An electric delivery van uses roughly 30 kWh to cover 100 km. A four-wheel electric cargo bike covering the same 100 km of city route uses about 3. Same streets, same parcels, a tenth of the energy — because you are no longer spending most of it moving 2,000 kg of vehicle around to deliver 200 kg of goods.
In short: Electric cargo bikes use roughly 85–95% less energy per kilometre than electric delivery vans, because they weigh a fraction as much and carry far less rolling and aerodynamic resistance. A four-wheel cargo bike with 1–2 m³ of cargo capacity uses around 3 kWh per 100 km against about 30 kWh for an e-van — a 90% reduction. A two-wheel cargo bike uses around 1.8 kWh per 100 km, a 94% reduction, but typically carries under 0.4 m³. Figures vary with weight, route and load for both vehicle types.
The calculation
| kWh per 100 km | Efficiency gain vs e-van | |
| Electric van (e-van) | 30 | — |
| 4-wheel cargo bike | 3 | 90% |
| 2-wheel cargo bike | 1.8 | 94% |
Source: CityQ. Note that weight and energy consumption vary among both vans and cargo bikes.
The figure that does most of the work here is mass. A medium electric van has an unladen weight in the region of two tonnes before anything goes in the back, and a battery pack sized to move it. A four-wheel cargo bike is a fraction of that. Energy spent on acceleration, on rolling resistance and on hauling the vehicle’s own weight up a hill scales with mass, and city delivery work is almost entirely acceleration, braking and low speed — the conditions where mass dominates and aerodynamics barely matter.
Two caveats worth stating plainly. First, 30 kWh per 100 km reflects a larger e-van such as an eSprinter, e-Crafter or E-Ducato class vehicle; smaller city vans sit closer to 15–25 kWh per 100 km, which puts the cargo bike’s advantage nearer 80–88% rather than 90%. Second, real consumption for both moves with cold weather, payload, terrain and driving style. The 85–95% band holds across the range; the precise number depends on what you are actually replacing.
What 90% means on an annual fleet budget
Energy efficiency only matters to a fleet manager when it turns into a number on an invoice. Take a typical single-vehicle city round of 60 km a day, 250 working days a year — 15,000 km.
| Annual energy | |
| Electric van | 4,500 kWh |
| CityQ 4-wheel cargo bike | 450 kWh |
| Difference per vehicle | 4,050 kWh |
Ten vehicles swapped, and that is 40,500 kWh and around £10,000 a year in electricity alone — before parking, ULEZ, Congestion Charge, maintenance or insurance enter the picture. Those are covered in our complete London business guide and in how much it costs to start a cargo eBike delivery business.
The saved 4,050 kWh per vehicle is roughly what an average UK home uses in electricity over a year.
The efficiency nobody costs: charging infrastructure
This is the part that rarely makes it into the comparison, and for a fleet it is often worth more than the electricity.
A van consuming 4,500 kWh a year needs somewhere to put that energy, quickly, overnight, every night. That means depot charge points, possibly a grid connection upgrade, and a capital project with a lead time. A fleet of cargo bikes consuming a tenth as much charges from ordinary sockets, and on a swappable-battery platform the packs come inside and charge while the vehicle stays out working.
Energy efficiency is not only a lower bill. It is the reason a cargo bike fleet can scale without waiting on a substation. Our uptime playbook covers how battery swapping works in daily depot practice.
Two wheels are more efficient per kilometre. Four wheels are more efficient per cubic metre
A two-wheel cargo bike beats a four-wheeler on raw energy per kilometre — 1.8 kWh against 3. That is the honest reading of the table, and it is the number two-wheel manufacturers will quote.
It is also the wrong unit for a delivery business. You are not buying kilometres, you are buying delivered volume. A two-wheel cargo bike normally carries under 0.4 m³. A four-wheel cargo bike carries 1–2 m³, with the CityQ 1200 offering a 1.3 m³ modular cargo box and up to 200 kg of payload.
Divide energy by capacity and the ranking inverts.
Per cubic metre carried, a four-wheel cargo bike is roughly twice as efficient as a two-wheeler and better than half the van’s figure. The practical version of the same point: if a two-wheeler needs three trips back to the depot to move what a four-wheeler moves in one, its per-kilometre advantage disappears into the return legs.
Where the 90% does not apply
Long trunking runs between depots, bulky pallet loads and rural multi-drop routes still belong to a van, and no efficiency figure changes that. The comparison above assumes urban work — dense stops, short distances, low speeds — which is where cargo bikes are efficient and fast. On a 200 km motorway leg the cargo bike is not a worse choice, it is not a choice at all.
There is also a fair challenge to make of any per-kilometre figure: if a van completes 120 drops a day and a cargo bike completes 60, the honest metric is energy per parcel, not energy per kilometre. Run that calculation on your own route data. On dense city rounds the cargo bike usually still wins comfortably, because its stop density is higher and its dead mileage lower — it parks at the door rather than circling for a space. On sparse routes it will not.
FAQ's
Q1: How much energy does an electric cargo bike use per km?
A four-wheel electric cargo bike uses roughly 3 kWh per 100 km, or 30 Wh per kilometre. A two-wheel cargo bike uses around 1.8 kWh per 100 km. Actual consumption varies with payload, terrain, temperature and how much the rider pedals.
Q2: How much less energy does a cargo bike use than a van?
Electric cargo bikes use roughly 85% to 95% less energy per kilometre than electric delivery vans. A four-wheel cargo bike with 1–2 m³ of cargo capacity is about 90% more efficient than a typical e-van; a two-wheel cargo bike is about 94% more efficient but carries far less.
Q3: Why are cargo bikes so much more energy efficient than vans?
Mostly weight. A city delivery round is dominated by acceleration, braking and low-speed running, where energy use scales with mass. An electric van weighs around two tonnes empty; a cargo bike is a fraction of that, so far less energy goes into moving the vehicle itself rather than the cargo.
Q4: How much does it cost to charge a cargo bike?
At a 2026 UK business electricity rate of around 25p/kWh, 100 km of cargo bike running costs roughly 75p in electricity, against about £7.50 for an electric van over the same distance. A full working year of 15,000 km costs roughly £113 in electricity.
Q5: Is a two-wheel or four-wheel cargo bike more efficient?
A two-wheel cargo bike uses less energy per kilometre. A four-wheel cargo bike uses less energy per cubic metre of cargo carried, because it typically offers 1–2 m³ against under 0.4 m³ for a two-wheeler. Which matters depends on whether your constraint is distance or volume.
Q6: Does lower energy use mean lower emissions?
Using around 90% less electricity per kilometre means around 90% less grid demand per kilometre, so the carbon intensity of your local grid is applied to a tenth of the energy. Both vehicles are zero tailpipe emissions.
Run the numbers on your own routes
Take your fleet’s annual mileage, multiply by the figures above, and you have the electricity line. Book a test drive and we will work through the rest of the comparison — payload, stop density and depot charging — against your actual routes rather than an average.
