[rolldat777]

I believe if you compare the overall efficiency (including food production, transport, storage vs. battery production and electricity), e-bikes are in fact more efficient than traditional bikes. Coupled with the fact that they are also more convenient, I believe they fill a niche that is important if we want to make progress towards minimizing our dependence on cars. I do agree that they cannot be just another consumable item since that destroys the efficiency. But, that is generally how production is oriented these days, so it's hard to make a comparison. For reference, I manually cycle ~8k mi a year and do not own an e-bike, but am thinking about it.