Micah Toll

Panning for gold in Alibaba’s electric vehicle catalog is bound to find some real doozies, such as this week’s Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week. Meet this fun little purple three-wheeled electric car that barely manages to fulfill the requirements of a car.

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 prospect of electric bike licenses in California and e-bike insurance in New Jersey, Dutch police doing roadside compliance checks, new e-bike from Tern, new battery from JackRabbit, battery-swapping for electric motorcycles from Africa, and more.

The Phoenix-based electric bike brand Lectric Ebikes is known for rolling out some of the best bang-for-your-buck electric bicycles in the US. Time after time, the company has entered new markets and broken ground with high-performing, low-cost e-bikes that send the competition into panic. And the $1,299 Lectric XPeak might just be the best example of that high-value game plan yet.

If you’re already familiar with Tern, then it’s likely from the company’s critically-acclaimed urban cargo e-bikes, often see in cities shuttling children to school behind parents or whisking home an entire family’s grocery load. But now the premium electric bike maker is tackling an entirely new market and heading off-road with its latest unveiling: the Tern Orox adventure cargo e-bike.

Believe it or not, electric bikes offer more exercise than pedal bikes on average. That fact might sound strange (and has been known to let the steam out of some fitness riders’ lycra outfits), but the science is clear. Now let’s talk about the “how” and “why”.

Battery swapping for electric motorbikes isn’t new technology, but its adoption rate has proven to be remarkably inconsistent around the world. One of the biggest surprises recently has been one of the places where such technology has grown rapidly: Africa.

There are precious few things that car drivers and cyclists can agree upon when it comes to cities, but one universal concept seems to be the hatred of massive box trucks clogging up streets and bike lanes. Could this miniature version of a box truck built on a golf cart frame be the answer?

It’s been a rough week for anyone who enjoys the freedom of riding e-bikes without undue state-applied hassle and burden. The latest news sure to disappoint electric bike riders and proponents of reduced car usage comes from the Garden State, where a pending New Jersey bill seeks to require e-bike riders to register their bikes and carry liability insurance.

The JackRabbit electric micro bike is as divisive as it is diminutive, which is to say, “very.” But one thing just got a lot less micro on this pint-sized commuter. The company has just unveiled its RangeBuster battery, which has nearly 250% of the capacity of an original JackRabbit battery.

Electric surfboards and hydrofoil boards are some of the most fun you can have on the water, but their high prices have often limited their reach to those with boat money. Today, Fliteboard announced a new line of lower-cost models known as the Flite AIR to help make electric surfboards more accessible to a broader market.

Getting a company car used to be a major perk of a new job, but times are changing. As more young adults flock to electric bikes for their advantages over car travel in cities, companies are now making their own changes to reflect those shifting transportation habits.

Polaris is following up on its all-electric RANGER XP Kinetic with another electric UTV, this time for its commercial line. The Pro XD Full-Size Kinetic utility vehicle from Polaris Commercial is poised to bring the heavy-hitting power and performance of electric drive to just about any tasks that operators could imagine. And if it’s anything like the electric RANGER XP Kinetic I tested, it’s going to overdeliver with some serious power and performance.

Dutch police have a new weapon in their battle against high-speed and high-power electric bicycles: a roadside testing platform to catch hot-rodded e-bikes.

Electric bike riders in California who don’t already hold a traditional car driver’s license may soon have a new option (or requirement) on their hands: an electric bike license.

Electric boating is and exciting and growing industry, but the high price of most well-known electric boats has kept them out of reach for most of us. Get ready though, as a new wave of innovation is seeing several new low-cost electric boats starting to enter the US market. Here’s a collection of some of the most interesting and affordable electric boats for those of us without big boat money.

It seems like every new electric vehicle unveiling now starts with showing off a new ‘skateboard’ design, or the chassis of the vehicle that houses everything it needs to make it run. The motors, controllers, batteries, and everything else is usually built into a flat deck connected to the wheels, meaning the rest of the vehicle is basically just bolted on top. The engineer in me always thought it’d be fun to have just the bare skateboard, meaning you could go wild with your ideas of what to put on top. As it turns out, China already had that idea.

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 launches from Trek and Sixthreezero, a potential e-bike regulation bill in Congress, a new Gogoro electric scooter, CAKE’s bankruptcy, e-motorcycles going for a swim, and more.

LiveWire, the all-electric motorcycle brand spun out of Harley-Davidson, is shaping itself into a force to be reckoned with in the still-evolving electric motorcycle industry. The company brings an interesting mix of high-tech startup energy and a lumbering century-old motorcycle legacy that results in both an impressive (and growing) range of electric motorcycles but also a series of growing pains. And I got to experience all of it as the proud new owner of a shiny indigo LiveWire S2 Del Mar Launch Edition electric motorcycle.

As Californians brace for record-setting rain and flooding in many areas, drivers are forced to be extra cautious on flooded roadways. In what may be a first for this particular bike though, we’re getting a look at a Ryvid Anthem electric motorcycle that was ridden battery-deep through flood waters and lived to ride back out.

The entire exercise underscores just how waterproof electric motorcycles can be, even riding underwater.

You may be more familiar with Apollo’s fancier electric scooters, which the Canadian company has designed largely from the ground up, eschewing traditional industry practices of compiling a hodge-podge of off-the-shelf parts. But the company’s newest model, the Apollo Go, is shedding some serious poundage in an attempt to become the best portable, entry-level scooter that still packs a punch.

Some things are constant in the universe. Entropy always tends towards disorder. Taxes always come around. And any article I write about electric trikes invariably draws out all the armchair automotive engineers who chime in with the well-practiced “they should just put the two wheels in the front because it’s more stable!” comments.

Well here you go, everyone. The bicycle company Sixthreezero has done it. Meet the creatively named Sixthreezero Two Front Wheel Electric Bike.

This one style of vehicle is known by many names. In India, it’s an auto rickshaw. In Thailand, a tuk-tuk (a fun onomatopoeia that arose from the traditionally loud two-stroke engines powering them). But whatever it’s called, these three-wheeled taxis have used their half-bike, half-wagon design to shuttle folks around cities for decades. And now, a new era of rickshaws is seeing electric drives enabling interesting new designs.

Today, Trek announced its newest electric mountain bike, the Trek Marlin+. Not only is it an interesting electric hardtail MTB in its own right, but it also offers one of the most affordable Bosch-powered mid-drives on the market.

Hovercrafts are the platypus of the transportation world, borrowing parts and principles from wildly divergent sources and mashing them together into something that physically functions but rarely looks very attractive. Vonmercier seems to be trying to change all that with a new electric hovercraft design that heavily embraces the world of sleeky, sexy sportscars. Say hello to the Vonmercier Arosa EV hovercraft.