Huck Cycles, a North Carolina electric moped maker, is finding that its off-road-optimized electric moped is actually proving quite popular for city riders as well.
It’s a surprising finding, considering the bike was originally designed for hunters, campers, and other outdoor enthusiasts that wanted a powerful but (relatively) lightweight electric two-wheeler.
The bike was inspired by the classic Honda Motra, itself a popular recreational mini-bike from the 1980s.
Far from a heavyweight electric adventure bike, the 145-pound (65 kg) Huck Overland is a smaller and more nimble ride. It comes with a 3 kW nominal and 6 kW peak-rated motor, and carries a 3 kWh battery rated for 40 miles (64 km) of range.
As founder and CEO Brett McCoy explained to Electrek, it’s not just hunters and fisherman that have taken to the Overland:
I’ve been shocked at how many people in larger cities like NYC, LA, and Miami have jumped on this model as a daily commuter. Apparently, the rugged Mad Max look is in for city riders too.
Not everyone will need to register the bikes, as they have a speed-limited “moped mode” that lets them classify as a 49cc scooter or moped in many states. In other states, a motorcycle endorsement may be required, and the bikes may need to be registered as motorcycles. In that case, unlocking the higher-speed capability lets riders make the most out of the bikes after registering them as full motorcycles.
It’s a move we’ve seen other companies like ONYX explore as well, making it easy for riders to stay legal and operate their bikes responsibly within the confines of varying state laws.
With multiple speed modes, Huck’s bikes can hit speeds of “45+ mph,” with that plus sign likely doing some heavy lifting. Owners have reported exceeding that 45 mph figure with room to spare.
As urban rides, these approximately $5,800 machines offer a legal upgrade over 28 mph electric bicycles without entering full heavyweight electric motorcycle territory. They’re essentially a re-imagination of the 1970s heyday of 50cc mopeds.
Huck Cycles uses local North Carolina manufacturing to build its electric mopeds.
As popular as the Overland has proven for city riders, the Huck Rebel remains the company’s best seller after debuting several years ago.
With a more traditional moped design, it uses a top-tank style frame with the contents of the “tank” being replaced by a 3 kWh battery. The more recognizable styling is likely better suited for riders that aren’t seeking out that Mad Max vibe offered by the Overland.
The $5,400 Rebel actually has footpegs instead of pedals, meaning many of my more pedantic readers will be blowing up my comments section soon to chastise me about misusing the “ped” part of the word “moped.”
As it happens, most states have moped laws that include what we sometimes call “nopeds,” or bikes like these that are moped-sized but feature pegs instead of pedals. And thus the word moped has grown and evolved over time, now largely used for a class of vehicles between heavyweight e-bikes and lightweight electric motorcycles, with or without pedals.
The Huck Rebel has a more traditional moped design.
Whatever you call them, Huck’s electric two-wheelers certainly capture the classic moped charm while applying a 21st-century twist.
But for those that want something a bit bigger, the Huck Stinger pushes the brand into light electric motorcycle territory with a larger and more capable bike.
Expected to be priced in the $6,500 to $9,500 range depending on the loadout, the Huck Stinger will be arriving in Q4 of this year.
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Tesla is being forced to remove 64 Superchargers at stations along the New Jersey Turnpike as the local authorities have decided to go with another provider.
Elon Musk claimed corruption without any evidence.
The New Jersey Turnpike is a system of controlled-access toll roads that consists of a 100-mile section of important New Jersey highways.
The agreement has now expired, and instead of renewing it, the authority decided to give an exclusive agreement to Applegreen, which already operates in all service areas on the turnpike.
Tesla issued a statement saying that it is disappointed with the situation, but that it has prepared for this by building new stations off the turnpike for the last few years:
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority (“NJTA”) has chosen a sole third-party charging provider to serve the New Jersey Turnpike and is not allowing us to co-locate. As a result, NJTA requested 64 existing Supercharger stalls on the New Jersey Turnpike to not be renewed and be decommissioned. We have been preparing for 3 years for this potential outcome by building 116 stalls off the New Jersey Turnpike, ensuring no interruption for our customers. The map below outlines the existing replacement Superchargers, and Trip Planner will adjust automatically.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk went a step further and called it “corruption” without any evidence.
The automaker’s agreement with NJTA expired, and they decided to go with a sole provider. Applegreen will reportedly deploy chargers at all 21 turnpike service stops.
Here are Tesla’s replacement Superchargers off the turnpike:
Electrek’s Take
I don’t like the decision from the Turnpike authorities. More chargers are better than fewer chargers. However, I also don’t like Musk calling everything he doesn’t like fraud or corruption.
While I agree with Tesla that it is unreasonable to force them to remove the stations, it appears to be an oversight on Tesla’s part not to have included stipulations in their agreement to prevent such a scenario from happening in the first place.
Who signs a deal to deploy millions of dollars worth of charging equipment with only the right to operate them there for 5 years?
It looks like Tesla knew this was coming since it specifically built several new Supercharger stations off the turnpike to prepare for this.
On the other hand, I don’t like the Turnpike Authority using the term “universal charger” as if this is a positive for Applegreen. They are going to use CCS, and everyone is moving to NACS in North America.
Yes, for a while, only Tesla owners will have to use adapters, but that will soon change and the current NACS Supercharger will be even more useful.
At the end of the day, the stations are already there. Let them operate them.
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ZQUIP is working hard to bring more smart, efficient, modular power solutions to commercial job sites everywhere – and at the core of their vision for the future is battery-swap technology. You can see just how easy it is make that happen here.
MOOG Construction’s energy skunkworks ZQUIP made headlines last year by bringing the cordless power tool battery model to the world of industrial-grade heavy equipment.
“The 700V ZQUIP Energy Modules are at the core of this innovation, said Chris LaFleur, managing director for QUIP. “ZQUIP modules are interchangeable across any machine we convert regardless of size, type, or manufacturer, and will enable a level of serviceability, runtime, and value that is far greater than current battery solutions.”
ZQUIP generator prototype on Caterpillar excavator; via ZQUIP.
Most machines on most sites sit idle most of the time, but converting all those machines to battery electric power means that megawatts of battery capacity are being wasted. By utilizing swappable batteries, job sites can do what technicians and contractors have been doing for years with power tools: quickly get the energy they need to the tool they need when they need it, without the need to have a dedicated battery for every tool.
If you need to be able to run the machine non-stop and don’t have a reliable way to recharge your batteries quickly enough, a 140 kW diesel generator is built into a package the same size and shape as the batteries. In fact, if you look closely at the CASE excavator below (on the right), the “battery” on the right is, in fact, a diesel Energy Module.
The demo video, below, shows a pair of CASE-based electric excavators – one wheeled, one tracked – operating on ZQUIP’s Energy Modules. It takes less than two minutes to remove one battery, and presumably about the same time to swap another one in, for a 5 (ish) minute swap.
Even if you call it ten, by eliminating the need to get the entire machine up and out for charging (or for service, if there’s an issue with the battery/controllers), the ZQUIP battery swap construction equipment solution seems like a good one.
ZQUIP HDEV battery swap
SOURCE | IMAGES: ZQUIP.
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The Trump administration is confident that a massive liquified natural gas project in Alaska will find investors despite its enormous cost.
President Donald Trump has pushed Alaska LNG as a national priority since taking office. Alaska has already spent years trying to build an 800-mile pipeline from the North Slope above the Arctic Circle south to the Cook Inlet, where the gas would be cooled and shipped to U.S. allies in Asia.
But Alaska LNG has never gotten off the ground due to a stratospheric price tag of more than $40 billion. Trump has pushed Japan and South Korea in particular to invest in the project, threatening them with higher tariffs if they don’t offer trade deals that suit him.
“If you get the commercial offtakers for the gas, financing is pretty straightforward,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC’s Brian Sullivan in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. “There [are] countries around the world looking to shrink their trade deficit with the United States, and of course, a very easy way to do that is to buy more American energy,” Wright said.
Energy analysts, however, are skeptical of the project. Alaska LNG “doesn’t have a clear cut commercial logic,” Alex Munton, director of global gas and LNG research at Rapidan Energy, told CNBC in April.
“If it did, it would have had a lot more support than it has thus far, and this project has been on the planning board for literally decades,” Munton said.
Defense Department support
Wright said the project would be built in stages and initially serve domestic demand in Alaska, which faces declining natural gas supplies in the Cook Inlet. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the Department of Defense is ready to support the project with its resources.
“They’re ready to sign on to take an offtake agreement from this pipeline to get gas to our super strategic, important bases across Alaska,” Burgum said of the Pentagon in a CNBC interview at Prudhoe Bay.
Alaska LNG, if completed, would deliver U.S. natural gas to Japan in about eight days, compared to about 24 days for U.S. Gulf Coast exports that pass through the congested Panama Canal, Burgum said. It would also avoid contested waters in the South China Sea that LNG exports from the Middle East pass through, the interior secretary said.
Wright said potential Asian investors have questions about the timeline and logistics of Alaska LNG. The pipeline could start delivering LNG to southern Alaska in 2028 or 2029, with exports to Asia beginning sometime in the early 2030s, Wright said.
Glenfarne Group, the project’s lead developer, told CNBC in April that a final investment decision is expected in the next six to 12 months on the leg of a proposed pipeline that runs from the North Slope to Anchorage. Glenfarne is a privately-held developer, owner and operator of energy infrastructure based in New York City and Houston.