Personally, I hope the government here in Ontario bans the 175lb monstrosities such as the Veloteq. These things are neither a bicycle or a scooter, and have no business being on sidewalks or MUP's. They are also totally unsuitable and inappropriate for use on the road, as most riders I've seen on them haven't the slightest idea of how to ride in traffic, and most drivers don't know how to react to their presence on the road. They look like a motor scooter, but act like an inexperienced bicycle rider, which they usually are.
On the other hand, I own a Dahon Jetstream P8 fiitted with a Bionx 350 watt electric motor. Total weight is about 42 lbs, and can be pedaled like a regular bike. The power assist is dependent upon the amount of pressure applied to the pedals, so the harder I'm pedaling the more assist I get. It's like having an automatic turbo boost! It also has a thumb-operated throttle which can be used any time. It's great for getting ahead of traffic when pulling away from a red light, or getting up a steep hill while fighting a headwind while riding home after working the midnight shift! And the really cool thing about it is that most people don't even realize that it's an electric bike, unless they look really closely, or get passed by me doing 35 kph or more while riding perfectly upright with one hand!
So I would really like to see the "bicycle-type" e-bike promoted more, and see it as the perfect alternative to the automobile for most in-town commuting and errands. They are economical, environmentally friendly, and actually encourage the rider to pedal the bike while riding. Perhaps General Motors could include a free e-bike with every Yukon or Tahoe purchased, to improve both sales and gas mileage! After all, if you use the e-bike for 50% of your trips, you've just doubled your gas mileage!
On the other hand, (four fingers and a thumb), the scooter-style e-bikes such as the Veloteq are unsafe, and should be banned completely as soon as possible. There is no way the rider can actually pedal one of them, SO IT IS NOT A BIKE! There is no way a 175lb e-bike can stop anywhere near as quickly as a 45-50lb e-bike. And what's the point of putting all those useless plastic parts on a bike to make look like a motor scooter? Most cyclists want to LIGHTEN their bikes, or if they have to add extra weight, it had better be functional, like lights, racks, and fenders. The energy costs of manufacturing all that useless junk to make it look like a scooter can't be good for the environment either, let alone the energy penalty of having to move it and deplete the batteries sooner, too.
Furthermore, if a cyclist is going to ride on the road, in traffic, on a machine that looks like a motor scooter, and interact with other vehicles that assume that he/she is on a motor scooter, that rider better have all the skills and defensive driving abilities and awareness of a properly trained motorcycle rider. Riding a motorcycle in traffic requires a level of situational awareness an order of magnitude greater than driving a car. Since most car drivers are going to assume that you are on a real motor scooter, you'd damn well better behave like one, or face the penalties. I've ridden motorcycles from Alaska to the Cabot Trail, and I know what I'm talking about.
I realize I'm going to piss off a lot of e-bikers with this thread, but get over it. If you can't physically pedal a bicycle, and that's why you ride an e-bike, fine. You'd still be better off on a bicycle-style e-bike than a scooter-style one. You don't HAVE to pedal either kind, if you can't/don't want to. And if your disabilities prevent you from riding a regular bike, how in hell are you going to pedal a scooter-style e-bike home if you "run out of gas" (charge)? Which is easier to pick up if you drop it, (and you will), a 50lb bike, or a 175lb one? If you're riding on a MUP, (and I see them all the time) on an e-bike, and you collide with an ipod wearing jogger or dog walker, which is going to do more harm, the 50lb bike or the 175lb one?
So, yes I would love to see e-bikes become more popular, and see them as a partial solution to the coming ****-storm more commonly known as Peak Oil. That's why I bought mine just recently. I just don't see any use or need for the scooter-style e-bikes, and the sooner they are banned, the better.