My e-bike, which was a little on the pricey side, cost me ~1000 USD new. 8000 USD is absurd, and over 1000 USD more than I originally paid for my current car (a 2010 VW). Hell, whenever they're on sale, VW UPs are pretty close to that price brand new.
There's nothing in this bike that makes it reasonable to price it like a small car.
If you're going to start comparing prices you have to take into account ongoing costs for maintenance, taxes, insurance and fuel. After 3-5 years of ownership those probably exceed the initial purchase cost of a car like that.
Comparing cars and bikes like this is pretty worthless, they're not meant to replace each other but to supplement each other. You don't go on a family road trip by bike, and you don't need to go shopping for toothpaste by car. And you certainly shouldn't use the bike to carry furniture hanging out like that.
On the other hand an $8000 bike, while it may work just fine for OP, is absolutely insane for most people out there. You can get the same functionality out of a <$2000 bike. Regardless, the way OP is using it is neither safe, not legal. I hope it was done just for the photo op and some Twitter likes but I would hate to be around that bike when one of those chairs fall off, or a gust of wind catches the payload like a sail, or simply ride past it and be forced to move further into the traffic or pedestrian lanes to go around Oversized Load here...
Of course. But a car is much more difficult to steal than an ebike and in the EU bike theft is so rampant that police doesn't even bother with them but take car theft a lot more seriously, not that anyone would bother stealing my 2014 Camry but if I would leave my ebike chained in the city overnight there's no guarantee I would still find it in the morning.
Bike theft is rampant here in the US too. My brother got his bike stolen after leaving it chained up in a city park for 15 minutes, and another one stolen after leaving it overnight in a bike garage. One of my old coworkers who bikes a lot said he has had 3 bikes stolen. That has really put me off to getting a bike to use in any big city.
>Love your ride so much you want to display it in the living room? Can't do that with a car :-D
You've clearly never seen houses of millionaires.
And anyway, I like my bike but since it's always full of dust from the streets or brake pads and even worse when it's raining why would I bring it in the living room, that's just crazy. My bike is tool to get me from A to B, not a hobby to spend my time tinkering with or cleaning every day.
