Last year two of us spent some time worrying about making a better electric bike. The reasoning was that people were considering bikes with $4/gallon gas, but the prospect of a 10 mile commute might be too much for many. If they knew they had an assist to fall back on, perhaps more would be interested and they could gradually become stronger. Of course this ignores dangerous road conditions in many parts of the country, but it seemed like a good place to start.
We found that you either needed a conversion kit or a bike maker/partner. There are a few good kits on the market, but they tend to cost over $1500. We felt you had to be under $500 to have any chance at volume and hopefully less. We gave up as potential partners lost interest with falling gas prices. A MIT project looks promising if they can keep the quality up and the cost down. The trick is perfecting the design and getting it into production. A lot of small companies have failed. I'm interested in more details.
Full ebikes range from awful Chinese monsters that weigh over seventy pounds, very low quality construction and electricals and lead acid batteries. Almost any complete ebike for under $500 falls into this category. Prices go up and way up - to about $12000. You have to be very careful as some $3000 bikes are not designed as well as $2000 counterparts. Greg points to a list of a few noted by I.D. I'd have a slightly different list, but it gives a good starting point if you are interested. There is no reason why mass production couldn't produce an excellent ebike for under $1000. There is also no reason why regular bike riders would be interested - this is mostly a new market.
I'd rather see a focus on making roads safer for bikes, but only a few communities in the US consider this important. The potential benefits are great, but I recently learned some automotive lobbies are pushing back against using federal monies to improve bike safety. (not surprising ... what if one if 20 families found they could get rid of one of their cars?)
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