I made a post a few days ago that was a little more general in scope and I received some helpful responses which I am grateful for. Since then, I visited my local bike shop and asked them a ton of questions, in addition to test riding 2 ebikes: the 750W XP4 and a Velotric Tempo. While I did have a lot of fun on the Tempo, I'm going to have to stick with the XP4 due to reasons (but I'm fine with it, it's a good budget bike). Anyway, there's only one choice I still have to make: 750W or 500W. The 750W is $300 more and at the very top of my budget so that's why I want to be sure of this decision.

My needs:

* Commute to work 4 miles each way (8 miles total) 3 days per week, haul groceries occasionally from one of the 2 stores 1.5 miles away, occasionally longer trips. I don't have a car at the moment, although I do have access to a car I can borrow from time to time, so it's definitely possible I'll want to go a longer distance sometimes.

* I'll mostly be in the city/suburbs, but I might occasionally go off-road onto some gravel or grass.

* Where I live there are some "rolling hills" so they have mostly gradual slopes but occasionally they can be steep-ish. With some flat stretches in between.

* I'm a large rider (250 pounds) so I need something that can support my weight well with groceries in tow.

The 750W:

* Has longer range, but that won't necessarily come up too often where I really need that range.

* Has a more powerful motor and more torque. The guy I spoke to at my local bike shop thinks this is the big reason to go for the 750W version of this model specifically. He said a lower wattage bike can be just as good if it's tuned for torque, but the 500W version of this model isn't, which is especially useful for such a heavy bike.

* Better at climbing hills/starting from a stop. And I'm out of shape. Idk how bad the 500W would be because I didn’t get a chance to try it, but I don't wanna regret buying it if it's way more work on hills.

* Since I'd possibly be pushing near to the weight limit between myself + cargo, 750W might be less strained?

* Comes with the LevelUp Rack (like the 500W), suspension seat post (yay!), elite headlight (meh), bike lock (meh), phone mount (seems kinda low quality but I needed one anyway so I guess I'll use it for now), and maybe a comfort seat? I think it probably won't come with the comfort seat because I think the images in the listing are wrong. (I'm buying from Best Buy.) I’d probably wanna replace the comfort seat eventually but it could at least prolong my need to buy another seat.

The 500W:

* Is $300 cheaper.

* The range would be sufficient *most* of the time.

* Is technically still rated for 80 pounds more than my weight.

* Doesn’t come with any accessories I don't need but I'd still need to buy a suspension seat post and phone mount right away. And maybe a better seat too.

* Maybe I'm being overly worried about all my previously mentioned concerns and it would be good enough.

So which one would you guys go for in my situation?

A lower stakes bonus question: blue or white?

Thanks. 🙏