The front chain ring hub is a free wheel component, similar to the hub of the rear wheel cluster. At first I thought I had a faulty hub, but after the replacement hub had the same problem and a bent axle was counted out, I just wanted to send the whole bike and kit back.
After consulting my local bike shop mechanic, he told me the wobble is apparently a common 'flaw' of cheaper free wheel hubs. He showed me a rear wheel hub on a cheap bike in his shop.
This means there is nothing I could do about this. eLation would not admit this issue, even on the video evidence I sent him (see below).
This component does not look good quality. Surprisingly, it is apparently made in Australia, not China.
The effect of the wobble
The wobble on each pedal revolution moves the chain a small but significant distance. The result of this was that when the chain was on the middle front chain ring and on the smallest rear chain ring, the wobble caused the chain to rub against the front derailleur shifter. One could not adjust the shifter any more to account for this, as then the chain would not change properly.
Apparently nothing can be done about this. It is a 'feature' of this kind of hub (the replacement hub provided by eLation had exactly the same problem - the axle was swapped and had no effect). This means the smallest rear cog could not be used unless you wanted to hear a scraping sound each pedal revolution - which would not be good for the life of the chain or derailleur shifter. The bike supplied with the system had a 9 cog cluster at the back (ie 27 speed bike). This wobble may not affect a bike with a smaller cog cluster.
Video of the wobble
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