Mopeds with engines under 50cc and that have pedals are often treated differently than motorcycles but some states still require licensing and registration similar to a motorcycle.
An an American, I agree with your assessment. to me, Vespas and Mopeds are motorbikes. they burn gas.
Pedal assist ebikes are a new category to me, and I don't think any of the current rules make much sense for that.
I’m sure most American heads would explode if they ever saw how moped, scooter, small motorbike traffic mixed with cars in Southeast Asia.
This is a huge change from my first trip in 1999, when you had huge rivers of bike traffic, and gas powered non-car vehicles required special circumstances (a lot of the gas powered rickshaw drivers were ex military or handicapped). Because most Beijingers were never allowed to move to gas, they embraced electric pretty quickly.
That sounds very American. Don’t we have Vespa scooters and mopeds in the USA as well? There are plenty of bike formats between bicycle and motorbikes.
In China most e-bikes aren’t pedal assists and no one would ever claim they were car road worthy vehicles, they got bike lanes or the side of the road, and are not allowed on the ring road. American bike lanes seems to be recreational, whereas in other countries that are oriented much more at daily life and more heavily used.