# What are the emissions of an electric cargo bike for deliveries?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/electric-cargo-bike-last-mile-emissions

Only the charging electricity counts in use, at 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh. A cargo bike uses a few kWh a day, so a day's deliveries come to a few kg CO2, far below a diesel van. Building the battery and bike is Scope 3 Category 2.

## How to calculate

1. Charging kWh from a meter or charger log.
2. Times 0.710 gives kg CO2.
3. Divide by parcels delivered.

## Who reports it

If you own the bikes and pay for charging, it is your Scope 2. If a courier does the delivery, it sits in your Scope 3 transport.

## Illustrative: one bike, one day

- Charging: 3 kWh x 0.710 = 2.1 kg CO2
- Parcels delivered: 60
- About 35 g CO2 per parcel

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and diesel, LPG and gas invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a dated, fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record for each site. Intensity per unit uses the activity count you enter, and estimates are labelled as estimates.

- [EV deliveries are not zero](https://senseible.earth/answers/are-ev-deliveries-zero-emission-scope-3)
- [Diesel to electric van](https://senseible.earth/answers/diesel-to-electric-van-emissions-saving-india)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard), [CEA CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-database/?lang=en)

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.