Tern’s NYC delivery e-bike fleet crosses 1 million miles, with some bikes rolling past 30k

Urban e-bike maker Tern just hit a major milestone in one of the toughest proving grounds on the planet: New York City. The company announced that its fleet partners have now logged more than one million miles (1.6 million km) using Tern electric cargo bikes for commercial delivery work in the city – a figure that reflects not only enormous demand for e-bike logistics, but also the durability of the hardware behind it.

According to Tern, those same cargo bikes are now completing over 13 million deliveries per year in NYC, making the bright-vested riders pulling Carla Cargo trailers an increasingly familiar sight on Manhattan streets. Many of these rigs have been in near-continuous use since their rollout in 2021, sometimes operating 16 to 20 hours a day during peak periods. In the words of Steve Boyd, Tern’s North America GM, “These bikes get hammered, and they have the scars to prove it… but they’re engineered to keep on grinding away, mile after mile.”

Delivery vans, meet your match

One of the most striking takeaways is how closely e-cargo bike efficiency now mirrors that of traditional delivery vans. Tern reports that some fleets are pulling 300-pound (136 kg) loads and hitting 360 deliveries per day, averaging more than 22 deliveries per hour.

That puts these pedal-assist workhorses squarely in van territory – but with far lower operating costs, zero tailpipe emissions, and a much smaller footprint on crowded city streets. 

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NYC as the ultimate torture test

New York’s harsh winter freeze, summer heat, potholes, and relentless usage have turned the city into a stress test for every part of these bikes. Tern says that some individual units have already surpassed 30,000 miles (48,000 km) while remaining fully operational, with key components like frames and forks showing no failures. And unlike many purpose-built commercial machines that rely on proprietary parts, Tern emphasizes serviceability – most components can be maintained or replaced quickly using standard tools and off-the-shelf parts.

The Bosch motor systems powering the fleet have also held up under extreme use. According to the company, motor failures are rare, batteries continue delivering consistent performance well beyond their rated life, and Bosch’s service network has proven fast and reliable when issues do arise.  

Charging at scale – safely

Operating a fleet of cargo bikes in NYC means charging hundreds of batteries every day, often simultaneously. Tern highlights that long before New York mandated UL-certified e-bikes, the company already equipped its commercial bikes exclusively with UL 2849-certified Bosch systems. After hundreds of thousands of charge cycles in dense depot environments, Tern reports zero thermal incidents across the entire fleet.  

From delivery fleets to families

While these systems are clearly built to withstand commercial punishment, Tern notes that this is the same hardware sold through its consumer dealers. “Running sixteen hours a day and racking up more than ten thousand miles a year is exactly the kind of performance that shows we designed, tested, and built the bike right,” Boyd said.  

That’s huge, since generally speaking, we usually see commercial bikes produced separately from consumer models, but Tern applies its same high standards to all of its bikes.

Electrek’s Take

It’s hard to find a harsher testbed than NYC delivery work. If a cargo bike can survive 20-hour days hauling 300-pound loads over Manhattan potholes, it can survive your grocery runs. What we’re really seeing here is proof that commercial e-bike logistics are scaling, are durable, and are beating vans at their own game in dense cities.

Part of that is due to the advantages of the two-wheeled model, and part of it is due to the extremely high standards to which Tern produces its bikes. I definitely feel better than ever recommending these things when someone asks me about a bike built for the long term. Sure, you pay more. But you also get more.