A 5-Mile E-Bike Commute Saves $124 a Year. Parking or a Second Car Is Where the Money Is
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AAA puts the cost of driving at 29¢ a mile for fuel and maintenance, plus $8,506 a year in fixed costs for a new car. See what riding instead actually saves, how fast the bike pays for itself, and what it costs in time.
The commute alone barely pays
AAA’s Your Driving Costs 2026 puts the average new car at 29.04¢ a mile to run: 17.32¢ of fuel (regular at $4.152 a gallon) and 11.73¢ of maintenance, repairs and tires. That’s what you stop spending each mile you ride instead.
We ran a 5-mile commute, 200 days a year, through the calculator: 2,000 miles a year, $581 of driving avoided. Take off the bike’s own costs (an example $1,500 bike over 5 years, $150 a year of upkeep, $7 of electricity) and the net is $124 a year. The bike takes three and a half years to repay itself.
The money is in the things a commute doesn’t usually change:
| Situation | Saved per year, net | Months to pay for the bike |
|---|---|---|
| 2-mile commute, 200 days | −$221 | 227 |
| 5-mile commute, 200 days | $124 | 42 |
| 10-mile commute, 230 days, plus 1,000 miles of errands | $1,156 | 12 |
| 5-mile commute, plus $12 a day parking avoided | $2,524 | 6 |
| 5-mile commute, and an older paid-off car is sold ($2,900 a year) | $3,024 | 5 |
| 5-mile commute, and a newer car is sold ($8,506 a year) | $8,630 | 2 |
The older-car row uses AAA’s average insurance ($2,098) and registration and taxes ($802) for a car that has no depreciation or loan left. The newer-car row adds AAA’s $4,422 of depreciation and $1,184 of finance charges.
Without selling a car, the defaults break even at about 1,569 miles a year. Below that, the bike’s upkeep and wear cost more than the fuel and maintenance it saves. Electricity hardly matters: 20 Wh a mile at 18¢ a kWh is a third of a cent. The breakeven also depends on what you’d otherwise drive: 1,274 miles against a pickup, 3,185 against an electric SUV.
How the math works
- Miles moved to the bike:
2 × one-way miles × days + other trips - Car costs avoided:
miles × cost per mile + parking × days, plus the car’s fixed costs only if it goes - E-bike costs:
upkeep + miles × Wh per mile × electricity price + price ÷ years - Payback:
price ÷ (monthly cash saved after upkeep and electricity) - Breakeven miles:
(upkeep + price ÷ years) ÷ (car cost per mile − electricity per mile)
Time is the cost the table leaves out. At 13.5 mph, the middle of the 12 to 15 mph average that Efficiency Vermont’s 2018 e-bike survey reported, 5 miles takes 22 minutes against a 15-minute drive: 48 extra hours a year. On a 2-mile city commute the bike is often faster than driving and parking, which the calculator shows as negative hours.
Where this doesn’t apply
- You don’t actually sell the car. Insurance, registration and depreciation keep running whether the car moves or not. Only tick the box if a car really leaves the household.
- Weather and season. The day count is days you would really ride. In a snowy winter, that can be well under 200.
- A cheap old car. If your car gets 40 mpg and needs little upkeep, its per-mile cost is lower than AAA’s new-car average. Lower the cents per mile in the advanced options.
- Theft and storage. A stolen bike resets the payback. Budget for a good lock, and check where you can park it at work.
- Health and time value. The calculator puts no money on exercise or on the extra minutes. Both can matter more than the dollars, in either direction.
What to actually do
- Measure the route you would ride, not the drive, and count honest riding days.
- Put in what you pay for parking. If it’s free, the commute alone probably won’t pay much.
- Ask whether the bike could replace a car rather than a trip. That’s the row that changes the answer.
- If it’s commute only, compare the breakeven miles with yours. Under it, ride for health or time, not savings.
- Check how this changes your overall car costs and whether a shorter commute by moving would do more.