> No idea what the author means with "lacking a Toyota Corolla equivalent". (E-)Bikes come in wide range of price and range, often from the same manufacturer. It's the components that dictate the final price, barely the frame, motor or battery where less choice exists than with the other components.
If I had to guess, It's that a lot of the US e-bikes seem to fall either into the category of being marketed to various existing known US rider segments. But those segments are people that care about the gear on the bike, they might care bout tweaking and playing with it, etc etc. Lets pretend those companies (like Specialized) are playing Buick and Lincoln in the E-Bike segment.
We also have all these really cheap e-bikes on Amazon. These are (at least, perception wise) typically playing in the 1990s PentaStar and 1990s Kia segment. In other words, they're cheaper, but there's this expectation that you'll have to fix things more often and there's definitely some annoying cheap-outs in places.
A Corolla e-bike, would basically be a boring piece of wonderbread. It would probably be best packaged as a 700c Wide tire hybrid or 26" with 1.5" city/gravel-worthy tires. It would have simple, reliable components. If it had shimano parts, I'd hope that most of them would have part numbers starting with a 3 (IIRC that would put it around Altus-ish level?) Double Wall rims (I don't think you'd even want to try otherwise on an american e-bike) and just say 'f it', go 36 spoke and 4 cross if you can manage.
In other words, Boring and reliable, marketed that way. Maybe it -does- exist but I haven't seen it yet in my searches (that's more or less what I'd want, frankly)
> We will though see ABS from Bosch soon, not sure if that's such a good idea or even necessary at the low speeds of a <20mph ebike.
If I had to guess, this is because lots of casual folks want disc brakes on a bike, but don't know how to use them properly, because unfortunately a lot of folks in this country remember trying to stop on their parent's Schwinns with worn out rubber, nearly frictionless chrome wheels, and turkey wing bar-levers; AKA their first reflex is to clench the brakes and they're very likely to endo.
Doesn't help that in the US we have a strange litigious relationship with Cycling, there have been some pretty interesting lawsuits over the decades due to safety complaints. Johnson v. Derby would be a specific one that comes to mind. The lawsuit that nearly bankrupted the shop I once worked at (effectively did cripple it to a slow death/change in ownership) is another.
> This is probably the US-centric view, but with a certain threshold of cyclists the wide middle of bike sales is practical bikes for short rides in the city with a hub dynamo a basket or rack for you shopping. Certainly not toys or sporty bikes.
Yeah, US Centric, somewhat because the majority our cities are designed around cars. This is why we talk a lot about things like 'food poverty,' because there are cities where the lack of a car makes it nearly impossible for folks to get food (Short of walking to the local 'convenience store' that charges markups and has limited selection.) Ironically, E-Bikes could help in some of these situations, but it still requires a bit of a paradigm shift.
Which is a shame. I got into riding in college, and I did at least as much riding for 'work/shopping/etc' as I did for pleasure. Heck of the thousands of miles my mountain bike has logged, probably 50 of it has been 'trails'. But I'm in a minority.