Micah Toll

More people are shifting from car-focused lifestyles to a mix of cars and bikes—or even going mostly car-free. While switching to a bike or e-bike might seem limiting, the cycling industry offers a wide range of categories to suit various needs.

Take cargo e-bikes, for example. These are basically the SUVs or pickup trucks of the electric bike world. And having spent many good miles on the Xtracycle Hopper cargo e-bike, the newest offering from the most famous cargo bike maker in the US, I can tell you that this family truck in an e-bike form is capable of a lot more than many people would expect.

In what couldn’t have been more on-the-nose timing, a group of local California newspapers published an editorial on Christmas Eve calling for the end of a generous $2,000 voucher program intended to help low-income Californians afford electric bicycles for transportation.

Sixthreezero’s wide range of electric bike models includes some fairly out-there models, but the company’s new four-wheeled electric bike really charts a new direction in the industry. Take a look at the new ANYterrain Stabilized 4-wheel Electric Bike.

I’ve got a bit of a reputation for testing out some of the wildest, strangest, and most interesting non-car electric vehicles on the internet. In order to find many of these far-fetched electric steeds, all I have to do is pop open a few (dozen) Alibaba tabs in my browser and start window shopping through the world’s largest repository of creative EV engineering. That’s exactly how I found this week’s focus: a surprisingly fast and fun-looking suitcase that you can giddy-up and ride till the wheels fall off, which they very well might.

This week on Electrek’s Wheel-E podcast, we discuss the most popular news stories from the world of electric bikes and other nontraditional electric vehicles. This time that includes Priority Bicycles launching the new Priority Current Plus, Segway going big on e-bikes in the US, California kicking off its e-bike vouchers, NYC may try to put license plates on e-bikes, Micromobility America 2024 coverage, and more.

There’s nothing worse than a weak cargo e-bike that struggles on hills and under heavy loads. That’s why Heybike ensured the deck was stacked in riders’ favor when they built the Heybike Hauler electric cargo bike. With a 1,400W peak-rated motor and 28 mph speeds, it sounded ready to rock n’ roll. And now that I’ve been testing one out for a while, here are my thoughts on the latest budget-oriented yet high-power family e-bike.

California finally got its act together this month, rolling out an electric bike incentive program yesterday that had been in the works for years. But while the noble program was designed to help low-income riders afford a sustainable, independent form of longer-range transportation, it was exhausted in less than an hour and left many more people frustrated with its inaccessibility.

I’m a bit of a bike lock collector. After having my favorite e-bike stolen a few years ago (as well as several less favorite bikes stolen over the years), I’ve gotten much more serious about security. After testing the LITELOK X1, I can tell you that this lock is so overbuilt that I even use it on my electric scooters and motorcycles.

In a brazen operation pulled off by Ukrainian security forces, Russian Lt. Gen. Igor Anatolyevich Kirillov was assassinated in the Russian capital with what appears to be a weaponized electric kickscooter.

Last week, we shared the news of California’s long-awaited electric bicycle rebate program finally preparing to kick off in the Golden State. The rebate program opens to the public tomorrow, and here’s how you can try and snag up to $2,000 to buy your own e-bike.

Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing a wide range of products designed to help people make their lives easier, greener, and hopefully more fun, too. As the year winds to a close, here’s a look back on the reviews that viewers liked the most, voted on by your clicks. These are the e-bikes, e-motorcycles, and e-products whose reviews had the highest views of the year.

Get ready, New Yorkers. A new bill could soon extend the same car license plate and registration requirements to e-bikes in the largest city in the US. But despite ostensibly focusing on safety, some argue that the move is a misguided attempt to target marginalized communities.

My regular readers may remember that two years ago, I was winning so hard at life that I bought myself a brand-spankin’ new boat as a treat. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still on an independent journalist’s salary here though, so when I say that I had “boat money”, I mean I scraped together enough to buy a $1,000 electric boat directly from China. It’s now been two years since that Alibaba delivery, so let’s see how it’s held up and what it looks like now.

If you’ve been on the fence about getting one of JackRabbit’s quirky little micro e-bikes, then this is probably the best deal you’re ever going to find on a JackRabbit OG.

California has been attempting for years to roll out an incentive program for electric bicycles, with the project continuously delayed due to funding and mismanagement issues. Now we’ve finally received word that the long-awaited program is set to begin before the end of the year.

The Priority Current has spent years as the flagship electric bike produced by Manhattan-based Priority Bicycles. Now the company has just unveiled the next-generation model, known as the Priority Current Plus.

It retains a lot of what made the original such a success, including an extremely torquey mid-drive motor, Gates carbon belt drive, and Class 3 operation with speeds of up to 28 mph (45 km/h). But now there are also plenty of new features offered on the Current Plus – all without a price increase.

Segway is planting its e-bike flag in the US with a new dedicated electric bike team ahead of the upcoming launch of its two hotly anticipated long-range electric bicycle models, the Segway Xafari and Xyber.

If you’ve been hoping to snag a new Rad Power Bike electric bicycle for a discount – and if you happen to have another older e-bike to trade in – Upway has a deal for you. The electric bicycle marketplace known for selling used and overstock e-bikes at steep discounts has partnered with Rad Power Bikes to turn the brick-and-mortar RadRetail locations into physical trade-in points for older e-bikes.

Can-Am, a subsidiary of BRP (Bombardier Recreational Products), marked a significant milestone this week as its first electric motorcycle rolled off the production line.

Each year the Micromobility America conference meets in California to showcase the latest companies and advancements in the light electric vehicle world. The sister show to Micromobility Europe, this year’s North American conference moved to Southern California, bringing to Costa Mesa an array of just about every type of micromobility device you could imagine, from e-bikes, e-scooters and fully-fledged electric motorcycles to four-wheeled neighborhood electric vehicles.

While it’s hard to cover every single company from the show, we did our best to pull out as many highlights as possible. See them below, or watch the video for an up close and personal experience. Or both!

Today I bought an electric bike that I don’t need and that I will never ride. But this isn’t about me. It’s about the company that makes the bike. More specifically, it’s about how today, on Giving Tuesday, the e-bike company Lectric eBikes is setting an example not just for the entire e-bike industry, but for modern capitalism as a whole with a philanthropic program that speaks to the core of the company’s values.

It’s happened again – not long after Yamaha announced that it was ending sales of its electric bicycles in the North American market, now the Swiss e-bike maker Stromer is pulling out of the US and Canada.

This year’s shopping holidays are set to reveal some of the best electric bicycle and e-scooter sales we’ve ever seen thanks to the perfect storm of overstocked models, meeting year-end sales targets, and good ol’ relentless competition. The e-bike industry has been hammered for a couple of years now, and while that has put many companies in a squeeze, the upside is consumers are getting some of the best deals we’ve ever seen. With countless electric bicycle brands operating now in the US and even more models to choose from, here’s some help separating the wheat from the chaff.

This week on Electrek’s Wheel-E podcast, we discuss the most popular news stories from the world of electric bikes and other nontraditional electric vehicles. This time, that includes the launch of the Lectric XPeak 2.0 fat tire e-bike, Ride1Up’s Prodigy XC eMTB on super sale, a roundup of great e-biking gear, cheaper Zero motorcycles inbound, Husqvarna’s newest e-moto launch, Yadea shows off its scooters at EICMA, and more.