"Messy look" while folded is quite irrelevant...

$1k... I predicted a while ago (before the economic woe) that you'd be looking at no less than $1.2k. Now, I think $1.5k is probably a minimum point.

Unfolded, it looks weird due to a snaky top tube. It snakes from left to right to accommodate the wheels when folded.

I suspect the reason why we haven't seen them properly is that small chainwheel problem. In the prototype in that pic, the chainwheel problem was insurmountable, so a small one was all they could fit in. The patent drawings also show a small chainwheel, so it would seem a very very tough problem.

With a Schlumpf and a SA-8, it's going to drag quite a bit. Plus the price would be $2k+... things could be simplified a bit by not making the BB a Schlumpf, but a fixed step-up. But the chain wear would be very quick indeed with sprockets that small. I hope they designed in a replaceable front sprocket.

I hope all these problems are/have been tackled and solved by a team of competent engineers, not the art students who came up with some of the more memorable "features" of Dahons of late.