IKEA to sell electric bike

It is ugly and expensive. Hopefully German research on super-capacitors will continue as early results are promising, with experimental units yielding performance close to that of the best lithium ion batteries. Capacitors will be cheaper, lighter and more compact than batteries. They'll also last considerably longer, without the progressive reduction in performance seen in batteries. Capacitors do require sophisticated electronics to make sure the flow of power is at a steady, continuous rate but that technology is available. Once capacitors come onto the market, the cost of electric vehicles of all types will plummet and that can only be good. I wouldn't buy an electric car or bicycle right now as the batteries are expensive and in five years or so, they'll likely be seen as a technological dead end and the resale value of anything powered by them will plummet.

Not that cheap if compared with other offerings in the market. I would stick to a bikeshop and enjoy after sales service at a location near my home.

It likely comes with a device that forces you to walk all the way around it before you can get on.

to expensive, wouldn't buy a bike from ikea and it looks terrible.

expensive and dreadful...like most leccy bikes...yikes...
and for the price of a really nice frame...errr mad

Bummer - looks like the front tyre on that folder is flat!

Industrial factory gate price for that battery will be just over £100.00 and it's dropping all the time.

All you need is a bit of volume on the size/shape/ rating and the price becomes reasonable.

batteries are generally good for a lot more than the stated recharge cycles, too

a bosch 400Wh battery costs about £500, so i'd expect the ikea one to be a fair bit less than that. if we say for sake of argument that it'll be £400 and it lasts 2 years – that's a worst-case scenario, for sure – that's £4 a week. £2 a week is probably close to the mark.

"...it is claimed that the battery is good for up to 500 recharge cycles..."

Let's imagine that the average commuter rides to work five times per week, and therefore recharges their electric bike five times a week. Might well be more, as you wouldn't expect to leave it unused at the weekend would you? So for the sake of a quick bit of arithmetic, let's stick to the five recharges per week.

500 cycles means a battery that is significantly impaired after 100 weeks. That is less than two years.

Could the manufacturers/retailers of such an ensemble possibly state how much replacement battery packs cost please? It would be quite helpful to know how much it costs to run. Having said that, it could easily be less than £2 per week.