My wife has a cheapie electric bike with a hub motor and throttle. I bought it used with a bad battery about 5 years ago and bought a battery on eBay for a couple hundred dollars. That bike still works great but she was ready for an upgrade . I bought her an Electra Townie Go at the Trek shop with the Shimano internal geared hub and Bosch mid drive , no throttle. She loves it and claims it is much easier to ride for long distances and stronger on the hills. It has hydraulic disc front and rear brakes and seems to be built very well, much better than her old one.