
- CO2 saved vs the car (advanced): the car's 0.17 kg per km avoided, less about 0.207 kg per kWh for charging on grid electricity. Batteries last 500 to 1,000 full cycles, a decade of commuting before replacement enters the budget.
- Five-year table (advanced): cumulative cost of the e-bike including purchase against the bus and the car, year by year, and the running saving against the bus.