Ebikes come in all sizes and prices and it's true that many are priced way up there and many are the $1500 range. If you really look into what's out there and start to price these bikes you will find that the biggest number of sales are in the $1000 to $1800 dollar range, not the $5000 range. It's like most things, dealer Mom and Pop bicycle shops are going to carry top quality bikes and have expensive parts in them, but like other products the online bikes offered are proving to be very good quality and many are imported and sold by dealers that are giving top service and you can actually pic up the phone and talk to someone. I purchased ours from RAD a Seattle based company and with top quality sales and service, they have some 30 employee. You might just go to YouTube and watch some RAD POWER BIKE videos, I think you might just get a good idea why they are number one in sales and service. https://www.radpowerbikes.com/pages/ebikes We got two very nice ebikes with top ratings, there are other online sellers that may be the same, it's pretty easy to ask and find the answers for a model you might consider a purchase. I would say before you purchase any ebike you spend a month or two finding out about ebikes, you will draw your own conclusion from your findings. Here is a very informative fourm for ebikes, it's the EBR Forum, https://electricbikereview.com/forum/
trainman