🤯 Lectric’s New Cargo Bike...
Plus: FDNY calls for battery crackdown, cars are for boomers, and Berlin plans car-free summer.
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What You Need to Know Today
Lectric is out with a new electric cargo bike that, even for the famously budget-friendly brand, is stunningly attainable and capable. Shipping fully assembled, the new Class 3 Lectric XPedition can haul 450 lbs worth of stuff and provides an incredible range of up to 150 miles with its dual battery capacity. But maybe the most impressive aspect of the XPedition is the price; starting at just $1,399 for the single-battery setup, this will be one of the most affordable electric cargo bikes available, period.
On a very special new episode of The Micromobility Podcast, Lectric founder and CEO Levi Conlow talks about shipping the most popular eBike in America, keeping prices low amid tariffs and inflation, and the road to the new XPedition.
Among young people in wealthy nations, having a car just isn’t as cool as it used to be. “Getting a driving licence was once a nearly universal rite of passage into adulthood. Now it is something that a growing minority of young people either ignore or actively oppose, into their 20s and beyond. That, in turn, is starting to create more support for a anti-car policies being passed in cities around the world.”
Car-averse youth have a bright financial future ahead of them. The average monthly car payment in the U.S. just reached $777, a jaw-dropping new record.
Following a string of fires caused by cheaply made electric bikes, the FDNY is calling on the federal government to crack down on manufacturers that fail to meet minimum safety standards and ban the sale of universal battery chargers. (Subsidies, anyone?)
We’re back with episode three of Ride On! Join us as we recap the past week in micromobility news, including Cowboy’s profitability clapback, the blurry boundaries between high-speed bikes, the future of mobility in Asia, and much more.
Ireland has expanded its bike-to-work incentive to include €3,000 (!) to encourage greater use of electric cargo bikes.
Going a full step further, Berkeley, CA, plans to give away free electric bikes to low-income residents this spring.
The EU parliament wants Europeans to cycle twice as much by 2030 in order to combat climate change. Maybe the legislators should take a field trip to Ghent, where cycling has already doubled since the city adopted a new transportation plan in 2017.
Newsflash: Electric trucks are not necessarily better for the planet than gas-powered alternatives. In fact, in some cases, heavy-duty EVs are actually worse.
Dance, a Berlin-based subscription micromobility startup, has raised $12.8M to expand its service across Europe.
A Berlin neighborhood plans to ban nearly all street parking this summer as part of a temporary three-month social experiment.
… but even if cities make literally zero effort to encourage smaller vehicles, McKinsey forecasts that micromobility usage will keep growing anyway.
The great American rail trail could one day connect Washington D.C. to Washington state, fulfilling a longtime dream for a coast-to-coast route for bikers and hikers alike.
Brussels’s bold plan to drive cars out of the city center is succeeding. In the first six months, traffic is down 19%, while cycling is up 18%.
Former Lyft employees lament that the ride-hail company has not been fast enough to export its bikesharing and other services internationally.
Estonia has a new micromobility powerhouse in the making. Kõu Mobility Group, which is the parent company of Comodule (micromobility IoT), Äike (scooter manufacturing), and Tuul (shared scooters), has acquired a majority stake in electric bike company Ampler. Through this combined approach to urban mobility, Kõu hopes to generate €1B in revenue by 2031.
More news out of the Baltics: Estonian TNC Bolt is adding an EV trike to its app in Malta. The tiny vehicle, which is produced by Carver, fits two passengers plus cargo and is enclosed from the elements.
Wales is nixing a bunch of road projects after determining that they would increase carbon emissions if built.
The city of Delhi plans to enforce a 1988 law that makes it illegal for app aggregators like Ola, Rapido, and Uber to operate motorbike taxi services without a permit.
Where do stolen bikes go? A new MIT study from Amsterdam tracked a couple dozen thefts in attempt to map the black market.
A London startup is trying to outwit would-be thieves with a smartphone-opened chain lock that can be secured directly to bike racks.
In New York, a pair of bills that would galvanize online retailers to adopt electric cargo bikes for deliveries are picking up steam.
Meet MDS 2.0. The second generation of the data-sharing protocol, which allows private scooter-and-bike providers to communicate with public agencies, introduces support for ride-hail, car-share, taxis, and delivery robots.
Schaeffler has commercialized a chainless drive for electric bikes that is optimized for urban deliveries.
On a new episode of The Micromobility Podcast, America’s electrification chief (and self-confessed electric bike nut) Gabe Klein joins Julia Thayne to discuss the role that small vehicles can play in America’s EV transformation.
Few U.S. cities did more to reduce traffic speeds during the pandemic than Oakland. Now the city’s much-lauded Slow Streets program is back for another round.
How important are public dollars to attracting micromobility operators to your town? When London, Ont., put out a bikeshare RFP that included some capital funding but no cash for operations, the city received absolutely zero partnership proposals.
Are electric bikes the “unsung secret” to curbing climate change? Well no, not if you’ve been reading this newsletter for the past four years.
Browse the best jobs in micromobility—and post your own—on our Jobs to Be Done board. Featured jobs:
