Any recommendations for electric bike brands?

[NannyR]

I'm thinking of selling my car as I no longer need it for commuting and might buy an e-books to use for localish town and city journeys. I've no idea where to start looking, ideally I wouldn't want to spend more than £1000, but might go up to £1500. Does anyone have a bike they are really happy with and can recommend? Are there any features I should look out for and any shops or websites that are worth looking at?
Thanks

Can you do it via a work cycle scheme? You’ll save the tax that way.

I've got a folding Dawes one. It cost me £450 from an online seller. That I originally thought was a bit dodgy. But was actually legitimate. It's a lovely bike and takes the hard graft out of hills.

I have a Liv which is great but was about 2.5k.

That's not a huge budget for an ebike, especially if it's going to replace your car. Do you need to transport kids and what types of trips will you be making? How long will they be and how hilly?

If you have a local bike shop that does ebikes, or can get to one, it's probably worth a trip. I can suggest a few in London if that's helpful.

I'd definitely use a cycle to work scheme if there's one available to you.

It's not going to replace the car as such, my new job is walking distance and weekend trips could be done on public transport, I just thought a bike might give me a bit more freedom and flexibility and be a good way to get fit. I don't have kids and don't have to transport shopping etc.
I'm in West Yorkshire, so nowhere near London unfortunately.

I have just bought a pedibal, it's a fold up e bike cost just under £1000. It does around 40 mile to a charge depending on how you use it. I live up a massive hill and it fly's up. It's pedal assisted and also throttle. So far I'm loving it

I have a swytch kit on my push bike. It's brilliant.

I've bought a swytch kit too and am getting a bike shop to fit it for me. Total cost will be about £600 but then I already had a bike!

Makes sense! In your position I'd consider a swytch as others have suggested, especially if you already have a decent bike you can fit it to.

I have a secondhand haibike and I love it

I have a swytch kit as well as my liv bike. I’d struggle to recommend swytch to be honest. First thing to look at is the range, if it’s enough for your commute then fair enough but the range isn’t great.

theyre on generation 3 now and the range on that is worse than a gen 2. My gen 2 range is about 20 miles on the flat. Customer service isn’t great, I’m on a fb group and loads of people with issues. People with faulty gen 2 kit getting told there’s no replacement or support for gen 2 now and they’ll just have to buy a gen 3.

I agree about the Swytch, it’s a clever idea but very much a halfway solution. Battery is low capacity and it involves all sorts of plastic bits cable tied to your bike. I am converted to e bikes though, it makes going places an absolute pleasure. My normal bike is a Specialized, I fancy a Turbo Vado when my current cycle to work scheme ends.
https://fb.watch/mmWbrk45xs/
There must be some secondhand ones around.

I've got swytch as well and wouldn't recommend them at all. The idea is good but my first jaunt on a fully charged battery led to the battery dying after about 10k of flat downs link. Very poor. But not as poor as their non existent customer service which is based in Eastern Europe and can only be contacted by email. I even questioned whether it was AI at one point as the replies were so nonsensical.

If this is going to be your primary form of transport I'd recommend getting the best that you can afford and saving a little more.