If space is a concern, I recommend Tern’s Quick Haul. Tern Bicycles makes some of our favorite electric bikes, including the GSD S00 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) that I bought for myself. Their latest Quick Haul forges a good compromise between reliability, utility, and cost. For example, instead of a carbon belt drive, it has a standard chain drivetrain on a derailleur (still powered by a Bosch Performance Sport motor!), which requires only slightly more maintenance than a belt drive. Also, the front fork doesn’t fold, which makes it a little more difficult to transport and store.
However, in all of the important ways, it feels like a Tern—small but still a surprisingly powerful and capable cargo ebike. I can fit it in my car. I took my 40-pound 5-year-old to and from school every day on this bike for two weeks, and both of us loved how much faster and more maneuverable it is. The riding position is much sportier than the sit-up position on the GSD and HSD. It’s also less than 6 feet long—shorter than the average road bike. This is the bike you get if you have space and money for only one bike that won’t be out of place commuting to work as well as picking up groceries at the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings.
★ Alternatives: A tiny cargo bike is my kryptonite; I will always be seduced by the promise of convenient city compactness. A slightly pricier option is the Tern HSD (9/10, WIRED Recommends), which has the upgraded belt drive and internal hub.
The pricier option still is the R&M Tinker2 ($5,799), which I recently had the opportunity to take for a day trip around Austin, Texas. It’s tiny, but comes with all the goodies—an Enviolo hub and a Bosch 545-Wh Powerpack and Intuvia display. It was awesomely maneuverable around the crowds at the waterfront and let me clock up to 18 mph when I took too many pictures and lost the rest of my group. I still think about this bike daily.