Electric Bikes - New to E Bikes

Hey everyone

I'm a college student who faces about a 4 mile commute to class, a few times a day. I currently use a giant cypress ds hybrid, and just recently started looking at e bike conversions.

1. Would my bike make a decent candidate to be converted to an e bike?

2. Are electric bikes usually pedal assisting? or do you not have to pedal at all?

3. Does electric power generally allow you to go faster? for longer? or both?

4. How do hub motors generally handle hills? My commute is one of flat streets and random extreme hills.

dude it's just 8 miles....
you'll be better off riding it yourself.
the work out will be good for you, and keep you fit.
from my point of view, if you are not riding any where near 20 miles one way, then its not worth it to get an Ebike upgrade.

Most Ebikes upgrades, are usually for pedal assist as you call it.

Depending on which ebike motor kit you get, it might be more suitable for certain tasks
like some are meant to power assist, some are designed for speed, but sucks in power.
I have yet to see one that does both.

As mentioned above, power assist are the ones for up climb, but not meant for speed
the ones meant for speed are not good at power assist for up hills.

4 miles each way is enough to build a sweat. And unless it's a typo, he did write "4 mile commute to class, a few times a DAY".

In my book, regardless of distance (that's practical for a bike), if you're using your bike for transportation, an electric is always a better way to go. Less sweat, less prep, heavier loads, bigger tires, faster trips, more trips, and safter trips.