I haven't ridden one, but do have a friend who uses one on shorter group rides and seems to like it.
Personally though I agree. That's a lot of money for essentially an in town to in suburb bike.
The lighter e-scoots, & larger e-bikes do seem to be moving into the light in town/50cc market though.
There are scenarios where I'd pick one up, possibly swap one of my bikes for it to get the garage space, or if moving to a more apartment style urban dwelling floor space in the unit since there's 0 chance of them leaking oil.
Think I'd keep my smoke detector up to date, & make sure an electric rated fire extinguisher is charged and available just in case though. Not a huge number of battery issues out there, but enough to be prepared.
article is 3 years old and this is first I have heard..... if they really wanted to market, I'd have heard of it long before 2024