I'm a big fan of e-bikes for getting around. They're small, they're convenient, they get you through backed-up traffic with minimal impact to the environment — they're basically the perfect vehicle for cities. Yet, when I paused writing this blog to go to the bank, I didn't ride an e-bike of my own. I don't own an e-bike at all, actually, and for one good reason: They cost too damn much.
My requirements for a city e-bike don't seem too absurd. I want something that's Class 3, with a top speed of 28 mph, and that has a removable battery that I can bring inside my apartment to charge. Ideally, I'd also like it to just look like a regular bike, in hopes that opportunistic thieves pass it over for something that's more visibly electrified. Most important of all, though, I want something with electronics that are UL-certified for safety — a legal necessity here in NYC, and a good idea everywhere else. Somehow, it's hard to find this combination for under $1,000, and that just doesn't feel right.
Lectric Ebikes
I know, I know, the e-bike faithful will say that a bike is far cheaper than the cars that so many people use to do a bicycle's job. This is true, and I fully support replacing cars with e-bikes. But I don't own a car, and I'm looking for a bike to replace walking or shorter subway trips — my shopping isn't competing with a $50,000 car purchase, it's competing with a $2.90 MTA fare. I'm not alone in this, either. New York is full of Fly E-Bike shops, the local default vehicle for DoorDash drivers, showing how many New Yorkers have a demand for pedal-assisted bikes. Yet, Fly has been caught lying about the safety of its bikes in the past, and even after that the e-bikes still aren't cheap.
$1,000 gets you a Lectric XPress e-bike, possibly the cheapest option that meets all my city criteria. If you want a more established brand, you'll have to shell out $1,200 for an Aventon Soltera 2.5 — and lose out on the Class 3 speeds, as the Soltera is a mere Class 1 with a 20mph top speed. The Specialized Turbo Tero 3.0 ticks all the boxes, and looks the subtlest, but it costs an eye-watering $2,000 on sale.
Upway
Look at the used market, from the mechanic-certified frames of Upway to the questionable maintenance of Facebook Marketplace, and prices seem to barely drop from new. $1,000 is a hard floor for the market, and prices climb quickly — there's clearly a lot of demand for ebikes. Yet, after years of micromobility revolutions, still no company manufactures a safe, cheap ebike. Can you imagine if Cannondale dipped into its parts bin and made a regular-looking Class 3 bike with a removable battery for $600? If Trek tapped those decades-running supply chains for some cheap frames and wheels, and put together a basic 28-mph commuter for $400? Nothing fancy, no Bluetooth or apps or Brembo brakes, just a way for apartment-dwellers to get around safely, easily, and cheaply.
As it stands, the market pushes buyers with less to spend into questionable, unsafe bikes. I can find all manner of pedal-assist bikes on Alibaba or Temu for $500, all without any safety certification on their batteries — the kinds of certifications that stop bikes from burning apartments down. The speed, too, is a safety issue. Studies show that differences in speed between vehicles sharing a road are a statistical cause of crashes, and many of New York's streets are shared between bikes and cars. A bike that can do the 25-mph speed limit is safer than one that can't.
The future of personal mobility shouldn't be autonomous EVs, it should be e-bikes. E-bikes that are lightweight, that don't spew tire microplastics into the environment, that require little power to move a person from point A to point B. But, in the sort of urban environments that encourage the short trips at which e-bikes excel, the cost of reputable and safe brands is often a nonstarter. It's 2025. Where are the cheap, safe e-bikes?
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