Anecdotally, my wife's Magnum Premium 2 has held up well for 4 years of all weather use in west coast Canada. This includes pulling a cargo trailer or kids trailer year round - salty and sandy slushy snow, pouring rain, sun...
For two of the years she hauled him to school everyday, in all weather, and did all of her shopping and errands with the bike. About 100km every weekday. I'll have to look at the odometer sometime and see what it's at.
I believe it has a Bafang motor and I think we paid about C$2200 as it was in clearance.
Not casting doubt on your numbers here, but to put some perspective on how much usage that implies: 100km every weekday means literally hours of use every day - we're talking about an e-bike that must average what, 20-25km/h at most? That's assuming you're not in stop-start urban traffic. So four or five hours a day? I guess if you're doing a school run that's 30 mins there and 30 mins back, morning and afternoon, plus another trip to town and back... it all adds up.
The numbers might be a bit bloated, but not by a lot.
We had just moved to Canada from a country without a reciprocal drivers license exchange - no matter as she never had one. Where we had moved from, drivers licenses are largely considered optional and although I taught her to drive and she had been riding motorcycles since age 12 or so, driving in North America is way different. We moved just before covid hit. Driving lessons and license testing were difficult / near impossible to get - and with very long wait times. So it was her only form of transportation for quite a long time.
She was doing cleaning at various businesses around the area as well, so again she would take the bike to those locations every day with her little cargo trailer and cleaning supplies. She'd come home after dropping our son off at school, charge the bike, eat a snack, change trailers and head back out, then repeat when it was time to pick him up.
She quite easily spent 3-4 hours on the bike everyday. Just getting to school and back for our son was about 45 minutes one way. He wasn't in the closest school because of things the further school offered (nature school), another 30 minutes each way to the local shopping centre, and then wherever she needed to go for work.
We went through a lot of tires and brake pads, but other than general maintenance the bike held up great and is still going strong.
She has a good job and nice little car now, so the bike is seeing a lot less use this year.
> 100km every weekday means literally hours of use every day
And multiple batteries per day.
I suppose it’s possible if someone’s entire day revolved around e-biking everywhere most of the day and they live in an area that’s relatively flat and there’s not a lot of stop and go and the trips fit into the charge of a single battery and so on.
I like biking a lot, but spending hours and hours on an ebike doing errands every day and hoping nothing breaks when you’re far from home is not my idea of a good time.
That's not necessarily true. My battery is rated for 45 miles, and I get every bit of it. I typically only do about 15-20 miles daily, but I have a weekly ride that is a little over 30 miles which after that the battery still shows 2 of 5 bars remaining. It all depends on how much output you're getting from your meat motor.
To add perspective, I have a battery rated for 70 miles, which so far seems fairly realistic if I stick to slower speeds and lower assist settings that have me putting in a bit of effort. I went ahead and bought an extra battery just for the hell of it so I have the option of riding out to hiking trails or the coast. Plus I don't own a car, so putting in a ton of miles in a day without worrying about charge is worth the expense (also easier to keep them in the 20% - 80% charge window for the sake of longevity).
So far I've done 40 miles in a day several times simply commuting and running errands, and it goes fairly quick with a top speed of ~25mph if I'm in a rush. Point being, people shouldn't be so quick to make assumptions about other people's use cases. I used to commute 30 miles per day to work on a touring bike, plus extra for errands and activities. Yes, it is a lot of time riding, but often it felt like recreation especially since much of my commute was scenic on a dedicated bike trail through natural areas.
Bar inclement weather I used to ride my bike (regular, not e-bike) about 50 km per day. Now I alternate between cycling, fast walk and riding EUC. Add lots of swimming on top in the summer (I am 63 btw).
For two of the years she hauled him to school everyday, in all weather, and did all of her shopping and errands with the bike. About 100km every weekday. I'll have to look at the odometer sometime and see what it's at.
I believe it has a Bafang motor and I think we paid about C$2200 as it was in clearance.