@rpbook Recycle a Batterie out of an (involuntarily) upcycled Tesla...

Unfortunately you are at the low end. Battery and Engine alone can work, if you have an existing bike to mount on. I've seen people selling conversion kits, but no detailed memories.

12 miles is rather low-end range. Default ebike range around here is 80 km.

@rpbook Anything that comes with a rack should be able to take panniers, however don't buy them (no matter how tempting!) until after you have the bike. Some pannier attachments can accommodate different sizes of metal tubing on the rack and you need to make sure you get ones that work with yours (eBikes often have much thicker tubing than a separately purchased rack would, the brand that makes my panniers sells two versions, one for racks with a diameter below a certain size and the other for ones above).

Also if it looks a lot like a traditional bike there is a very good chance you can add a rack as an aftermarket part.

@rpbook

I’m in the us I have a cannondale Tesoro. It’s great but might be pricey. It’s 4 years old and the battery is starting to lose lifespan.

I mistreated the battery by leaving it in my bike over winter in my garage which gets well below freezing, but battery life on a used bike should be a concern.

@rpbook

in that price range you'll get what you pay for... and it won't be great.

Avoid anything from halfords, their own bikes (carrera) are absolute garbage with controllers that fail after a few hundred miles.... I know, because I had 2 of them, first failed after 350 miles, they replaced it and 2nd one failed after 360 miles... then they tried to pull a load of bullshit to try and deny my consumer rights and I had to resort to a section 75 on the credit card to get my money back.

If you can afford a better budget, go for something with the Bosch mid drive system. The motor is in the pedal assembly and far superior to the hub motors fitted to wheels in the cheap (crappy) ones. Yamaha do a similar system, but I can only speak for the (fantastic) bosch one I have now.

I used to be the sort of person who would buy what was cheaper, I got burned far to many times... so now I buy the best I can afford without going for crazy expensive.

I ended up with a Haibike Trekking hybrid city bike for £1999 back in late 2023, aside from tweaking the chain and adjusting the gearing. It's been flawless, and the exact same framed bike from lapierre (both owned by Raleigh) had the lower power motor and smaller battery than the haibike, whilst costing £400 more. Mine was on sale reduced from £2699.

I can get 50-60 miles out of one charge, depending on hills. I've just done 30 miles in 2 trips this last week and have 52% battery left.

With a £600 budget, you'll either get a knackered bike, a cheap piece of crap (in my opinion) and probably some badly built cheap chinese knock off with a sketchy battery... and the probability of a lot of buyers remorse a little while down the road (just like I had buying from halfrauds).

I hope you get something good

I and others also post stuff (often pics) under the #EbikeRides tag too.

@rpbook

My main question would be - are you riding up hills? Are you carrying luggage? Bear in mind that Ebikes usually weigh much more than a normal bicycle, so add that weight to your own body weight and any luggage. The torque rating is most important when considering this. The battery capacity is less important if you aren't riding far and can charge regularly. However some Ebikes have batteries which aren't removable.

@rpbook I follow @EbikeNuggs; he has posted videos of ebikes he's reviewed. I don't know if what you want is available at your price point, but you may pick up tips or whatever that may help you in finding something to your liking.

Edit: he's based in Scotland so has bikes that are available here.

@rpbook I paid 600 EUR for mine new: it's a basic city bike with a front hub motor and a battery on the rear rack. Mine is branded Corwin and based on the Devron E-Bike system, but there are many like it under other brands and many of the parts are quite interchangeable.

The Achilles' heel of these bikes is very steep climbs. Because they have a cadence sensor rather than a torque sensor, if you're forced to slow down on the pedals the motor support also drops, just when you needed it most. Anything up to a moderate climb is absolutely fine though, the motor pulls well as long as the pedals are spinning.

The one thing I'd say against them is an unpowered bike with a wider range of gear ratios can do anything they can do, without the battery, controller and motor. My unpowered Winter bike is faster downhill and on flat ground and while it's slower up a moderate hill, it will make it (slowly!) up hills that will stop me on the E-Bike, just because it has 3x8 gears instead of just 7.

I like my E-Bike, but honestly, I don't think I would have bought it if I'd bought the winter bike first. 600 GBP would buy you a *really* nice used unpowered bike if that might do the job.

@rpbook My first thought is that's not enough money to buy a good e-bike, unfortunately. However, if you look at this page

https://road.cc/category/review-section/bikes/electric-bikes?min_price=0&max_price=1366&min_rating=1&max_rating=5&min_year=2015&max_year=2025&sort_bef_combine=created%20DESC

you can tweak the filters to around £1,200, and look at reviews in double your price range, then look for second-hand versions. But obviously run any used bike through stolen-bikes.co.uk, and if the seller refuses to give you the frame number then avoid like the plague. I presume you already have some good-quality heavy locks for if you need to leave your bike unattended?

@rpbook I’m really curious to see what advice you get, as last time I looked £600 was nowhere near enough.

I retrofitted an existing good quality bike for ~£700 a few years ago, fwiw.