Micro mobility is ripe for disruption. The only problem is that the current offerings are toys for rich people. Want an e bike? That will be >$700 on top of these absolute bottom shelf bike components. electric skateboard? North of $500, or an order of magnitude more expensive than a skateboard you push yourself. In a world where the vast majority of people balk at the idea of spending more than $200 on a regular bike, devices charging much more than that are not going to fly, and the lack of widespread adoption despite micromobility services having normalized their use in traffic demonstrates this; a $3 ride on a rinky dink scooter is a different prospect than spending $500 on your own poorly constructed scooter that you now have to watch like a hawk for theft, keep charged, and maintain. Especially if they are to be used, abused, stolen, and regularly replaced in cities, the costs are just too high for a lot of people to be comfortable making the switch.
Myself included, actually. I wanted to get an ebike so I wouldn't sweat on my rides to work, but after seeing the prices for even alibaba tier junk bikes, I just dropped the $400 I was hoping to spend for an ebike on a road bike with full ultegra components, and got in better shape.
I think the solution is to make e-bikes into full vehicles you can use for the majority of your transportation needs. I'm building an e-bike right now with a range of hopefully around 150-200km, using recycled batteries. Sadly, it would still be too expensive to build one with new batteries, but it's getting there.
That drastically changes the value proposition as you can use it to commute to work, to go on road trips, to get groceries, and so on.
I agree, but battery tech has a long way to go in weight and capacity to become the every vehicle, unless hot swapping stations become as widespread as bird scooters. When I was looking for a commuter, I was initially leaning e bike, but was disappointed at most ranges being <30 miles. I ended up just buying a road bike and getting in better shape so I don't sweat when I bike in to work.
Too bad you can't get them in the U.S.. Even the cheapest chinese e bike on amazon is like $500 with very cautionary reviews, and the more sane models start north of $700, for the no name dime a dozen chinese clones. None of the excellent xiaomi bikes either.
Myself included, actually. I wanted to get an ebike so I wouldn't sweat on my rides to work, but after seeing the prices for even alibaba tier junk bikes, I just dropped the $400 I was hoping to spend for an ebike on a road bike with full ultegra components, and got in better shape.