Absolutely this; I'd go out on a limb here and say the C5 was a technological masterpiece of the time, the range and speed is equal to modern mid-range e-scoote

Absolutely this; I'd go out on a limb here and say the C5 was a technological masterpiece of the time, the range and speed is equal to modern mid-range e-scooters that use far more powerful lithium batteries and far more efficient motors and control electronics, technologically it was fully there. What wasn't there was the market, it was really the only well known vehicle of it's class, so without anything else for people to compare it to, they compared it to cars and motorbikes which of course it pales against. As for the "you can't really peddle it", I have no idea where that came from, I've so far only used it with peddles and it was absolutely fine, not great, not terrible either, just a heavyish fixed gear bike.