I'm probably gonna buy an e-bike soon, mostly as a way to shield myself from fuel shortages in the near future and ensure a certain degree of mobility, probably will use it for occasional sport too. Also there's juicy subsidies right now so it's the perfect moment (for context I live in Spain).
Unfortunately, capitalism will capitalism and most e-bikes come with the integrated battery in the chasis, of which I'm 90% certain there's no standard among manufacturers, and even many of the pedal-type motors run with proprietary wiring and even protocols that only allow certain batteries to be installed.
Given this, I'd like to shield myself from this (and also increase repairability) by purchasing a bike with a normal battery outside the chassis, something like the Zazawork CF29:
These e-bikes feature the non-proprietary generic batteries and hub motors that increase repairability and don't keep you forced to an ecosystem that you're not sure will have replacements in 5 years.
However, these batteries are also much easier to steal, and they're not cheap to replace. I can mitigate this to a degree installing an alarm on the battery, but idk if that's enough. My use case isn't the bike sleeping on the street overnight, but rather being able to leave the bike worry-free for some hours during the day if I go to, say, the cinema, or something akin of duration.
What do y'all think?
whatever bike you get, just get one with a removable battery so you can take it with you.
you should look at bikes that are easy to service and repair, sure, but not everything is easy to do and you should also look at bike repair shops near you to see what they can or can't fix. also repairability isn't just a factor of closed vs open systems, I would say that it's a function of popularity like Bosch or Bafang are probably the most common motors so there's likely a lot of documentation and shops willing to work on those. I'm not sure about batteries but I wouldn't get a shit bike just bc the generic battery is repairable. a more expensive bike will likely have better components (like brakes, saddle, pedals, handlebar, etc) and be potentially lighter vs a no-name brand.
That 400€ might mean you buy it in person from a shop and it has a warranty that can actually take care of issues if they come up.