Most big motor names are fairly good with warranty claims. Issues can arise between retailer, bike brand and motor manufacturer especially when in different countries and that needs to be sorted out better. But the issue is that most warranties are only 2 years and for me, I intend to have a bike a lot longer than that. So what are my options then for repairs/replacement out of warranty? It can suddenly become very expensive.
The EU passed the 'Right To Repair" electronics law to prevent electronics going to landfill and Bosch, based in Germany, have got a lot better for third party repairs, less secretive/proprietory then in the past. Shimano are not good at all at this and motors with issues often end up as landfill instead of allowing people to repair, very disappointing of them. Spesh are very good at warranty repairs/replacements and offer discounts for replacement motors outside warranty and in the UK at least seem to provide parts to 3rd party repair shops. Yamaha motors are very good for home repairs or 3rd party repair shops, as befitting an engineering powerhouse the motors are robust and simple to repair. Best of lot for DIY repairs are Bafang and Polini the Italian brand well known for motorbikes & scooter motors. Polini actually provide lists and schematics of all motor parts for their EP-3+ range with parts numbered for easy reordering if something breaks and seem to encourage home repairs, probably as they are an old company and provide spares for motor scooters and motor bikes in Italy. But unfortunately not many bikes outside of Italy use their EP-3+ motor which is a shame and more bike brands should follow their example.
Fazua make great SL motors but unfortunately their reliability is always under question, I'm not sure why they have this problem, maybe because they are a small company. Mahle, a huge automotive company did/does have issues with their lightweight hub motors (these were originally made by a Spanish company ebikemotion which Mahle bought several years ago) but those issues seem to be mostly in the past now I think.
Brose had huge issues with the first or second generation of the Spesh Levo motor but sorted it. I'm seeing a lot of new comments about reliability issues with the new Levo motor and an issue with the warranty due to a backlog from Spesh or lack of replacement motors. Teething problems I guess, it being so new, but a real pisser if you just spent a lot of money on a new Levo.
DJI/Avinox seem to have very good reliability so far and decent warranty, but early days.
The only answer I think is to move to Norway which might be an extreme reaction - except that by law, Norway has a 5 year guarantee on ebike motors, ALL e bike motors. Now that is something that should be worldwide, after all the damn things cost enough, reliability & worry should not be an issue.
