The Paris 2024 Olympics just concluded and whatever you think of actual games (they were great!) the city itself deserves a lot of credit for giving its visitors a first class experience. Here at Electrek, we’ll focus on the transportation aspect…
In case your neighbor didn’t have a Green Machine (video below) growing up as I did, the “big wheels” alternative looked like a little 3-wheeled pedal sled that was steered with two sticks instead of handlebars or a steering wheel. If you wanted to spin out (and what else would you want to do?), you’d simply push one stick forward and the other stick back and hold on!
Well, a lot has changed in the almost 50 years since the Green Machine debuted, and Huffy knows it has many adults, like myself, nostalgic for that drift experience without having to do all of that pedaling.
Pedego announced a slew of big new bikes this month, and we got to try out our favorite, the Pedego Moto. This brawny, two-person, class 2/3 beast leaves its competitors in the dust in so many ways. As Micah would say, “Let’s check it out…”
It has been a big few weeks for smart electrical panel-maker Span. The company announced major deals with Pulte Homes and utilities with Landis + Gyr. The startup also expanded its lineup to include small home and apartment-sized panels and even subpanels
But firstly, why do we even need $3500 smart electric panels?
Rivian gave us a quick 15 minutes with CEO RJ Scaringe to talk about the R2 and R3. Believe me, we took full advantage of that time to ask the pressing questions you told us you had in our watch party and many others. Some of his answers are the first we’ve heard on the matter.
Along with the Rivian R2 and surprise R3/R3X, Rivian announced a slew of new and updated accessories that work with the R2 and perhaps more of its vehicles.
Induction stoves are a great, safe way to save on electricity costs and can heat much quicker, safer, and more accurately than natural gas or propane stoves. But a new breed of these stoves includes huge batteries, which opens up new opportunities by only requiring a 120V outlet, offering 40-sec water boiling, backup power to other appliances like the refrigerator, and even IRA tax rebates. Let’s take a look at two of these new models and try to understand if it makes sense for an oven to have a huge battery over a more centralized Powerwall type of home backup battery.
This is part of a continuing series at Electrek that focuses on home energy usage, see our coverage of heat pump washer/dryers
Cyrusher, a Chinese company known for its burly electric bikes, surprised many in the snowboarding community when it announced its electric snowboard in December. Part snowboard and part snowmobile/e-skateboard/scooter, the Cyrusher Ripple mounts a jagged 3kW hub motor-wheel in a rear hole on a snowboard and puts the battery in a backpack that the rider must wear. Cyrusher states that the Ripple can go 30+ miles at speeds up to 30 miles per hour.
To our surprise, they actually had some review models and sent us one that we took up to Vermont to put through the paces. Would it actually work, and more importantly, would it be a fun form of transportation?
Rivian today announced that the company is going to show the world the smaller, more value-focused R2 at their Laguna showroom on March 7th. We uncovered the launch event date and location earlier, but the move is now official and could include some surprises.
Over the past few months, a new type of washer-dryer combo has emerged on the scene in North America (Yes, Europe and Asia have had great, tiny heat pump tech for decades). These new big combo units from GE Profile UltraFast PFQ97HSPVDS and now LG WashCombo WM6998HBA (introduced at CES) are now on the market.
I’ve had the GE Profile for 2 weeks, and the LG is on the way for testing head-to-head, but for now, I want to tell you about all of the ways both of these things are amazing, and energy savings is just the tip of the iceberg…
Ecoflow announced the Delta Ultra today at CES, its monster 6kWh home LFP battery pack on wheels. Its 240V/30A= 7.2kW output can back up a home the way a whole home generator or Tesla Powerwall can. However, this thing has wheels and can be loaded into a vehicle to be transported to a campsite or a remote location. EcoFlow provided us with one last month and we’ve taken it to an off-grid tiny home which it kept powered, even in the cold of winter, for a whole weekend. Let’s have a deeper look…
The software Over-the-Air (OTA) fix has already been installed on 85%, and counting, of the affected 7800 early Rivian R1T and R1S vehicles. It will save the automaker from requiring owners to visit service centers or deploy mobile service units. At the same time, it will satisfy the NHTSA recall, though Rivian will offer owners a hardware replacement accelerator if desired.
As an electric bike/car enthusiast and snowboarder, I’ve always wondered if an electric, cross-country snowboard would be possible. You know, when the mountain isn’t available? Cyrusher’s $3300 Ripple is one of the first attempts at building such a monster.
Porsche invited us out to Leipzig, Germany, all the way back in October to show off the Panamera Plug-in Hybrid and the new PPE-based Macan EV. We were kept on an incredibly short leash but learned a lot about the upcoming SUV, and paradoxically, we were left with almost as many questions as answers…
I’ve spent the better part of the last month with the Juiced Scorpion X2 and two years with its predecessor, the Scorpion X. Juiced has changed a few things with the X2, but what hasn’t changed is that this descendant of one of the first “moped e-bikes” and our once vehicle of the year is still a great ride. But is the X2 really an improvement over the X1?
One piece of the Tesla Cybertruck launch we didn’t see coming (nor did Tesla event planners or CEO, apparently) was the Range Extender, which we are still learning more about now. But we already know answers to some questions, like how Cybertruck owners expect to tow or travel long distances, especially in the cold, without charging as often.
But the 130-mile add-on battery also presents some opportunities that hearken back to when Tesla demonstrated battery swap stations. And its interface to the Cybertruck even presents opportunities for other energy sources, from solar to hydrogen to even petroleum generators.
VanPowers sent us its top-of-the-line UrbanGlide-Ultra bike last month, which is touted to be a Dutch-style e-bike and top spec in its Urban Glide lineup. But with Black Friday prices starting under $1,000, how close to a real Dutch “Gazelle”-type bike is this? You might be surprised…
We’ve always wondered why, with big 1 kWh batteries with equally big output capabilities, e-bikes can’t double as power stations that could power an off-site or back up a fridge for a few hours. Mokwheel has our answer with its $2300 Obsidian and ups the ante with a big solar panel that makes it great for camping and self-charging, too…
I spoke with Rivian software head Wassym Bensaid today about his last harrowing 36 hours. Rivian’s software team scrambled after an incorrect OS update build was sent out to the company’s fleet with an incorrect certificate. The update hung before it could complete, rendering most of the consumer-facing infotainment features inoperable on around 3% of the company’s consumer vehicles, according to Bensaid.
On Monday, Rivian released an incremental software update 2023.42, which bricked the infotainment system in R1Ses and R1Ts. The company is frantically working on a fix, but it might not be an OTA…
Update: The company has acknowledged the issue with affected customers but a fix will have to wait until Nov 15th
There’s a lot of dichotomy in that headline. But for some reason, it all makes sense when driving the Volvo EX30. After delaying the much bigger EX90 indefinitely, Volvo’s first EV designed from the ground up really shines in so many areas, and of course has one big glaring downside…
Chevy announced its Equinox EV rollout plan today on a conference call to journalists. It acknowledged being late but also had some pleasant surprises for its new lowest-cost EV.
Rivian is rolling out one of its most significant software updates to date starting this evening. We’ve been driving the R1S version around for the better part of two weeks and can take you through what’s new and what it is like to use.
After this year’s incredibly successful Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix, Electrek has moved to quintuple down on its title sponsorship of the American Solar Challenge (ASC) and Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP) by signing a 5-year sponsorship agreement. The agreement will guarantee the parent organization, Innovators Educational Foundation (IEF), has funds to host the yearly races through 2028.
But there’s a lot more help needed to expand these incredible programs. If you’d like to join us in sponsoring these events, please get in touch! There are so many opportunities available…