I've been eying a Tern GSD and one of my friends has been bragging about how his top of the line GSD R14 was the best purchase he's ever made. He's 6'5" tall and he carries his similarly tall 10 year-old son and everything they need for the school and commute run between central Boulder and their mountain home. The Tern GSD S10 weights 33.5 kg (before accessories) and can carry an additional 200 kg! That's a 1:5 ratio between vehicle and payload.
That means this family with two Tern GSDs can haul 400 kg, or almost as much as a Tesla Y at about 1/5 of the cost (before the tax credit). I know that the battery range on a eBike is much shorter than for the Tesla, but cyclists can easily find regular outlets to charge their eBikes up while taking a break.
Vehicle kg
Vehicle Capacity kg
Battery Wh
Cost
Tax Credit
Tesla Y
1929-2010
433
81,000
$54,990 - $57,990
$7,500
Tern GSD S10
33.6
200
400-900
$5,399
$0
2*Tern GSD S10
67.2
400
700-1,800
$10,798
$0
You can add a trailer to one of the Tern GSDs and haul just as much as the Tesla Y!
Best of all, you can roll eBikes onto a train and then roll off at farther destination. Or you can carry them in an elevator up to your apartment rather than pay for expensive car parking stalls.
I digress, if only we had a transportation system with great train service and bicycle-friendly roads. Sigh.
Enjoy this video, including the end where the young couple exit from a Taipei rail station near the beach.
Remember Carbon Intensity of eBiking vs Driving? I use about 10 Wh/mi when utility cycling around my hilly area, often with shopping and other cargo. When I Tweeted about this, a father who carries 2 children and groceries on his Cargo eBike Tweeted back that he gets about 14-18 Wh/mi on his eBike and about 250-300 Wh/mi in his EV. That's similar to the Model Y performance.
So a family riding on 2 Tern GSDs will use about 35 Wh/mi while the same family & cargo on the Model Y will use 250-300 Wh/mi. The Model Y is very efficient for such a heavy vehicle. They are both pretty efficient compared to an ICE car.
The current problem is the global supply constraints on batteries. The same battery materials that go into one Model Y could build 200 eBikes. Do we build one electric SUV for one family, or 200 cargo eBikes for 100 families? If we focus only on replacing cars one for one with electric ones, then we will miss out on all the savings from mode shifting to lighter, more efficient electric vehicles.
Researchers in Europe did the math and concluded that fixating on larger and longer range EVs while battery supplies are constrained can increase CO2 emissions by slowing the global mode shift required.
Again, looking at the micro view, an EV lowers CO2 emissions relative to an ICE car. But, zoom out and look at the macro view, putting too many eggs in one basket (literally too many battery packs in a large EV) vs a bunch of baskets (eBikes), can increase global CO2 emissions.
We're subsidizing the wrong vehicles. If we really wanted to reduce emissions quickly, we would be subsidizing eBikes and scooters, transit, and building safe and supportive infrastructure for micro-mobility ASAP. We're not and that's the tragedy.
I love this post and the information you have included. I am still considering an e-bike, although health issues over the past two years made bicycling impossible. An e-bike would help. But I also realize I live in a part of the country that would require substantial investment to make biking safe and feasible. My neighborhood has very narrow streets, but luckily most residents drive slowly. To exit it, even to go to the nearest stores, I would have to venture on roads that have no sidewalks, no shoulders, and very often steep ditches at the side of the road, where cars travel far above the posted speed limits. For me, this remains something to think about for the future, for when my grandson goes to college, and I reconsider my own perferances for what makes a good life.
I do think we should be investing far more in bikes and e-bikes, in public transportation and in more walkable and to my mind livable spaces. Perhaps there are more options in your area, but here, in Tennessee, there is a lot of work to be done.
I love this post and the information you have included. I am still considering an e-bike, although health issues over the past two years made bicycling impossible. An e-bike would help. But I also realize I live in a part of the country that would require substantial investment to make biking safe and feasible. My neighborhood has very narrow streets, but luckily most residents drive slowly. To exit it, even to go to the nearest stores, I would have to venture on roads that have no sidewalks, no shoulders, and very often steep ditches at the side of the road, where cars travel far above the posted speed limits. For me, this remains something to think about for the future, for when my grandson goes to college, and I reconsider my own perferances for what makes a good life.
ReplyDeleteI do think we should be investing far more in bikes and e-bikes, in public transportation and in more walkable and to my mind livable spaces. Perhaps there are more options in your area, but here, in Tennessee, there is a lot of work to be done.
You are a good candidate for electric trikes
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