>$8900 why

low production volume
high quality (I assume)
Bug chunk (1/2?) of the cost is the shell. They might have bought molds for that, which would not be cheap.

You can build yourself an electric recumbent trike for under half that (new). I rode one for a few months, it was not for me. Dangerous and slow to ride in a US city w/o much bike infrastructure. Recumbent looks good on paper; there are reasons besides the UCI that they're not ubiquitous.

File: 468dcbdfe9abbe5f85aafd79b0cb13be.png (145KB, 400x367px) Image search: [Google]

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>>1100378
>why
Because that's what hipsters can/will pay for it.

>>1100378
>$8900
You can buy a decent used car for that much. Without even looking, I'd bet you could buy a used Prius for that much.

I'd be annoyed if I had to dodge around one of these because it took up the entire width of a bike lane on a public street. I'd be even more annoyed if I had to dodge around it on a bike path -- and I'd consider reporting it to the Rangers if one was available to complain to.

>>1100378
> why
see
>>1100385

but
> you can build ...
After you have spend a few thousand bucks on tools, you can.
> slow
Seems you went for the wrong one.

>>1100403
>>1100408
You realize that cars are only cheap because they are mass-produced?

4-10k is the going price for most velomobiles

Although with 10k you get carbon fiber monocoque

Economy of scale

+

And inelastic demand

Even if somebody produced thousands and offered them for cheaper the demand wouldn't increase that much.

Let's say there are 200 people willing to pay 9000 dollars for it.
300 people willing to pay 2000 dollars for it.
400 willing to pay 800 dollars for it. (All numbers are made up)

It wouldn't make sense to offer it for cheaper.
Even if you could get costs down with mass production

>>1100408
8900 buys you way more than just a decent used car.

>You can build yourself an electric recumbent trike for under half that (new).
Yes.

You can buy one new from Aliexpress for less than 1500 euros.
Though I'm not sure how trustworthy those shops are. They do have a lot of good carbon frame sellers not much info on their trikes.
Anyway, you should be able to stay under 2000 euros with some smart shopping.


>>1100452
>You realize that cars are only cheap because they are mass-produced?
+ competition.

>>1100378
Kek I could get a solar-powered tuktuk for half that price

>>1100452
The Ebike conversion required... phillips screwdriver. hex wrench, adjustable wrench, cassette lockring tool, chain whip.

>Seems you went for the wrong one.
Yup, that was part of the problem
It was friend's, sat in garage unused, I thought I'd give it a try. Climbing geo would prob. be better for the city, though all else equal slower than an upright bike. Outside of city is another story.

>>1100378
I'd hate to see the annual cost of maintenance on this thing. Yikes.

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It's always a middle aged white guy that I've seen driving them. For some reason I always get a university prof vibe from them, same guys that convert their 1997 accord to an EV with 50mi of range. Saw this one last week.

>>1100680
Funny, you say you saw it last week, but the picture looks like taken 25 years ago.

>>1101745
Took it with my phone from across the parking lot, didn't want to be weird about it. Digital zoom + crop = potato.