Electric bikes are a useless alternative with the current state of battery technology/capacity, not to mention the expensive cost of decent lithium batteries, and then comes the biggest issue: stuck in the middle of nowhere and you run out of battery power. You manage to find a homestead but they only have a 12 volt car battery charger and 2-stroke fuel.
so
a battery powered bicycle is completely useless, unless battery technology equals the energy density of liquid fuel for the same volume size of a specific quantity of liquid fuel, and, the speed of recharging the battery in the same time it takes to fill a fuel tank that normally contains liquid hydrocarbon fuel.
Electric bikes are not "useless", you're just too cheap to spend any up front money....
For Australia, you could hook up a 36v 40ah Lithium battery / motor on an electric bicycle and have an easy 80 mile range with only a 3 hour recharge time.
Total cost for the kit? Under $1,000... Cost to recharge? MAYBE .50 AUD? Don't know the cost of gas/petrol over there, but I'm guessing its at LEAST 4.00/gal or whatever that is in per liter....
Let's say, that 1 Gallon tank, gets you the same 80 miles... thats 8 times the price of an electric recharge...
Yeah, boohoo, ya have to charge for 3 hours, but have you ever ridden for more than an hour on a motorized bike... trust me, you ain't doing 3+hours in one ride... you stop, do whatever, you can charge when you get somewhere...
Lets say your petrol kit cost you $300AUD?.. ok, for $800AUD you can get an electric kit and battery....
As an example, if you're doing 80 miles, you save $3.50AUD every 80 miles....
Difference in price between electric and gas... $800-$300 = $500AUD... 500 divided by $3.5 = 142(days) -
In less then six months (180 days), your electric bike has ended up being cheaper then the gas bike!!!! AND, you don't have anywhere near the same upkeep as a petrol engine...
So again, explain to me how Electric Bikes are "useless"?!?