Last year we reported on the storied e-bike brand Juiced Bikes falling on hard financial times and eventually closing down. Now, in a video announcement just posted to the seemingly defunct Juiced Bikes YouTube channel, the charismatic young founders of Lectric Ebikes have announced their purchase of Juiced Bikes along with their intention to revive the brand to its former glory.

Juiced Bikes was founded in 2009, making it one of the first major electric bicycle brands in the US. Operating continuously until its closure in 2024, its decade and a half of high-performance electric bicycle building created a massive fan base and a reputation for pushing the industry towards power and speed built around innovative designs instead of mere cookie-cutter copycats.

In a candid video posted to the brand’s previously abandoned YouTube channel, Lectric Ebikes founders Levi Conlow and Robbie Deziel openly shared several details about their lengthy bid to purchase Juiced Bikes and their plans to revive the company.

Now to achieve their goal, the pair will have to rely on the lessons they learned in building their own brand, Lectric Ebikes, into the largest electric bicycle company in North America.

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Founded in 2009, Juiced Bikes was the epitome of old school in the e-bike industry. On the other hand, Lectric Ebikes and its two charismatic “e-bike bro” founders are the full embodiment of young e-bike whipper snappers. But despite bursting onto the scene relatively recently in 2019, Lectric Ebikes rocketed past hundreds of other e-bike brands to snatch the title of most annual e-bike sales by 2023. Clenching the title again in 2024 and likely on track for a three-peat in 2025, Levi and Robbie obviously know a thing or two about building up a successful e-bike company.

Lectric has now become known as the go-to source for the best bang-for-your-buck electric bikes, from folding e-bikes to off-road adventure-style rides, cargo e-bikes, and more. But despite Lectric Ebikes’ success, it doesn’t look like its founders intend to merely bring Juiced Bikes into the Lectric family. Instead, the duo seems to be focused on reviving the brand as it is – or at least as it was.

“What drew us into Juiced is the same thing that drew many Juiced customers into the brand in the first place,” explained Levi Conlow, CEO of Lectric Ebikes. “That high performance, that torque, that acceleration, the thing you love about Juiced. That is our full intention, to preserve and continue that beautiful performance into the future, and carry Juiced into its next 15 years. It’s had this hiccup now, but I hope that everyone has seen what we’ve done with Lectric Ebikes and has a great level of confidence in what we’re going to do.”

As Robbie and Levi explained, the process of purchasing the Juiced Bikes brand and attempting to revive it was a long and complicated journey that still seems to be taking shape. Lectric originally placed a winning bid when the brand’s assets were put up at auction in an attempt to pay back Juiced Bikes’ creditors, but the winning bid was rejected, leaving Juiced’s future in limbo. As Levi detailed, eventually he and Robbie were able to salvage a deal where they purchased nearly all of Juiced’s assets outside of its physical inventory. That means the branding, the website, the intellectual property, and pretty much everything else that was once part of the Juiced Bikes company… other than the bikes that used to line the shipping department of its Chinese factory.

And while the pair didn’t explicitly say it, we’ve since seen much of Juiced’s inventory siphoned off by a Chinese-backed e-bike brand called VeloWave, which has been selling it seemingly dropshipped online, so it doesn’t take a lot of internet sleuthing to see why they couldn’t get everything at once.

That means there’s a lot of hard work ahead of Levi and Robbie to rebuild supplier relationships and get bikes moving again. There’s also a number of disappointed Juiced customers who had placed orders for e-bikes just before Juiced collapsed last year and never received them. Levi explained that the company had hoped to fulfill those orders, and may still be able to help those customers out, but that it would take some time to get things moving again.

But while they admit that they may not be able to immediately help many of the frustrated customers or support the larger Juiced Bikes owner community with spare parts until they can build up some inventory, they appear focused on bringing the same commitment to customer service and support to Juiced that they’ve built at Lectric Ebikes.

This is of course still a developing story and we’ll be learning more soon about the backstory to Lectric’s purchase of the Juiced Bikes brand and their plans to return Juiced to its heyday. If you have questions, put them in the comments below and we’ll be sure to find out more when we sit down with Robbie and Levi soon.

Electrek’s Take

This is fascinating. We all thought that there was a chance Juiced Bikes could be saved, but it was a long shot. It meant finding someone who could convince investors that there was still hope, and not that many still saw the hope. But if there ever was, it’s with Levi and Robbie. These guys built the modern-day equivalent of a garage startup into the biggest e-bike company on the continent and almost single-handedly brought previous titans of the industry to their knees. Yet instead of merely forcing other e-bike brands out, here they are trying to save them.

And what I love about this is that it comes from a place of genuine love for the game. If you watch the video above (which you should), you can see Levi and Robbie nerding out about how great Juiced Bikes’ e-bikes were. And they’re right. Those were awesome bikes. Saving the company isn’t just about offering another revenue stream in the high-performance market that Lectric hasn’t previously focused on, but also saving an important part of the history of the nascent American e-bike market. Juiced Bikes WAS the American e-bike market for a long time, back when it was basically just those guys and Pedego… and a few weird chainstay-mounted brush motor e-bikes that looked like they had toaster-shaped batteries strapped to their rear racks.

All of this is to say that this is a really cool story, one that is currently being written, and for which we likely won’t really know how well it will work for many months to come. But damn, am I here for the ride!

It’s about the size of a Tesla Model Y, loaded with technology, and designed as a midsize family mover — Meet BYD’s new Tai 3 electric SUV. The Tai 3 is the most affordable EV from BYD’s luxury off-road brand, Fang Cheng Bao, starting at under $20,000.

Meet BYD’s new Fang Cheng Bao Tai 3 electric SUV

BYD’s Fang Cheng Bao brand opened pre-sales for the Tai 3 on Monday, a “high-tech trendy” electric SUV built for families.

Starting at 139,800 yuan, or about $19,300, the Tai 3 is the cheapest vehicle under the sub-brand. Unlike other Fang Cheng Bao brand models, the new electric SUV is designed as a family vehicle rather than a hardcore luxury off-roader.

The five-seater is 4,605 mm long, 1,900 mm wide, and 1,720 mm tall, or around the size of Tesla’s Model Y (4,790 mm long, 1,982 mm wide, and 1,624 mm tall).

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All versions are rated with a CLTC driving range of up to 501 km (311 miles). It’s available in single (RWD) and dual-motor (4WD) versions.

A 72.96 kWh battery powers the base RWD Intelligent Driving Pro Edition, while the flagship “Drone” Version has a 78.72 kWh battery. And yes, it actually comes with BYD’s Ling Yuan drone system, complete with a roof docking station.

For under $20,000, the Tai 3 is packed with tech and cool features. The interior features wing-style instrument display, 15.6″ infotainment, and “Chariot gear lever” crystal buttons. It even has a built-in refrigerator.

A multifunctional smart island includes charging on top, storage on the bottom, lighting on the left, and on the right… passengers get karaoke.

The AI smart cockpit features BYD’s “God’s Eye” C driver-assist system for smart functions like highway navigate on autopilot, remote control parking, and more.

The Tai 3 is available in five variants, with prices ranging up to 203,800 yuan ($28,000) for the Drone version. That’s not bad for an electric SUV with a roof-mounted drone system. Deliveries are expected to begin in April.

BYD’s new model kicks off a new “Tai” series under its Fang Cheng Bao brand. It follows the Bao 5 and Bao 8, both hybrid SUVs.

What do you think of the Tai 3? Would you buy one for under $20,000? Let us know what you think of it in the comments.

Source: CnEVPost, Fang Cheng Bao

A Tesla Cybertruck was split in half after another vehicle crashed into it in Frisco, Texas, a few days ago. Images of the aftermath are impressive.

On Friday, the driver of a Mercedes-Benz G Wagon lost control and crashed into seven vehicles parked on the side of the road.

The G Wagon driver was taken to the hospital in an unknown condition. He is believed to have had a medical emergency, which led to the loss of control. He was the only one injured, as no one was in the parked vehicles.

The accident is getting some attention for the aftermath.

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It looks like the first vehicle hit by the driver was a Tesla Cybertruck, and it appears to have been cleanly cut in half at the bed from the impact:

At short of 6,000 lbs, a G Wagon is undoubtedly heavy, and it’s not clear at what speed it was going at the time of the impact.

There’s no doubt that it had a significant impact, but it is still surprising to see the Cybertruck’s bed ripped straight off the truck’s frame.

Some are pointing to Tesla’s use of aluminum in the Cybertruck’s frame.

Despite Tesla’s claim that the Cybertruck is “bulletproof” and made out of an “exoskeleton,” the electric vehicle’s build is actually much closer to a traditional unibody system rather than an “exoskeleton.” Most of the visible body parts, which would be part of the chassis in an exoskeleton build, are actually trims attached to the body.

Furthermore, while Tesla touts its “ultra-hard stainless steel exoskeleton,” it mostly uses stainless steel on external parts, while many parts of the frame are made of aluminum.