Chalo said:
People who are really concerned about the state of the planet or the welfare of others ride real bikes. Just sayin'.
It's like polling folks about their choice or TVs based on their perception of energy efficiency. Conscious people simply don't have TVs.
E-bikes are chiefly a nerd fascination-- in this regard I count myself. Where it's not a nerd thing, it's only an expression of being too chicken-hearted to ride a real bike. That's an awesomely huge market, being the same people who drive cars. But it's a sorry bunch of folks to ask about their principles.
You're making assumptions that aren't necessarily true, though.
For one, I can't ride a regular bike far enough to be useful anymore--so it is either ebike or car. (or motorcycle or whatever; public transit doesnt' always go where I have to go).
I suppose being afraid of further injuring myself or experiencing massive pain would qualify me as being too "chicken-hearted" to ride a "real bike".
I have no wish to pollute (noise or gases or whatever) with a car or other ICE vehicle, so the ebike is the best and greenest alternative.
Even so, given my needs, and having experienced the power of ebikes, I would probably ride an ebike even if I could pedal, because I have never been strong enough or had enough endurance to haul the heavy loads I want (need) to be able to haul around on hills and such, or really long hauls, on just a pedal bike, regardless of gearing--especially since I need to be able to do it at some speed (much faster than walking).
If I was physically capable of it, I would certainly pedal a lot more than I do now, preferably as much as I used to when I biked everywhere.
But one needn't only ride a "real bike" (presuming you mean "pedal only" by that) to be "green". If one wanted to be "green" as far as using no (or less) technology goes, you'd need to walk around naked everywhere, to really be "green".
So given that we're really talking about degrees (shades?) of green, the ebikes are almost certainly more green than the most common alternative of cars or trucks to do the same work we can do with the ebikes. Pedal bikes might be greener than ebikes (depending on sources of the rider's food and calories you burn vs energy and sources of it used to charge the ebike, probably not). Ive never researched it myself, just read of other's research, such as that done by JustinLE.