As you may be aware, Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC) yesterday launched Beryl BTN Bikes, their publicly funded e-Bike sharing scheme. This offers the chance to rent an ebike for short journeys around the city all through an app on your phone.
Beryl BTN Bikes could be a great way of getting people to experience eBikes and hopefully will increase the number of people using sustainable modes of transport to get around the city. We love "Active Travel" as it's called - it even features in our Business Plan before we opened back in 2014.
But it's worth taking a moment to ask yourself: How does "Beryl" compare to owning your own eBike?
Cost: this will be an important factor for many people looking to use an ebike for Leisure and/or Commuting. Beryl is charged at 15p per minute. Let's see whether that's good value? EG: a typical commute is 20 minutes each way - a total of 40 minutes a day. This equates to £6 a day, £30 a week for a 5 day commute or around £130 a month.
Let's compare this to one of our best selling models with the Bosch motor system. If you purchased this with a £0 deposit, using our V12 finance scheme, this can be purchased from as little as £61.03 a month. Yes, that's about 50% the cost of a Beryl BTN Bike!
Choice: Want something a bit more capable so you can explore the South Downs National Park as well? The Haibike AllTrack 4.0 can be purchased from as little as £69.35 a month!
In fact, for the £130 per month that Beryl BTN Bikes cost in our example, you could choose any Bike up to approx £4,600 - which includes some incredible models, with amazing technology!
What other benefits will you have?
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Convenience: You'll have access to the Bike 24 x 7, this can be an issue with bike-share schemes, there's not always one available at your desired hub when you need it most! And there's no additional cost of riding more, further or longer :-)
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Flexibility: You can ride and store it where you want and don't have to worry about paying a fee for using it outside the permitted zone or any additional 'drop off ' fees.
- Condition of the bike is under your control, instead of being at the mercy of the previous rider/s and how they treated the bike.
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Type: Not only do you have choice of what model/style (usually of a better quality spec) you want, it can also be set-up and customised for your usage to add your own accessories etc.
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Public v Private: With Council Tax under such scrutiny, some people believe that local authorities should be leveraging the Private sector to achieve their aims, rather than investing their precious resource(s) in Public Bike schemes.
Of course there are other factors to consider, such as maintenance costs, storage and security.
We offer a 50% discount on our Workshop labour rate for customers that purchase from us, so a typical annual service is £50.00.
We can also supply high quality, gold rated locks from as little as £54.99.
Check out our full range of eBikes here, with a finance calculator on each bike. If you'd like any more information contact us on 01273 625060 or info@elctrc.co.uk.
We're also available in the showroom 7 days a week, to help take you through our range.
