The pedals turn a generator that produces electricity that drives the motor on the rear hub. One need not be much of an engineer of any sort to count the points of efficiency lossiness in that system. This, versus chain drive which for all it’s maintenance and fiddliness, is still the most efficient drive for bicycles and motorcycles. Even if one is fine carrying the weight of a shaft drive (say, a BMW motorcycle), it isn’t as efficient. Who cares, on a 125 bhp motorcycle? You will care on that next steep hill you have to climb with this Rube Goldberg bicycle.
And how much does this weigh in comparison to a chain drive? I don’t want to piss on anyone’s idea, but the single selling point I see is not having to clean or replace a chain. Otherwise, I assume it weighs more, and isn’t as efficient. Throw me a bone here, what makes this better other than “no chain”?
If it's an electric bike, one might care a lot less than on a bike that runs on meat power only. You may consider the battery to be the primary energy source, and pedal power a supplement.
Which works until you are out of battery, and then you have a lot of extra weight to carry uphill with greatly reduced peddling efficiency. At that point why not just have an e-bike with no peddling at all? Saves weight, battery lasts longer, can still walk it up hills.
You don't worry about being out of battery on a Tesla, so why would you on an e-bike? Clearly you need to fit the drivetrain to the expected use case, but there are plenty of people who might ride the bicycle down the street to the grocerist, but would never even consider going on a ride lasting more than half an hour.
In some places, the pedals hold legal weight to mark it as an "e-bike" (legal) as opposed to a "motorcycle" (illegal without appropriate license, registration, insurance, tax, inspection etc).
> chain drive which for all it’s maintenance and fiddliness
Belt drives already solve this problem. A lot of single-speed e-bikes come in belt drives. Zero rust, zero maintenance, zero oily pants.
That being said, I don't know if anyone has managed to put gears on them yet and their gearing ratio tends to be really high.(power intensive). So, they might not be great as a non-electric bike on steep slopes. I ride my belt-drive ebike without charge on flat surfaces pretty comfortably though.
Belt drives are typically paired with internally-geared hubs (or even crank cases). While not providing as many gears, they can cover the same range of gearing. There's even brands of belt-drive mountain bikes out there, like Zerode.
And how much does this weigh in comparison to a chain drive? I don’t want to piss on anyone’s idea, but the single selling point I see is not having to clean or replace a chain. Otherwise, I assume it weighs more, and isn’t as efficient. Throw me a bone here, what makes this better other than “no chain”?