Micah Toll

When I recently took a trip to China to see the world of electric micromobility, I was greeted with a wide range of personal electric vehicles. From e-bikes to e-scooters and even e-dirt bikes, I saw it all. But one of the most interesting examples, and clearly the most divergent from our own vehicles in the West, was what I saw while touring Wuzheng’s electric three-wheeler factory.

Polaris, which pushed hard into electric vehicles with its Polaris RANGER XP Kinetic electric UTV, has just announced the launch of a “first of its kind” off-road charging network in Michigan’s upper peninsula.

Kandi America, best known for its range of electric golf carts and eUTVs, has just unveiled three new electric go-karts designed for off-roading fun.

Los Angeles-based electric bike brand Hi-Power Cycles has announced the opening of a new “defense division” known as HPC Defense. To kick things off, they’ve unveiled an 80 mph (130 km/h) military electric bike as one of the division’s first products.

In a world where electric vehicles are becoming increasingly popular, it’s no surprise that the Tesla Model Y and Model 3 are the best-selling EVs in the United States. But what if I told you that the third best-selling electric vehicle in America isn’t a car at all? It’s actually an electric bike!

In what should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody, Lectric Ebikes has done it again. North America’s leading value e-bike brand has just unveiled another doozy, this time upgrading the popular XP Lite model with some serious value-added features. Meet the new Lectric XP Lite 2.0, complete with Gates carbon belt drive and hydraulic disc brakes.

Micromobility Europe, the euro-focused sister show of the Micromobility America conference, is one of the main industry-focused trade shows concentrating on a wide variety of small-format vehicles designed for personal mobility. That includes everything from e-bikes and e-scooters to golf carts and micro-cars. If it rolls, moves a few people, and doesn’t look like something you’d never want to park in a crowded city, it will probably be there.

For the next two days, June 5-6, the show is hitting Amsterdam to feature a range of new vehicles, a curated list of industry speakers, and more. It’s a veritable who’s who of industry titans from micromobility company CEOs to policy makers and industry analysts. And somehow they agreed to let me in, too!

If you’ve been in the market for an electric scooter, you’ve probably already seen Apollo’s name alongside the list of usual suspects. But while the brand is best known for its more expensive flagship models, the new Apollo Go was launched earlier this year to reach a budget-minded price that would appeal to more riders.

In yet another stop on Gogoro’s global rollout campaign, Colombia is coming online with Gogoro’s much-lauded battery-swapping electric scooter system.

MOD Bikes is a bit of a different type of electric bike maker, marching to the beat of its own drum, which helps the company stand out in a sea of newly released e-bikes. Look no further than the company’s popular sidecar electric bike or their own in-house designed street chargers for e-bikes. It’s obvious that MOD isn’t using the same playbook as everyone else.

But when I recently took a trip to Texas to visit the company and see their SXSW unveiling, my focus this time was on one of their more utility-based models: The newly released MOD Cargo electric bike.

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 a discussion with Lectric Ebikes’ CEO and co-founder Levi Conlow, a new ultra-affordable kit from Swytch Bike, McLaren’s new ‘high power’ electric mountain bikes, MOD Bikes unveils the updated Black adventure model, and more.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Momentum, a new brand of lifestyle e-bikes from Giant Group designed to deliver a full range of innovative electric, hybrid and city bikes with premium features, long assist ranges and sensor technologies that offer natural riding experiences that are both energy saving and fun.

Let’s just face it, America. We’ve got a weight problem. No, not that weight problem. It’s the size of the cars. The best-selling vehicles in the US are all of the biggest, heaviest, and most oversized models available. But it doesn’t have to be that way. A new crop of tiny electric cars is changing the game and offering options we’ve never had before. Err, actually, I probably shouldn’t call them “cars”.

New York City is on the brink of implementing congestion pricing, a bold move aimed at reducing traffic in Manhattan’s most congested areas. While this initiative promises to alleviate gridlock and generate funds for public transportation, it also means drivers will face additional costs to navigate through certain parts of the city. But what if I told you there’s a way to avoid these fees entirely?

On a recent trip to China, I visited a wide range of companies and factories in the micromobility industry. Many had big names and bigger reputations, but one company surprised me as a silent, relatively unheard-of force behind many of the biggest e-bike companies in the world.

Meet Lishui, the company you’ve probably never heard of but have almost certainly used their products.

MOD Bikes, the Austin, Texas-based e-bike maker with a flair for the unconventional, has just announced the newest addition to its electric bike lineup. The new MOD Black is the brand’s newly updated full-suspension electric bike, designed with adventures in mind.

Swytch, makers of the self-proclaimed “most affordable” electric bike conversion kits out there, announced its newest model this morning. The UK-based company’s new Swytch GO kit comes with a super low pre-order price of just £299 (or US $349 for North American customers), though there’s a bit of a catch.

McLaren, better known for its high-performance sports cars, has just announced a series of new electric bikes, including what the company calls the “World’s most powerful trail-legal” electric mountain bike.

As I peruse Alibaba for all sorts of fun and interesting electric vehicles, I often stumble across seemingly outlandish products that often have a real use case behind them. The best of those make it into the recurring Awesome Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column, and that’s precisely where this man-carrying drone lands today.

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 new e-bike battery regulations in China, 100% tariffs on EVs (and potentially e-bikes), a tour of Ride1Up’s e-bike factory, Pedego Moto review, Eli Zero electric microcar coming to the US, and more.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Momentum, a new brand of lifestyle e-bikes from Giant Group designed to deliver a full range of innovative electric, hybrid and city bikes with premium features, long assist ranges and sensor technologies that offer natural riding experiences that are both energy saving and fun.

I’ve been riding Ride1Up e-bikes since just about their first model. Over the many years since I first threw a leg over that bike, I’ve watched the company roll out an ever-increasing lineup of diverse e-bikes that all shared one common trend: great bang for your buck.

So when I was recently touring Asia to visit micromobility factories for a peek behind the curtain, I knew Ride1Up’s factory would be high on my list. They invited me out to join the company’s founder, Kevin Dugger, on a tour of the factory so I could see just how Ride1Up goes about ensuring they can keep the quality high and the prices low.

The Biden Administration announced sweeping new tariffs on imported goods from China, including increasing tariffs on electric vehicles from China. But will electric bicycles be impacted?

On a recent trip to China where I met with several micromobility companies, I was fortunate enough to spend an afternoon with the electric motorcycle maker Tromox. The team gave me the chance to be one of the first Westerners to ever take a test ride on Tromox’s new MC10 TrailX.

Ahead of the bike’s upcoming US market release, I can already tell you that this thing is a blast to ride and is likely to send shockwaves through the Sur Ron and Talaria communities for its combination of performance and packaging, offering high power riding in a small-format bike.

Ride1Up announced the launch of its original Revv1 electric moped-style bike back in early 2023, spearheading the brand’s expansion into a wider range of e-bike models. The powerful bike was a shot across the bow of major brands like SUPER73, offering high-performance riding and moto-inspired styling for a more affordable price. Now the company is back with the first major redesign to the bike, offering the Revv1 DRT for off-road adventures.

It’s true: cargo e-bikes are replacing trucks and vans for city deliveries like we’ve never seen before. With an ever-increasing push towards removing those heavy vehicles from our roads, larger electric cargo bikes are starting to pop up, offering to handle more of the loads typically seen carried by trucks. The new Cityshuttle ePack4 is the latest, and perhaps the biggest, to grace the streets.