E-bike longevity

I've done about 12,000km's over the last 4 years on Shimano E-bikes.(boths E8000 and EP8)

Had one motor "failure" and it didn't really fail, it was just a bit noisier than normal so they swapped it out no problems.

Battery capacity (health) does dwindle slightly over the years, you can mitigate it by never storing the battery full or flat (in the middle is perfect) and keep it in a room that isn't freezing cold or boiling hot, literally common sense stuff.

I'd say they are reliable from my experience.

I can not speak to your other questions on wear and tear, but, as someone that has owned eMTB's since about 2014, I have practiced 'battery etiquette" basics, meaning, I NEVER leave the charger sitting on the bike-loading it up at 100%. If I do charge to 100% it is for a specific long ride and I will use it/ride it asap, as you never want a 100% battery just sitting around. I also never leave the bike sitting at 0% battery (drained)....if I am not riding the bike I prefer to let it sit around at 30/40% or so. These 2 basics have helped my bike batteries have zero issues in my decade of eMTB's. I have had some motor issues with different brands, not much, but my batteries have always been healthy and last a long time.

My ex boss, has a bunch of eMTB's in his garage, for buddies and what not...he always had them parked on chargers at 100% always "ready to go" and he had more issues than most. 

I’m three years in on a turbo Levo.  Practice no “battery etiquette”.  1000 miles/ 3 years.  100 percent batter health.  No motor issues other than re greasing and refitting connections.  

I tried to break a specialized kenevo for a year and a half…. Couldn’t do it. 
 

Only issues were:

noisy motor for a while- belt related?  It went away after a few months 

I think battery or motor overheating on super hot days and would cut power a little (full turbo and me killing myself going 20 mph up climbs) but would always go back to normal after a descent. 
 

knocked the battery connector loose on rocks once in a while

firmware needed updating and left me with no power on one ride. 
 

mechanical and electrical problems were surprisingly minimal 

Get one this season,  otherwise you’ll just be a year older when you do next year(warren miller).  Mkay?

2020 kenevo, still rallying with no ebike related issues (motor/battery). I haven't noticed my battery capacity decreasing either. No clue how many miles but a lot

echo stick's comments on my experience with emtb ownership.  My wife and I both have orbea rise's.  I've got 2,500 miles on mine in 18 months and my wife just under 1,000.  I am very attentive to how I treat the batteries and do it exactly like stick suggested and I have zero range degradation and issues overall.  I have had zero reliability issues with the motor, battery, firmware.  

I also do not hose wash my ebike, and wash it sparingly... this is not something unique to ebikes as I make it a point to only hose wash my mtb's a handful of times a year or when it's past the point of no return.  However, this is particularly important with emtb motors as water ingress and bearing destruction are some of the leading killers of these motors (some brands/models more than others).  

I have power washed mine plenty, and not cared about any sort of washing or submersion and mines been fine.. also have done 0 care on doing anything to the battery. ive stored it empty and full plenty and no issue

yeah all my buddies power wash/high pressure hose theirs, pointing it straight at motor etc. Their bikes also on charge 24/7

Again, the bikes just work.

They have to be designed around the everyday idiot/end consumer. I just wish the full powered 700Wh bikes were 5-7kg lighter. Wont be long.

I have bad luck it seems.  I've borrowed my friends e-bikes for trailwork, and both batteries have had what looks like the same issues.  Its something like 20% of the rides I've been on they broke.  Good thing both were close by and I didn't have a terrible exit.  

One specialized levo (3 years old) had an issue with the speed sensor reading and the motor would shut off.  Luckily this wasn't too far out.  Specialized replaced the battery.

This morning I borrowed my friends SC Bullet w EP8, and got a W101 code in 30 seconds which also looks like an issue with the speed sensor on the magnet.  TBD what the fix / warranty will be.  Last night it worked fine.  I just washed it with the cap on like I would any other bike. 

No idea how that happened on both.  But I guess I'm bad luck.  But they are sweet for trailwork!

I and all my bffs also have a superduber ebike, jet wash it everyday and the motor and batterylife are just as they were before.

Oh, and I bought it yesterday. /sarcasm off

Put 10,000 km into my first battery over 5 years, very bad etiquette the entire time: I was basically charging it to 100% most days and returning with 0% at least once a week.

Motor died after 4 years (Shimano e8000), had to pay for a new one, battery degraded about 10% which is what I expected.

I'd be more worried about the resale value than anything else, these things are way overpriced and no one wants to buy them used...

My 2021 ep8 motor died at 16 months and about 800 miles… no error code, dead as a doornail.  Luckily I was (barely) inside the warranty period and got a replacement (took about two months, but I still use and love my muscular bike so I wasn’t without wheels).  I shudder to think about the rage I’d have unleashed on the world if it had happened after hanging it up for the winter…out of warranty with so few miles, I’d have spit fire at Shimano and broken a window with that bricked motor. 
 

No battery lasts forever, and that’s something I’m prepared to replace sooner or later. 
 

personally, owning an ebike has convinced me to never buy an EV.  Too much electronics for the elements and today’s (everything outsourced) manufacturing could care less about long term quality.

adding: I lost the first two weeks of ride time because when I added the bottle cage, one of the bolts pinched the mainline cable from computer to motor.  

3+ year old kenevo. No issues. Batteries show 100% but I'm not sure I believe the mission control app.

No idea on mileage, never looked and only ever ridden in the bikepark.

I dont ride in the wet, not to preserve the bike, I just don't enjoy it.

Best bike I've ever owned and no plans to replace it.

It would be nice to see standardized motor and battery mounts so you could upgrade as things die

Isn't the motor ~4kg and the battery an additional 4 kg on top of that? If yes, the 'won't be long' scenario will gain you a kilo, maybe two, then there will be hardly any difference from there.

As for everyday idiot (also applicable for @RubberButter and the EV comments), seeing some requirements for an e-bike mid-drive motor and comparing it to any automotive requirements specification is like reading a fairy tale compared to a novel. It's a night and day difference in the lifetime, temperature range, IP rating (Bosch motors are rated to IP54???), etc. specification.

@Primoz everyday idiot your mother.  she probably feels exactly that every time you kiss her with those insulting lips… sheeezus, insulting someone for a stated opinion?  You? Aren’t you some sort of ambassador here? I could care less about sharing a comment, but this site needs them.  I know you’d love this place to be more like pinkbike, but I don’t comment in that dragshow anymore and this will be my last comment here.  Peace!
 

Brash mentioned that the motors should be designed to handle the every day idiot. You mentioned you're not going the EV way because of your ebike experience. I just mentioned that given what I've seen in the automotive industry requirements wise vs. what's been happening in the ebike space...

a) you're much safer buying an EV than an ebike failure wise (tread lightly when choosing said EV, tharr be dragons)

b) clearly ebikes aren't always built to handle every day idiots.

All clear now? 

I had a Merida e160, full powered e8000 and 504wh battery, fox 36, X2, DD tyres and it was 22kg. The bikes have only gotten heavier.

My new bike, a Norco Range VLT (720Wh) comes up with an Error on a park tool scale as it's somewhere over 28kg (limit of the scale) I am presuming it's 30kg!

So we've been there, somehow  we went backwards lol. I am not comparing apples to apples though, the merida was "external" battery, enclosing the battery in the frame is what adds a lot of weight I presume.

@Primoz Dude, stop.  I realise I'll going against my word by replying, but I'm in for one more.  A motor that can't be fixed with 800 miles on it is ridiculous and consumer fraud.  Motors have nothing to do with the intelligence of the person who turns it on.  Motors, by definition, are already stupid proof.  When they're on, they run. Real motors can run indefinitely, and fuel can be added while they're running. I've got 30 year old lawn mowers, scooters, and cars with motors containing few original parts, easily repaired by any kid who studied mechanics and stayed away from college, weed, and mountain biking.  

That expensive, limited, finite resource known as Lithium in your battery can't be recycled because it burns out and there is nothing left to recover, unlike the lead battery in a normal car.  To say you're safer buying an EV and than an ebike "failure wise" has no basis in reality and if this were an automobile forum there would already be thousands of examples to back it up.  You're way safer buying an ebike than an EV, if what you mean by safety is cost over time.  We've got people here with five years on their ebike?  That's what? 1000 average bucks a year for something nearing the end of it's lifespan (sure you can recover the suspension and components, but components an ebike do not make)...  that's the price of a season pass at a bike park and your travel costs.  The cheapest EV is about 40 grand.  That's about 8k /year for something that won't last much longer without a battery replacement (which you won't do, because it will cost upwards of 20k and the pasta won't be worth the sauce).  And everyday of its life it will be inoperable for at least half the day because it's charging. 

When I say the ebike showed me why I shouldn't buy an EV, it's not because I'm trying to compare apples to oranges.  It's because apples are apples and I've already seen a bricked motor with no hope of repair tied to a battery that is always consuming itself (even when it's off).  I can afford an ebike.  It provides enough benefit to me in the short term to justify the cost and I don't want or need to ride a bike for more than a couple of hours a day.  But, and this is my opinion and experience talking here, only an everyday idiot would buy an EV.  And only a jackass wanker would shame you into thinking otherwise. 

Back to the OP... buy an ebike if you want one and already own a decent muscular MTB.  Just don't expect to see that same ebike in your garage ten years from now with the original battery, nor the first replacement battery, nor even the original "motor".  

I love this thread.. and I hate every e-bike review that does not mention the durability and reparability of an e-bike.
Current Ebikes support makes me mad!!
Ebike is considerably different than MTB. Traditional bikes can be repaired and maintained in an inexpensive way for almost a lifetime. I can still find cheap original parts on eBay for my 1990 mtbs, it's also for the most part compatible with a decent amount of modern components.
E-bikes (the motor and battery) are made of components that are difficult or impossible to maintain, there is no public documentation, no third parties parts, and the right of repair (which is part of the mtb DNA) is pretty much ignored.

My Trek e-bike failed with a firmware error and neither Trek nor Bosh was allowed to troubleshoot and fix. They offered to replace the whole battery+display+motor for few thousand dollars (more than what I paid for the bike) or to put the bike in the trash and get a 10%off on a new bike... Such a wasteful approach!
I ended up fixing it myself by buying a new motor (a few hundred$) on the grey market from eBay Europe (In theory Bosh doesn't allow the motor to be sold this way) and the original motor could probably have been fixed by either switching an inexpensive chip of flashing the firmware. There was nothing wrong with 99% of the motor components)
E-bikes are hella fun but I feel most companies making them have no regard for sustainability and the right to repair, they just see it as an opportunity to skin captive customers.
It doesn't have to be this way! if you compare it with an electric skateboard  (same tech) where I can easily change my controller motherboard. swap motos, change the firmware or make a new battery back, The same goes with Dirt bikes.

For some reason, bike manufacturers and motor companies locked us in a closed ecosystem (same model than Apple or other electronic manufacturers) where there is no opportunity to modify, fix, maintain independently or used third-party components)

LET'S PASS RIGHT TO REPAIR LAWS