Electric bike commuting – am I mad/will this work?

I’ve been thinking of doing this for a while. My commute is about 23 miles each way and not too hilly. I’d like to use the car less and increase fitness, at the moment I couldn’t contemplate riding the whole distance so I thought about getting an electric kit for the old hard tail. Initially it would need to do most of the work/assisting, I’m hoping that as I get fitter this will decrease quite a lot. I expect that I can charge a battery at work so the range required should only be about one way’s worth. Does anyone have experience of doing a similar thing? I’d also like the thing to reach a reasonable speed (appreciate theoretical max is 15 mph, not too fussed if it happened to go faster)and hopefully not too expensive. So it might be all a bit ambitious, but you never know…
Thoughts?

Car one way, ride back
Ride in, car back

Eventually do it both ways. 23 miles not too hilly is very doable if you don’t birch twig yourself too much about skipping a day here and there. Save the money for food, you’ll need it!

Thanks brassneck, that’s food for thought. Or maybe car part way and bike rest. Some more thinking to do..

I used to have a 60 mile commute and would drive most the way, then cycle the last 12 miles. Distance was mainly because the village I parked up in was familiar to me and I knew it was safe to leave my car there.
That worked well, but was quite time consuming.

Not sure about the converted e-bike type thing, but it should be perfectly doable to do 23 miles assisted each way.

Cheap e-bikes are pretty horrible I’m afraid.

THe mid-drive bikes are better, but expect to pay at least a grand for a good one if you buy new.

The electric assist help mostly when going up hills, so if your route is pretty flat you may not get much benefit. as they are speed limited.

As for fitting a kit to an existing bike, you really need a steel frame if you go for a hub motor, and you need to figure out a way to mount the battery also. This will probably get you the most bang per buck, but you need to be ready to fix any problems youself, they are far from fit and forget in my experience.

Don’t think I’m being overly negative, just be aware of the downsides before buying a kit. That said, they make the commute less of a chore and more of a pleasure, and it is satisfying when it all comes together and works as intended.

Copenhagen wheel ?