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That was what I thought. Hence my original statement.
No point in 105 di2, all the money is in the electronic gubbins so it couldn't be much cheaper than ultegra
leggy_blonde-
I suspect they could do it very cheaply. As you say, the components cost pennies and the designs are done. They could just cut some costs on materials and finish and do it really cheap but there's no incentive to when people are still paying for ultegra.
The initial cost of development was high and so prices are still high to cover that, backdated. But that's just because customers are still willing to pay it.
TLDR: the reason it is expensive is because it was costly to develop. They could now do it cheaper but there's no incentive for them to do so
PhilDAS
They will have designed the circuitry around that motor, its control algorithms, the communication protocol, etc. The components cost pennies, the electrical engineers who make them work together not so much.