Penny. About electric bikes please

Kay, they are without any doubt one of the best investments we ever made. The ones we have are these. They cost about $1,500 when we bought them, but I think they've gone up a bit since then
www.e-bikesrus.com.au/products/uni-ryder-2/

They are pedal assisted - which means the motor kicks in as you pedal - but they also have a throttle control so you can use them without pedalling if you wish. This function is very useful when starting off - specially on a bit of a hill. There is one pretty steep hill on our ride and the pedal assist gets us up it with no effort at all, I haven't tried it on throttle alone.

There is a button to switch off the motor and I have used it a few times, but be aware the bikes are very heavy to push along without help from the motor.

I bought a wider, softer saddle for mine and we run the tyres at considerably lower pressure than recommended, which does shorten their lifespan a bit but makes the ride much gentler on the bum.

We like the step through style but you might find another type suits you better and of course the fold up ones are very useful if you want to take them anywhere in the car. We do a round trip of about 17ks on them and still have plenty of battery life left - you could probably travel up to 30ks in a single trip, but the makers warn not to completely flatten the batteries as it is not good for them and they are expensive to replace (about $500)

The best advise I can give is go and look at a few and try them out - we hired ebikes in Wellington during our cruise, but they were only pedal assisted and not well sprung which made them very uncomfortable to ride for any distance.

I hope this helps - if you need any more info just ask