Economy

and the lack of regulation, especially of cheap bikes imported from China and sold online through Amazon or others. https://www.consumerreports.org/health/electric-bikes/electric-bike-fires-and-lithium-ion-batteries-a4632489902/

I want an e-bike, and was tempted to get a less expensive one through Amazon because the better ones are pretty expensive, but after talking to people at bike shops and learning that the cheap ones have bad electronics that often fail and can't be easily repaired, and now finding out that lower-quality batteries are causing a lot of fires, maybe I'll bite the bullet, spend the money, and get one with a Panasonic or other name-brand battery where there is some quality control. The Consumer Reports article also discusses how the only agency that has any authority at all over e-bike quality is the CPSC, which is shamefully underfunded (due to the GOP, of course) and is basically toothless.