Maybe you purchased an ebike to discover new routes or get outside more. Perhaps you were fed up with the stress that comes with traffic. Regardless of the reason, your new way to get around has an added bonus: ebikes help reduce carbon emissions. Here’s how.
A More Fun and Planet-Friendly Mode of Transportation
Not only can your ebike help you leave stress in nature, but it’s also pretty great for the health of our planet. Similar to the growth of interest in electric cars, more people are turning to green transportation in the form of an ebike. Here’s why ebikes are consistently considered the greener way to get around.
1. Zero emissions while riding
It’s really no wonder that electric bikes are associated with greener transportation. Compared with cars, vans, and trucks, their smaller size and use of a rechargeable battery instead of an internal combustion engine make it clear how an ebike can be more environmentally friendly.
There’s nothing coming out of a tailpipe and fewer emissions overall. In fact, if an ebike was to replace a car, it would be associated with a reduction of 225 kg CO2 per year.
2. Minimal energy requirements
Even when you take in the entire lifecycle, ebikes are still the winner. From manufacturing, to charging, to end-of-life, ebikes are responsible for just 22 g/km emissions, as opposed to 168 for a hybrid and 258 for a gasoline car.
The energy required to manufacture a bike accounts for roughly 7g/km of those carbon emissions. This is compared with manufacturing emissions for a car, which amount to 40g CO2 per kilometer, on average.
Riding an ebike also requires less energy in another way: riders don’t eat as much.
When one study took into consideration the impact of food consumed by those riding an ebike or a conventional bike, it found that those riding a push bike consumed more food to make up for calories burnt during their ride.
This, along with other factors, resulted in their findings that ebikes had an even lower carbon footprint than traditional bikes (even when battery manufacturing and electricity use were considered).
3. Less damaging to roads
While weather should receive most blame, cars and trucks contribute to a road’s wear and tear. Heavier trucks and cars, in particular, can mix with debris to make quite the impact (literally) on pavement.
Damaged roads aren’t just bad because of annoying potholes. They also require new construction of asphalt pavement, which is associated with emissions of large quantities of greenhouse gasses.
Bikes, on the other hand, are so lightweight that they are deemed to be non-damaging.
4. Reduce highway congestion
One of the reasons an ebike is good for you is also how it helps our home: ebikes take a dent out of congested freeways. A stress-free (and endorphin-releasing) commute isn’t the only good thing about less traffic.
More cyclists = less idling traffic = less pollution and emissions.
Idling cars are responsible for more than 30 million tons of carbon emissions every year—along with the release of dangerous gasses, chemicals, and particulate pollution (soot). If we were able to eliminate idling, it would be like removing 5 million cars off the roads.
5. Exposure to the outdoors
As another factor that’s both good for you and our shared home, ebikes help get people outside more often. There’s no more exciting way to get from A to B than with the wind blowing through your hair and your senses fixated on the sights and smells that only nature can provide.
And as author Richard Louv said:
“We cannot protect something we do not love, we cannot love what we do not know, and we cannot know what we do not see. And touch. And hear.”
Ebikes can help us do exactly that.
With Ebikes, More People Can Support the Planet
As pedal assist makes difficult rides easy and ebikes like the Aveny and Sol are designed with a low step-through frame, more people are able to ride an ebike, versus the conventional version. This means that a future where ebikes help reduce carbon emissions is more possible than ever before! Join the ebike revolution and consider a Blix for your contribution to a better world.