The bikes that are shipped directly from a factory in China are going to sell for less as there is no distributor or dealer and their markups between the factory and the customer. The flip side is that there is no one in your country with any skin in the game. To a degree these can become worthless with no warning if the controller or hub motor fails. In a few years there will be more options for getting replacement parts or even help with diagnosing problems and determining what part needs to be replaced.

What muddies the water for me is that the locally assembled bicycles are a year or more behind in performance of the bikes I can buy direct from China. This includes 1000W motors and mid-drive powered bikes and independent suspensions front and rear and 180mm hydraulic brakes without having to spend $5,000 or more. One is still having to go with a Porche or BMW level bike or a Yugo class bike. A concern of mine is that if I cannot repair the bike then it will end up as scrap to be hopefully recycled as much as possible. I do not buy anything that cannot be repaired either under warranty or out of warranty and for which replacement parts are not readily available.