You don’t need an SUV. You need a (much) cheaper electric cargo bike. Here’s why
America has an SUV problem. Or rather, just a big vehicle problem in general. The land of SUVs and pickup trucks has somehow been tricked into thinking you need a 4,000-pound vehicle to carry 20 pounds of groceries home from the supermarket.
But there’s a better way, and it’s called an electric cargo bike. It will save you money. It will save you time. It will make you more attractive. And it will make you happier. I all but guarantee it.
Now let’s be clear about something. When I say “You don’t need an SUV,” I’m speaking in general terms. It’s true – generally – for most people reading this article right now.
Sure, there are some of you that regularly transport seven people across vast distances on highway and interstates. But most of us don’t. It’s a simple numbers game. Most people in the US live in cities and urban centers. And that’s why you don’t need a massive SUV.
And even for those that do “need” an SUV for certain specific tasks, you don’t need it most of the time. I’d bet dollars to donuts that most people reading this right now who own an SUV do most of their trips in it with just one or two passengers.
For those that really need a car, you probably only need a small hatchback or sedan. But I’m going to make the case for why you probably don’t even need that, or at least not for most of your trips. Especially when you consider just how far electric cargo bikes have come.
Twenty years ago, a cargo bike was a nifty invention and fun to look at, but they cost a fortune and lord help you if you ever had to pedal one up a hill.
But electric bikes have come to the rescue. Electric motors now allow e-bike builders to make cargo bikes that are easier to pedal up hills (or that don’t require any pedaling at all in the case of throttle-enabled electric cargo bikes). Prices are also quickly dropping, meaning you can get a great cargo e-bike for a song. Instead of buying an expensive second car, you can probably get away with one car and one cargo e-bike.
There are two main styles of cargo e-bikes: front-loaders and longtails. (Technically there are also cargo e-trikes as well, but we’ll leave three-wheelers for another discussion soon.)
Front-loaders have a big cargo area in the front and are generally more expensive due to the funky frame and complicated steering linkage that front loaders require.
Longtails look more like a normal bike but have loooooong rear ends that are stretched to give more rack and seat space behind the rider.
Front-loaders are a bit more advanced and can take more time to get acclimated to, as the rider is much farther from the front wheel than they’re probably used to. If you’re new to cargo bikes, a longtail is probably a better place to start.
Both offer great cargo space, they just do it differently.
Can cargo e-bikes actually replace SUVs?
Okay, so cargo e-bikes sound neat and all. But c’mon, can they really replace cars and trucks?
Yes, for most people they can. And you might balk at that, but there’s a reason why I’m confidently correct here.
It’s true because most people don’t use their SUVs to explore to the Amazon. They use them to go buy the stuff they can’t find on Amazon.
Picking up groceries. Dropping off a kid or two at school. Driving to work. These are all normal, everyday tasks that for some reason people think requires heavy machinery. Which is as ridiculous as it is depressing. If you live in a city and you drive a massive car, then you’re probably in the wrong. Unless you’ve got several dozen 2×4’s hanging out the back of that truck or the entire starting lineup from little Jimmy’s T-ball team in your SUV, then you don’t need that massive vehicle.
I’ve actually used cargo e-bikes to carry construction material before, including bags of cement and dimensional lumber. It’s just not that hard.
And I’ve carried multiple passengers on them as well. Three people on a cargo e-bike is pretty standard, though it helps when one or two of those extra souls are also children.
A reddit commenter in a walkable cities advocacy group recently put it best. As the redditor explained, “Are there viable bikes that can replace the true power and utility of an SUV? Not even close. Are there bikes that can replace what 99% of drivers use their SUVs for 99% of the time? Absolutely.”
Now again, there are going to be those people who say, “But I need my truck, I use it for XYZ that a bike can’t do!”
And I get it. There are some big jobs out there. My sister runs a furniture refinishing business and regularly hauls dressers, desks, and other big things around town.
But then again, maybe you’re just still stuck in that “I need a car to do this” mentality. Did you know there are actually moving companies that work entirely by bicycle? They’ll move your apartment without getting trucks involved.
When there’s a will (and a cargo bike), there’s a way.
Cargo e-bikes save money
Not only can cargo e-bikes do most of what most people use their SUVs and trucks for, but they do it cheaper.
The hundreds of dollars per month that your truck or SUV burns in gasoline would equate to probably less than a dollar of electricity to power an electric cargo bike. If you do some serious mileage then you might be looking at as much as two dollars of electricity per month.
And don’t forget the hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of dollars you’ll save each month on parking, insurance, car payments, maintenance, and all the other costs associated with car ownership.
Even the purchase price is usually 10x less. If you go nuts with the best electric cargo bikes out there from the highest dollar manufacturers, you could be looking at expensive $8,000 e-bikes. But if you are more reasonable, there are great options in the $4,000 range and still very good options in the sub-$2,000 range.
Heck, you can even get close to $1,000 if you really try. Take for example the $999 Lectric XP 3.0. It’s not a cargo e-bike (but rather a fat-tire folding e-bike), though it turns into a cargo bike when you add the $110 cargo package. Or add the $74 passenger package to easily carry a second adult rider on the bike.
Other affordable e-bikes like the Rad Power Bikes RadRunner 2 (or RadRunner Plus shown in the video above) are purpose-built for carrying passengers and offer a comfortable way to bring a friend or loved one on back.
You can even fit two riders on the back of a RadRunner as long as they’re fairly small.
Why drive to dinner in a massive car when you and your wife could zip there on an e-bike built for two? Add a little excitement and adventure into date night!
Look, just think about it
Let’s get real: Most people could do most of their daily travel needs in a city on an e-bike. But because of the world we live in, that doesn’t mean that a car can be totally replaced all the time.
For some people, that means not owning a car and occasionally using a car sharing service for the once-in-a-while Ikea trip or other car-related journey. My wife and I did that for years. If we needed a car for a couple hours here and there, we rented a car for a couple hours. It was waiting on the street corner and that’s where we left it when we were done. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
For others that still use a car somewhat frequently, perhaps that means having one family car but getting an e-bike instead of a second car. And of course, that also means trying to use the e-bike for as many trips as possible.
If you live at the end of a 3-mile private driveway that connects to a 70 mph six-lane highway, then an e-bike probably can’t be your only vehicle. But you also don’t exist because that’s a silly made-up scenario that the anti-anti-car crowd tends to think is all too common.
In reality, of course there are people that an e-bike won’t work for and of course there are still some cases where a big vehicle may be necessary. But those people and those cases are much fewer and farther between than most will realize. Sometimes it just takes looking at the problem from another angle.
The cargo e-bike angle.
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Environment
Shipping threats around Arabian Peninsula rising, largest global shipowners organization warns
Refrigerated containers of Maersk shipping lines are stacked at the container terminal of Bremerhaven port on April 22, 2025 in Bremerhaven, Germany.
Focke Strangmann | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The world’s largest direct-membership organization for shipowners, charterers, shipbrokers, and agents is warning that while it is still unclear how Iran will respond to Saturday’s U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the threat to commercial shipping in the waters around the Arabian Peninsula has risen.
“The Houthi threat against shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has also gone up,” said Jakob Larsen, head of security at Bimco, which represents global shipowners. “The Houthis now threaten merchant ships with affiliation to Israel or the U.S., but attacks against merchant ships with other affiliations cannot be ruled out.”
Larsen said it is expected that U.S. warships and merchant ships affiliated with Israel or the U.S. would be the preferred targets for the Iranians.
In an email to CNBC, a Hapag Lloyd spokesperson tells CNBC, “We currently are still crossing the Street of Hormuz. Alert level is high, though, and things might change by the hour.”
Integrated logistics provider Maersk announced Friday it is temporarily suspending port calls to Israel’s largest container port, Haifa. The $4.2 billion cargo facility at Haifa, owned by Adani Group, has been a target of Iranian missiles but has not suffered any damage. Last week, Jugeshinder “Robbie” Singh, CFO of the Adani, debunked misinformation posted that the port was on fire from a strike on Iranian social media.
Bimco’s Larsen warned Iran could attempt a wider disruption of commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz through attacks on merchant ships. Antiship missiles or drones of both airborne and surface types could be used in these attacks, he said.
“The laying of sea mines would constitute another dangerous development, but Iran’s intent to do so is questionable due to the risk to Iran-affiliated commercial ships and the risk of environmental disaster in case a ship is damaged,” said Larsen.
The Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea, is recognized as one of the world’s most important oil chokepoints. The inability of oil to traverse through the Strait of Hormuz, even temporarily, can ratchet up global energy prices, raise shipping costs and create significant supply delays. In 2023, oil flows through the waterway averaged 20.9 million barrels per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, accounting for about 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption.
“Given the Iranian threat to U.S. military bases in the region, availability of warships for protection of commercial shipping is probably limited, especially for commercial ships with no affiliation to the U.S. or Israel,” Larsen said.
The Strait of Hormuz handles less than 4% of global container trade but the ports of Jebel Ali and Khor Fakkan are critical intermediary points for global shipping networks in the region.
The majority of cargo volumes from those ports are destined for Dubai, which has become a hub for the movement of freight with feeder services in the Persian Gulf, South Asia, and East Africa.
The conflict in the region has also sparked ocean freight rates to surge from Shanghai to Jebel Ali, the Arabian Gulf’s largest port.
Freight intelligence firm Xeneta said average spot rates have increased 55% month-over-month, prior to the conflict escalation between Israel and Iran. Rates are now $2,761 per forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU), a standard unit for measuring the capacity of container ships and volume of cargo.
On the tanker side, spot rates for very large crude carrier (VLCC) voyages between the Middle East and China are up 154% week-over-week. Rates on the long-range tankers’ (LR2) Middle East-Japan trade route are up 148% and Middle East-Japan very large gas carrier (VLGC) rates are up 33%.
The reason behind the increase in rates includes the added expenses on security measures, higher bunker fuel prices, and fuel costs as vessels use more fuel due to faster sailing through high-risk areas.
Marsh McLennan, the world’s largest marine insurance broker, noted hull and machinery insurance rates for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz have increased by more than 60%.
In light of the latest wave of defense measures, Bimco is encouraging shipowners to review their security risk assessments and carefully consider mitigation measures.
“Merchant ships in the area should consider reducing their exposure to threats from Iran, for example, by routing away from the Iranian coast,” said Larsen. “We also recommend that ships maintain close contact to naval forces in the area through UK Maritime Trade Operations, maintain strong vigilance and increased lookout, report suspicious sightings and events to UKMTO, and increase the resilience of ships to absorb damage by ensuring watertight integrity and readiness of damage control organization including firefighting capability.”
“Bimco never directly recommends shipowners to completely stay away from a conflict area. Such a decision should be taken by the shipowner, taking into consideration all relevant factors of the security risk assessment, including, for example, the threat, the ship’s vulnerabilities, and the risk acceptance level of seafarers, the shipowner, and the cargo owner.”
The Senate version of the repubilcans’ tax bill won’t just add trillions of dollars to the deficit through a massive giveaway to wealthy elites, it will also take the US Postal Service’s awesome new EVs and sell them off for pennies on the dollar, wasting money simply out of spite for vehicles that were already cleaning your air and making your community safer.
The Postal Service has used the same Grumman LLV vehicles for decades, produced from 1986-1994. So, some of these trucks are nearly 40 years old, and all of them are at least 30 years old.
The vehicles are showing their age – they get poor mileage, they break down often (or catch fire, as about 100 of the old gas guzzlers did last year), they emit significant pollution, and they have poor ergonomics.
So, in 2015, the USPS started the process of finding a replacement.
After many bids and back-and-forth (including startups going out of business), the USPS, led by Postmaster Louis DeJoy, picked Oshkosh’s “Next Generation Delivery Vehicle” (NGDV) as the next postal vehicle.
The vehicle has a goofy look to it, but it’s a goofy look for a reason.
The large window gives exceptional visibility, meaning the kids and pets that are likely to occupy residential areas are easier to see, and thus easier for drivers to avoid.
The low hood further enhances safety, by reducing damage done to a human body in a crash (unlike the land yachts which are so popular with consumers and have contributed to pedestrian deaths reaching all-time highs).
And the tall roof makes it easier for drivers to enter and exit, reducing strain on their bodies which means lower labor costs overall – less injury, drivers potentially being able to stay in their jobs longer, and so on.
But that’s just talking about the look of the vehicle – there are even more beneficial features, like much more cargo space, driver assistance safety features (around-view cameras, blind spot monitors and collision sensors), and air conditioning, something the original LLVs lacked (and which is only becoming more necessary as the planet heats up).
As for powertrain, the NGDV is available in both gas and electric options, with the gas version getting a paltry 8.6mpg (similar to the old LLVs), but the electric version being naturally much more efficient.
Electrification is a perfect choice for most delivery vehicles. These vehicles do set daily routes with lots of starting and stopping, in neighborhoods where people live and breathe, and return back to the same place every night. It’s an ideal application for EVs, for the vast majority of rotues.
Higher efficiency electric drive means money savings on fuel and maintenance for most routes. Overall, a highly electrified fleet was estimated to save taxpayers $4.3 billion over its lifetime.
But perhaps the most obvious benefit of electric mail trucks is the lack of pollution in the places where people spend most of their time: at home. (I don’t know about you, but my mail carrier’s broken truck stinks up the place every day, forcing me to close the windows as it fails to start half the time – and I’m pretty sure this is a common experience)
Despite these benefits, at first, USPS planned to buy only 10% EVs, with the remainder being gas. But after that announcement, several entities (including Electrek) pointed out that even by USPS’ uncharitable calculations, EVs would save money for the vast majority of routes (and that’s not considering health and environmental benefits).
Thankfully, reason prevailed over time, and the USPS gradually increased its plan such that it eventually said it would buy only electric trucks after 2026, with relatively few gas trucks acquired before then for the few routes that electric isn’t suitable for. It’s also supplementing those purchases with some off-the-shelf Ford E-Transits to function as delivery vehicles, with fewer custom features but an easier rollout as E-Transits are readily available.
The NGDV has suffered delays, but as the truck has finally started to roll out, it’s been enormously popular. When the truck started use last year in Atlanta, drivers immediately loved it. They loved the new features, better safety, and less stress on their bodies.
Republicans move to undo these improvements, wasting taxpayer dollars
And so, of course, republicans are now threatening this unequivocally good thing in a way that’s only going to cost taxpayers more money and ensure that your mail costs, the pollution you breathe in your home and the danger to your neighborhood all increase.
As reported by the Washington Post, Senate republicans are considering a version of the tax bill that would auction off these vehicles, at pennies on the dollar, seemingly simply out of spite for the program.
As usual, republican justifications for the billions of dollars in waste they’re proposing don’t stand up to even the slightest amount of scrutiny.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul stated that the plan “aims to cut unnecessary costs and focus USPS on delivering mail and not achieving the environmental initiatives pushed by the Biden Administration.”
But Paul ought to know this is false, because he’s part of the Senate, the body that approved these vehicles in the first place in 2022 (and, if you remember your high school civics class as Paul apparently does not, the Senate is not part of the “Biden Administration”). Nor is the USPS directly part of any presidential administration, since it is an independent federal agency, and during the bidding process was headed by Louis DeJoy, who was appointed during one Mr. Donald Trump’s first stint squatting in the White House.
Paul should also know that the bidding process started in 2015, and thus that the majority of it occurred while nobody named Biden was in the White House in the first place.
He also ought to know that most of that money is already spent, and selling off items the USPS already owns for pennies on the dollar doesn’t “save” anyone any money. Neither does having to buy all new gas vehicles, with higher fueling and maintenance costs, to replace them – this is the very definition of “unnecessary costs.”
Worse, falling back to the old LLVs and restarting the bidding process for their replacement would take more time and cause more waste. And in the interim we’d be stuck with these “obsolete” vehicles which, as covered above, are inefficient, unsafe, lack features, and routinely catch fire. All of this gets in the way of the focus on delivering mail.
So, Paul is either lying or stupid, but given the letter after his name, we’re pretty sure it’s both.
The USPS rightly pointed out what a stupid idea this is, stating “The funds realized by auctioning the vehicles and infrastructure would be negligible. Much of infrastructure is literally buried under parking lots, and there is no market for used charging equipment” (hmm, tearing out charging equipment for no benefit at all? where have we heard that before…). It said this action “will seriously cripple our ability to replace an aging and obsolete delivery fleet.”
It further urged the Senate “to pause and consider the substantial harm this proposal would cause to the Postal Service and our customers, your constituents.”
But, given the republican party’s current direction, maybe that exhortation would backfire. Harm seems to be precisely what they want, as reflected in everything they’re doing these days.
If you do happen to be one of those constituents, particularly in a republican state, it might be worth giving your Senator a call and asking them to stop wasting your money and raising your mail costs by selling off money-saving vehicles that promise to clean the air of your community. Here’s where you can find their contact info.
Among republicans’ proposed cuts is the rooftop solar credit. That means you could have only until the end of this year to install rooftop solar on your home, before republicans raise the cost of doing so by an average of ~$10,000. So if you want to go solar, get started now, because these things take time and the system needs to be active before you file for the credit.
To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
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