Complete list of the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicles of the Week

We like to think that we have it all figured out in the West, but while we’re still trying to get solar electric cars off the drawing board, China’s EV engineers already have them driving around. Look no further than this awesome little three-wheeled electric truck that just happens to have enough solar panels to give it nearly infinite range — at least while the sun is out.

Laggards beware: No transportation industry is safe from electrification. It’s going to drag you, kicking and screaming if necessary, into the future. That’s true whether we’re talking about planes, trains, or automobiles, or even cement mixers. And not only are electric cement mixers now a thing, but you can order one straight from China. Learn all about it in this week’s edition of the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week.

When most families go on safari, they rent a truck or pay a company for a guided tour. But with this cheap Chinese electric truck I find in the bowels of the internet, you could spend the same amount of money and get to keep your safari truck at the end! And lucky for us, this funky little e-truck is perfect for this week’s Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column!

The list of weird yet awesome electric boats on Alibaba seems to grow every week. Fortunately for us, we’ve managed to stumble upon another oddball offering in the form of an inflatable electric houseboat. And if you ask me, it’s perfect for the latest edition of the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week series.

Oops, I did it again. I bought another quirky, cheap, yet kind of awesome-looking electric vehicle on the Chinese mega-shopping site Alibaba. This time it was a five-seater electric boat.

Here’s how it happened.

For anyone who thinks the worst part of stand-up paddleboards is the paddling, you’re going to love this week’s Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week entry. Apparently, all it takes to ditch the paddle is a $300 SUP conversion kit that turns a paddleboard into an electric surfboard.

Each week I dig around in the bottom of the barrel of China’s weirdest shopping site, dragging to the surface a funky electric vehicle to laugh either with and/or at. They’re usually fairly underpowered things, coasting by on their good looks and charm. But this week, we’ve got the opposite: a vehicle so ugly that not even its mother could love it but that can haul so much that it doesn’t even care.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is your big boy. And it’s perfect for this week’s Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week.

There’s something fun about trademark infringement reproducing retro-looking vehicles in an electric form factor. You get all of the exciting, old school design vibes that today’s automotive culture is sorely lacking, yet in a modern vehicle that doesn’t require two hours of wrenching for every hour of driving.

And this awesome-looking reproduction of a 60’s VW bus is a perfect example. Well, except for the fact that Alibaba’s finest EV engineers seem to have given the bus a feature that I don’t think came standard back in the day.

One of the best things about scouring Alibaba for awesomely weird electric vehicles is that many of them seemingly start from something rather normal. There’s nothing strange about an electric tour bus – until it comes shaped like a tiger. Stuffed animals are rather normal – until engineers added wheels, motors, and batteries to make them rideable. And a mobility scooter for old folks is a pretty common sidewalk vehicle – until you add enough seats to make it into a party bus for old folks.

One of the best parts of riding an electric bike for leisure or recreation is sharing that experience with others. But what if your friends don’t have their own electric bike to join you on rides along the beach or through the park? Well then you might need this awesome Chinese three-seater bike I found online, which is perfect for this week’s entry in the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column.

I’ve had plenty of fun dumpster-diving through Alibaba’s online electric car catalog over the last few years, finding odd and futuristic EV gems for this weekly column. But never before have we seen something quite so elegant-looking as this early automotive era replica, complete with all the bells and whistles you could possibly ask for in a Chinese knock-off. And that makes it a perfect selection for this week’s Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week!

Some of you who follow this tongue-in-cheek series may know that I’ve long sought after an electric aircraft from Alibaba to bestow upon it the dubious honor of being featured here. I’ve gotten close, but no cigar. I still haven’t caught my white whale this week on China’s largest online shopping platform Alibaba, but they say if you’re going to shoot for the stars, then you’d better aim for the lowest one. And that’s what I plan to do with my very own electric aerial work platform. Or as we called them as kids, cherry pickers.

Remember the good ol’ days of hearing the ice cream truck’s jingle coming down the street and running outside with a fistful of quarters to grab your favorite tasty treat?

Yeah, me neither, as I’m in my early 30s, and that stuff was mostly phased out by the time we were kids. Why pay a stranger in a questionably shady truck when your mom can just pick up ice pops at Kroger?

The biggest downside to all of the cool and wild electric vehicles I regularly find as part of the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column is that most would never be street legal. But this fun-looking little flatbed trike truck seems to have solved that problem, at least in name only.

“Speak softly and carry a big stick” may have been Teddy R’s shtick, but how about, “Drive quietly and carry a main cannon”? With today’s big trucks and SUVs turning into an arms race of their own, that’s how I plan to commute now that I’ve found that you can buy your own electric army tank on Alibaba.

This week’s entry in our Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week series is a first for us in nearly two years – an electric land vehicle that doesn’t have wheels. Tank steer, here I come!

Municipal services are ripe for conversion to electric vehicles. With all of those hours on the road, switching away from polluting gas-powered engines could make a huge difference. But when it comes to fire trucks, I’m not sure if this little Alibaba fire truck has what it takes.

But it certainly has gusto, and that earns it a coveted spot as this week’s Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week!

There are major movements toward reducing the size of cars and trucks in favor of lighter and more socially responsible vehicles that are less likely to take out an entire school bus while the driver is texting. As admirable as that concept is, I think this three-wheeled electric truck from China’s largest shopping platform might be a bridge too far for some people.

But who cares about them?! I love it, and that makes it perfect for my recurring Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column!

At a time when cars seem to be getting bigger and bigger, perhaps we all need to take a step back. I think it’s time to reevaluate just what cars need to be and how much car is really necessary to move us around. It sounds like China agrees with me, at least judging by the looks of Alibaba’s latest awesome electric car.

I’d say that this little wedge on wheels is perfectly poised to become this week’s Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle the Week!

When it comes to fun-sized electric trucks, there’s just nowhere else to look but China’s fantastically weird Alibaba collection. Those engineers must spend night and day dreaming up the wildest electric vehicles that can be built for the absolute lowest rock-bottom price. And this week we’ve landed on another doozy for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week entry: a cheap electric dump truck.

Well this is a new level of weird, even for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week series. Because even though we’ve covered some oddball designs from China’s largest shopping site, we could always at least tell which end of the car was the front. But this time, it’s not nearly so clear.

And that appears to be by design, which is perfect for me. One feature I always look for in a car is difficulty in determining which end is the front.

One of the coolest things about the funky electric vehicles sprinkled around China’s largest online shopping platform is their small size. They often look like they were inspired by full-size vehicles, but then somehow shrunk in the wash. Though this week’s entry in the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column looks like it might have partially melted in the wash too.

That’s a win for us though, since now it gets to become the world’s smallest taco truck!