Maintance is mentioned in the article, it said the thing could be repaired as easily as a bike. That is not the main problem i see though. I think that would be the battery which is prohibitively expensive if you go for cheap energy, and it can have low durability. Check price for a 100 ah battery for example. Additionally, a big Inverter is even more costly, so lighting yes, electrical heating gets more difficult?
The invention in his bike must have something to do with increased efficiency. 200 wh (for one hour) with relative ease was mentioned, which is more than the 75 wh for regular and 150 wh for a fit athlete that tries hard, which we find mentioned in the treads a lot. In another thread someone said "It looks like the bike has some sort of way to reduce the effort required to pedal, since he says it starts off hard but quickly becomes easier to pedal." So maybe a weighted wheel that maintains momentum easier?
I was actually hoping for a innovation on the generator part of the wheel, maybe with induction through many thin sheets with printed copper wire or piezo-nanotubes. Anyway, if that mechanical method were cheap enough i would have build one for myself already (but a bicycle mount alone is 100€, add car generator, charge controller, battery, cabling and inverter). I read about something like that in the book "Ready player One" first, and liked the idea that the protagonist was able to build that from scratch to power a small heater while he was hiding in a scrap yard. Liked that idea, maybe someone figured out how he did it? ;)
Back to topic, i think 200 wh would be reason enough to motivate lots of people to get extra exercize/get fit if the device were cheap enough. If you already had solar, it could help keep the battery healthy in winter with the addictional energy, the power generated would give a nice feedback reward for motivation through lighting and a little free power, and you would produce extra heating - /u/miyata_fan said you might get 800 W body heat out of the exercize. Article doesn't mention how cost will be reduced, so i'm rather sceptic.