Ha, interesting. I'm used to road-bike prices, and I also know what cargo bikes can cost, so when I read "ridiculously expensive", I imagined they cost like a cheap used car, not less than €1k... All depends on context.

Yes .. for me, it sounds expensive. A macbook is a rocket ship in terms of complexity vs. a bicycle. If copyright/patents went away, how cheap do you think you can produce a macbook? a folding bike?

This line of thinking is why everything was stupid expensive in the bay area (mattresses, bicycles, etc.) In Canada, I never paid more than 300 for a bicycle or more than 500 for a mattress. As OP said, I don't care if it is made in London, the price needs to be accessible to the masses for these things to solve our transport crisis.

Perhaps you're right that £850 is slightly below the ridiculous threshold (my recollection was that they were all £1000+). Though it seems that price omits arguably necessary features like mudguards.

> omits arguably necessary features

Like a macbook pro omits a headphone jack and ethernet ports?

Pretty sure they all still have a headphone jack. https://www.apple.com/uk/mac/compare/