Originally Posted by
shepherdsflock
I don't see any reason the average person, even a "green" person, would choose this over a regular car. People drive cars instead of bikes primarily for the following reasons: speed (try going 70 mph in this thing!), passenger and cargo capacity (you're not going to haul your wife and kids around in this thing), comfort from the elements (no heater or air conditioning in this thing), range (you can easily travel hundreds of miles in a matter of hours with a car, you'd be lucky to make it a dozen miles with this thing before you were exhausted) and ease (let's face it, people are naturally lazy and want to find the easiest way to move around with the least amount of effort). This thing doesn't meet any of those points (though you might be able to make a weak argument for the effort part, since it does have an electric assist motor).
But for most people commuting to and from work, you don't really HAVE to have things like speed, passenger or cargo capacity (not much of it anyway), or range. Comfort from the elements would be better than a regular bike since at least there's a roof and wind screen. Add a coat and minimal rain gear if it's cold or wet. And then ease, well the electric assist provides the ease to get up hills.