What criteria should be considered for choosing an e-bike for commuting? My girlfriend is looking for an electric bike for commuting.

My question is fairly broad - What features and capabilities should we consider when choosing an e-bike for commuting?



For information, we are living in Vancouver, BC and she will be commuting between West End (downtown) and SFU (Burnaby). She's 160cm high and weight 55kg.
You might want to give us an idea of the distance but my wife has recently bought a freego hawk for a commute of 11km each way (about 2/3 your distance and flatter).  The specs and list price are not disimilar.  She's a little taller but this is a fairly forgiving frame layout.

She gets 2 days round trips with the battery still showing 1/4 to 1/2 full, pedalling all the way, and it's knocked about 1/6 off her commute compared to a mountain bike with city tyres after doing that for some time, and is still less tired.  Note that in the UK the motor must by law cut out if you go >15mph.  This extends the range at the expense of speed, as does the lower wattage motor generally used here.

If your girlfriend could ride it on a normal bike (MTB/city bike) in the same sort of time google says without practicing (~1.5hours), she might get under an hour on an e-bike assuming traffic lights etc don't take up too much of the time.

If she'll be stuck behind other bikes or in traffic then it won't be much quicker than riding normally.

Some questions for you to consider:


Why an e-bike? Speed compared to pedalling/beat the traffic/likes to ride but no shower available?
Do you have somewhere secure to keep it at street level, with power?  You'll be charging every day or max. 2, and it's a lot heavier than a normal bike.
How much is she planning to pedal? If not at all the range will soon be used up, especially with the climb.
Who's going to look after it? Will she be stuck if it's in the shop for a minor service?
Is she happy to ride in that traffic?  If she's got a bike, then try it on that, perhaps in one day, back the next if it's too far, or just check out the worst bits in rush hour.  The roads look very different outside a metal box.


On balance e-bikes are great for commuting in many but not all situations, and can carry quite a lot of load without increasing the effort too much.