Allow me to start by saying my BMW only met the BMW stealer floor once, and it was for a defective part replacement under warranty. Parts are cheaper (some) on general parts retailers and maintenance is not rocket science and can be carried out at home, if the passion is there of course. Not a brand known for giving it's owners headaches.
Electric is the future, no point arguing about that or refuse to embrace it.
The thing here is a strictly economic view over it. The cost of these things are ridiculous. I do understand it's a fairly new technology and as everything else it's expensive because R&D has not been balanced with sales. But to my wallet, considering the differences and ignoring wear parts (tyres, bulbs, etc), an electric vehicle takes forever to cost the same as a petrol one. Ok, the greenies say what they say. I'm not one of them, I'm not gonna save the planet on my own with all the Chinese factories polluting so we can have our expensive phones or whatever we think it's fancy to have. I'm not concerned about the environment in an hypocrite way, I have trees of my own on my property and plan on planting more. That's my environmental push and don't even try to judge me on that.
Noise wise, it's great to have a silent technology, I hate 2 stroke engines so much. Can't understand how it's still legal in Europe, probably because of the Italian 2 wheel industry which thrived on those nasty engines for decades. My opinion, ban 2 strokes immediately as some US states have done.
Smoke wise, don't even start me on that. I know many owners are the ones to blame for poorly maintained vehicles, others simply can't afford a not so old car/bike, but I can feel it when riding or even driving behind some older cars mainly.
I would, or will in the future, buy an electric bike, but I already have too many expensive toys I don't use, some will appreciate in value over time and I'm not incredibly concerned about cost vs use. A bike it's not the same. I have a 20 years old bike which worth nothing. When talking about 15k€+ better make sure it gets used to justify the cost, and I'm not using it enough to justify the investment, not even if it appreciates in value, as in 30 or 40 years, or more, doesn't make a difference for me.
