I randomly happened to see that NAF ("Norway's Auto Union" - Norges Automobil Forbund) reviewed some cargo trikes a couple years back. (naf.no) I am apparently a bit slow on these things. Its written in Norwegian, so maybe not super useful to most of the inhabitants of this fine planet. I thought however that I could comment.
(One of those moments where I speak into the vast uncaring void of the internet.)
They rated Nihola as OK. I note in particular three points: (1) stability wasn't great, (2) the electric motor was a bit eager, and (3) they seemed to want child heads to be entirely enclosed in walls.
- Stability - I can totally believe it. A Nihola with an empty box is a bit tippy, especially for a new rider. Then add a heavy battery directly over the rear wheel, the most tippy place, and its not going to help matters.
- The electric motor - Yeah, you have derailleur gears on your heavy e-trike (or a heavy e-bike) and one way to make it do something when you're stopped in the wrong gear, which seems likely to happen, is to make the motor super excitable. (Just guessing thats what happened.)
- Kids need walls - My kids got to look around and feel wind in their hair, they did not cycle around in a bunker. The roof usually stayed at home (or at least under the seat). In any case, kids sit inside an elbow-high steel cage, that has to be good enough. Better than any grown cyclist. (Note also that it gets a lot harder to tip the thing with passengers up front.)
On points #1 and #2, what I think is that too many people are choosing e-trikes based on perceived needs, and getting a worse experience for it. Sure you can zip right along, but these things are best slow anyway. You get a less stable, more jumpy, more expensive, heavier, more tempting theft target, that is more likely to break. Just go with a Nexus 8 hub and feel the zen.
Obviously though, trends, culture, and ideas stampede onwards without much concern for making sense. I spent many hours in Copenhagen this past summer, saw a bunch of e-trikes with those derailleur gears. Almost totally flat city, a hive of hub gears, considerable tradition of not-electric bikes/trikes, and boom there are lots of people choosing derailleur-gear e-trikes. (Screams at the internet.)
