What is a realistic budget for E Bikes? It varies enormously. The good news here is that as with any fast growing technology, and with more and more people adopting an e-bike as their main form of transport, there is a bigger selection of bikes available offering better value.
The German-made electric bikes with mid-drive systems are a bit more money. However they are actually pretty good value when you look at what it would cost to buy a non-electric bike of that quality, and then add top-of-the-range motor technology and high quality, high capacity lithium ion batteries.
Our advice is that if you are looking to buy an ebike, stick with the modern ebikes made by recognised manufacturers with solid reputations and proven warranties. We take particular care in choosing our suppliers and their responsiveness to warranty and performance issues is a key factor.
Independent reviews and tests from reliable sources are a good starting point to help you narrow down your choices. As e-bikes are still relatively new to Australia, it is also worth searching further afield for international reviews and tests. The UK and Germany are great sources as they use the same EN15194 legal standard as Australia.
If you do end up on global review sites just bear in mind that many ebikes and riders could be commenting and reviewing ebikes that use a different industry standard. For example the USA allows the use of throttle only bikes and larger motors (750 watt) so it is not really comparable to what is available in Australia.
EBikes with hub drive motors tend to be cheaper. At the time of writing you can get an excellent range of quality e-bikes for under $3,000.
Our European-made ebikes, with high torque mid-drive motors and most of which are made in Germany, start as low as $2,999 and we have high quality hub drive e-bikes from proven manufacturers starting from as low as $1,899.
If you want a mid-range mid-drive ebike then you are looking at up to about $4,000 -$5,000 and for something quite special you are looking upwards of $5,000.
Here are the key things that will influence the price of the ebike, so you know what you might be missing out on if you choose something that is cheaper. Like everything though it depends on what you need and what is value to you.
Here are the key things that influence different prices between ebikes.
Our rule of thumb is that if you have two bikes and it is hard to tell the difference ask yourself where the cheaper one has saved money.
Value is what is most important though. This is a combination of the initial price and what it will give you and cost you over the time you own it. What is 'value' to one can be very different to someone else so and it's really up to you to determine whether a more expensive bike offers better value or not :)
Back to the E Bike Buyers Guide
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