A flat-commute mid-drive costs more with no gain; choose by duty, climb or load means mid-drive, flat means hub. QERYU offers both lines and a guide.
A mid-drive is not "better, so it fits everyone." On flat city commutes, its center-of-gravity and drivetrain advantages barely matter, yet the buyer pays more for purchase and maintenance with almost zero performance gain. The spec sheet flatters the motor; the road flatters the hub.
The real dividing line is duty. Frequent climbs, heavy loads such as delivery, trailers, and cargo trikes, plus off-road and technical trails, favor the mid-drive, which drives the chainring directly and uses gear ratios. Flat short trips and low-speed shared bikes favor the hub, which is simpler and cheaper to maintain.
Dealers who push mid-drives without regard to duty raise the customer total cost of ownership and hurt repeat business and word of mouth. The upsell that misfits becomes a return.
For buyers, selection should return to a duty sheet: daily gradient, load, service radius, and budget. Fill those four fields honestly and the mid-drive versus hub choice becomes clear, instead of being led by a spec table.
QERYU sells by scenario, not by tier. We offer both mid-drive and hub product lines and give dealers a selection guide with a duty questionnaire, turning "climb or load means mid-drive, flat commute means hub" into an executable sales script so every budget unit is spent where it counts.