EVs are booming but electric bikes are really cutting emissions

Australians are really getting on board with electric cars, but the number of electric bikes has also exploded – and data suggests the smaller EVs are having a bigger impact on oil demand.

Electric vehicles as a whole displaced about 1.5m barrels of oil a day globally in 2022, according to Bloomberg. Two-thirds of that – almost 1m barrels a day – was just from electric bikes and mopeds, which are known as electric micromobility. Electric cars were responsible for a little over a sixth, with the remainder accounted for by vans, trucks and buses.

In 2021, Australia consumed about 1m barrels of oil per day across all sectors of the economy. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that electric vehicles could displace 5m barrels of oil per day by 2030.

A huge part of electric micromobility’s impact is due to its scale – there were almost 300m two- and three-wheeled electric vehicles globally in 2022, compared to around 26m electric cars. More than 95% of the two-wheelers are located in China, according to the IEA.

Australian electric car sales in the year to March were 98,436 – double that of the year before – and the number of charging stations also grew by more than 75%. Meanwhile, Australians bought more than 193,000 ebikes last year, according to Bicycle Industries Australia.

Ebikes won’t replace a car for a lot of people, but they are often well-suited for shorter trips and the “last kilometre” – the distance between home and the nearest public transport. Experts have calculated that charging an ebike to travel 20km a day, five days a week, only costs about $20 annually – although the bikes themselves can be expensive.

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