Unfortunately ebikes in the US are priced as if they’re some kind of luxury toy for silicon valley dorks. You could get an actual motorcycle for the price of a lot of ebikes here.
It’s similar to how a lot of electric cars are priced $50k and above, they’re not being made accessible for people, they’re still treated like a status novelty for the most part.
There’s a plethora of affordable ebikes available in the US. The Lectric Lite is $800, while the bigger and more utility oriented Lectric XP 3.0 is $1000. The Andsky S700 and Ride1up Portola compete with it at the same price.
You’re comparing the price of a high end cargo ebike which can do large grocery trips with a low end motorcycle that cannot carry remotely as much. I fail to see how even a high end cargo ebike which costs less than most cars is a status symbol or priced for “silicon valley dorks”.
If you want to find an ebike to simply take you from point A to point B, they can easily be found for nearly the price of a regular bicycle.
Some aren’t too bad. Juiced Bikes and Radpower bikes can be had (on sale, early spring) for as little as $1,100. Aventon sells e-road bikes for $1,000 on sale. Granted, you are gonna have to buy stuff like fenders for some. And right to repair for ebikes is pretty abysmal compared to normal bikes, brand dependent. But Radpower and Aventon have physical bike repair shops and partner shops, and Juiced has pretty standard components and a decent support window even outside of warranty (stuff like batteries being standard across almost the entire lineup, standard wheels, spokes, etc)
If we had stronger right to repair laws, and more cities and towns put in protected bike lanes, you really can travel 20+ miles pretty comfortably.
My abound was $1600 and has a load capacity of 440lbs, I try to always use it for errands within 5-10 miles or so. To be fair, adding racks and such was another few hundred.
Unfortunately ebikes in the US are priced as if they’re some kind of luxury toy for silicon valley dorks. You could get an actual motorcycle for the price of a lot of ebikes here.
It’s similar to how a lot of electric cars are priced $50k and above, they’re not being made accessible for people, they’re still treated like a status novelty for the most part.
There’s a plethora of affordable ebikes available in the US. The Lectric Lite is $800, while the bigger and more utility oriented Lectric XP 3.0 is $1000. The Andsky S700 and Ride1up Portola compete with it at the same price.
You’re comparing the price of a high end cargo ebike which can do large grocery trips with a low end motorcycle that cannot carry remotely as much. I fail to see how even a high end cargo ebike which costs less than most cars is a status symbol or priced for “silicon valley dorks”.
If you want to find an ebike to simply take you from point A to point B, they can easily be found for nearly the price of a regular bicycle.
Some aren’t too bad. Juiced Bikes and Radpower bikes can be had (on sale, early spring) for as little as $1,100. Aventon sells e-road bikes for $1,000 on sale. Granted, you are gonna have to buy stuff like fenders for some. And right to repair for ebikes is pretty abysmal compared to normal bikes, brand dependent. But Radpower and Aventon have physical bike repair shops and partner shops, and Juiced has pretty standard components and a decent support window even outside of warranty (stuff like batteries being standard across almost the entire lineup, standard wheels, spokes, etc)
If we had stronger right to repair laws, and more cities and towns put in protected bike lanes, you really can travel 20+ miles pretty comfortably.
My abound was $1600 and has a load capacity of 440lbs, I try to always use it for errands within 5-10 miles or so. To be fair, adding racks and such was another few hundred.