Buying an electric bike is a big investment with bikes from quality brands like Trek, Specialized, Orbea and Raleigh starting at around £2000. If you are going to spend that kind of money it’s important to know how long do electric bikes last for?
As with all bikes, you can expect different parts of an electric bike to wear out at different rates. This is in part indicated by the warranty period you will get on most of them.
Frame
The frame on most electric bikes will be covered by a manufacturer’s warranty for between 2 and 5 years. Many bike brands now only give you a short warranty period, typically 2 years unless you register with them direct. Once you have registered your new bike with the brand they normally extend the warranty to around 5 years. Many electric bike frames will last long than this, but it gives an indication of the expected lifespan from the manufacturer.
Battery
Most electric bikes use a lithium-ion battery. This is the same technology that comes in your phone or laptop. As we all know, a brand-new phone or laptop will have great battery life but after you have had it for a year or two you’ll be reaching for the charging cable throughout the day. Electric bike batteries are the same.
There are a number of steps you can take to extend the life of your battery.
- Store and charge the battery at room temperature and not above 30 degrees
- Keep the battery charge level between 30 and 60%
- Park the bike out of direct sunlight
- Don’t keep the battery fully charged or fully discharged for long periods
- Don’t regularly fully discharge the battery
Bosch and Specialized both have systems which help to manage the life of the battery. This includes settings to stop you fully emptying the battery and stopping them overheating.
You can replace electric bike batteries if they wear out but they are typically in the £500 to £800 range. So it is a significant amount of money to spend.
Motor
The motors on electric bikes are typically covered by a warranty period of about 2 years. Although many will last longer than this depending on how much they are used. There are a number of different electric bike motors systems out there and they will all last different amounts of time. The latest innovation are harmonic ring motors made by TQ which Trek have recently started to use. One of the benefits of harmonic ring motors is they have fewer moving parts so should, in theory, last longer.
If you motor does go, and you are not covered by warranty, they can be replaced but as with the batteries you won’t get much change out of £500. One way to extend the life of your electric bike motor is to avoid jet washing and avoid fully submerging the motor in water.
Gears and brakes
The warranty period on gears and brakes is typically 12 months. These are the parts that will wear out the quickest on an electric bike. They are also the parts that wear out the quickest on a non-electric bike. Depending on how much you are using the bike, and in what conditions, you may be able to go a couple of years without needing to replace anything.
So how long should you expect an electric bike to last?
The individual parts of an electric bike will wear at different rates. They can all be replaced but if the motor, battery or frame go and they are out of warranty you’ll potentially be spending 25% of the price of a new bike. So how long your electric bike will last comes down to how much you are willing to spend to keep it going.
