First ride: CSC RX1E $8k and 80 MPH electric motorcycle is a perfect starter bike
When CSC first announced the RX1E, I was super excited about the prospect of an electric motorcycle that could hit highway speeds while priced at a fraction of most big name e-motos today. And so, when I was swinging through LA recently, I made sure to stop by CSC’s Azusa headquarters and give the bike a test. Now I’m even more excited than ever about this new addition to CSC’s lineup.
At just $8,495, the CSC RX1E comes in swinging with a very nice spec sheet at a reasonable price point. For comparison, you’d have to pay 50% more to get an entry level Zero electric motorcycle that has similar performance specs.
There’s a lot going on here. The bike has liquid cooling for the motor and controller, belt drive, ABS braking in the front and rear, included storage cases and bash bars, reverse gear, a windshield, both a center AND a side stand, and a good-sized glove box in the faux tank. Half of these are features you normally find on much higher priced motorcycles, and the other half are features you generally have to pay many hundreds of dollars extra for.
But the unassuming CSC RX1E gives you everything you’d ever need in an around-the-town motorcycle, all for a reasonable price.
Check out my first ride on the new bike in my video below, then keep reading for my complete thoughts on this new entry into the affordable electric motorcycle market.
CSC RX1E video review
CSC RX1E tech specs
- Motor: 8 kW continuous, 18 kW peak-rated swingarm-mounted motor
- Top speed: 80 mph (130 km/h)
- Max range: 112 mi (180 km)
- Battery: 96V 64Ah (6.16 kWh)
- Charge time: 6 hours on Level 1 (110VAC wall plug)
- Curb weight: 465 lb (211 kg)
- Brakes: Hydraulic disc brakes with Bosch ABS
- Extras: liquid-cooled motor and controller, belt drive, three included storage cases, included crash bars, LED and analog gauges, windshield, side and center stands, USB charging port on instrument panel
Adventure look, city utility
So the first thing you notice about the CSC RX1E is the adventure-style setup. It’s got an upright stance, big cargo boxes, a bash guard and a windshield. All of these tend to scream “safari”, not “city.”
But all of those features actually make it a great urban runabout, which is what the bike is primarily designed for. Sure, it’s got adventure styling and matches the look of CSC’s popular ICE-powered RX3 and RX4 adventure bikes. But this baby is more than likely going to be sticking to commuter duty for most riders.
And that’s where it will absolutely excel. The upright seating position and tall bars make it super comfortable. Your legs aren’t tucked up underneath your body, you’re not crouched forward and you aren’t hugging the tank. Instead, you’re sitting up tall with a good view of the road, holding onto reasonably high bars and planted solidly on a comfortable saddle.
The suspension is also great for a city, especially one that doesn’t have the best streets. I pulled into CSC’s showroom on a borrowed LiveWire One, which gave me a unique chance to do some of the same route on both bikes. The LiveWire blows the CSC RX1E out of the water when it comes to power, but the RX1E was much more comfortable to ride, especially on speed bumps and other road irregularities.
Those lockable storage boxes are also just as useful as they seem. I normally ride with a backpack to carry all of my camera and audio gear that I use on rides, plus a few extra pieces of gear (tools, rain poncho, emergency kit, etc). But with the tail box, I could fit everything inside with room to spare. I didn’t even crack open the side boxes, that’s how much room I had in the top box.
But if you’re doing grocery shopping, running errands or picking up a takeout order for the whole office, you could probably fit it all in those three cases. And anything else can be stuffed in the faux “tank”, which has its own glovebox.
For anyone who doesn’t like the look of the boxes, you can pull them off with just a few bolts. But considering that’s an expensive option on other bikes, and with all of that added utility, it’s frankly amazing that they come standard.
Respectable performance
I’d call the performance specs decent, especially for a city bike that can handle freeway jaunts. This isn’t a powerhouse, but Sport mode definitely has good pickup. The bike comes with a rated top speed of 80 mph (130 km/h), but one of the CSC mechanics told me they got it up to a GPS-verified 88 mph (143 km/h) on the freeway in a full tuck.
The 18 kW peak-rated motor has good acceleration, and it pulled me up canyon roads without a thought. Does it compare to an Energica or a LiveWire? Absolutely not. Those bikes will have you holding on for dear life. But again, that’s not the type of ride the CSC RX1E is designed for.
If you’ve ever ridden an Energica, Zero, or LiveWire, you’ll know that when you punch it, those bikes are simply gone. You’re down the road before you know what happened.
The CSC RX1E, on the other hand, has a more muted but actually quite comfortable throttle response. Even if you crank it full throttle from a dead stop, you get that first quarter to half a second of easy throttle ramping up to full power. It doesn’t dump it all at once like an on/off switch, which is quite rare among lower cost electric motorcycles. Low-cost electric motorcycles can sometimes be a bit more jerky, since good throttle ramping requires careful programming – something often overlooked on cheap motorcycles. But the RX1E really nails the throttle response for a comfortable profile that doesn’t leave you feeling lacking. It’s both responsive and comfortable at the same time.
As far as range goes, the bike has a claimed 112 mile NEDC range, but CSC will tell you right away that the real-world range is closer to 80 miles with mixed riding. If you’re on the freeway the entire time, you’ll of course get less. But if you’re doing 30 mph around town, you might even get more.
When it comes time to recharge, you unfortunately don’t have a J-1772 charge port. That means you can’t use public charging stations when you’re out and about. Instead, the CSC RX1E comes with a charger not unlike an electric bike or Sur Ron, just a bit bigger. You plug it into a normal wall outlet in your garage and the other end goes into the bike.
With over 6 kWh, the battery is too big to be removable. A removable battery is nice for apartment dwellers that don’t have ground-level outlets for recharging, but they don’t make much sense past 4-5 kWh. At that point you’d be trying to muscle a 60+ pound battery around. But with 50% more battery (and thus 50% more range) than bikes like the SONDORS Metacycle, the lack of a removable battery is simply the price you pay for more range.
So much value
Compared to the competition, the CSC RX1E comes in at around the same ballpark. It’s around $1k more than a Metacycle but goes 50% further. It’s comparable to a Ryvid Anthem but again, goes further (even if it can’t compete with the awesome look of the Anthem). And its about $4k less than a comparable entry-level Zero motorcycle with similar specs, despite coming with several features not found on those bikes.
Just look at what you get. The bike comes with anti-lock brakes in the front and rear, which many low-cost electric motorcycles skip out on. There’s a small radiator to liquid-cool the motor and controller, letting you push the bike harder than air-cooled alternatives. And then, there’s those included accessories like the storage boxes, bash guards, and windshield. Oh yea, and don’t forget the reverse gear. Not even a $22k Energica has that, and the $25k Zero DSR/X I rode recently only JUST added a reverse feature. The CSC RX1E’s reverse is much easier to use though. It’s a single physical button on the bars, unlike Zero’s reverse gear which requires navigating several clicks through the bike’s on-screen menu.
The only downside here that I can reasonably see is the lack of a local dealership network. But even with that, CSC goes pretty far toward negating the issue entirely. I’ve toured their parts warehouse in California and it is absolutely massive. They sell mostly Chinese imported motorcycles, with the RX1E being no different. But they don’t bring in bikes without also bringing in a huge supply of spare parts for everything. If you ever have a problem, they will have a replacement part out to you by Fedex in a day or two.
I even had the chance to test that a few years ago when I got a City Slicker that eventually had an issue with its rear pulley bearing. They sent me a new pulley immediately and the lead mechanic talked me through the replacement process over the phone. I probably could have just taken it to a shop, but doing it myself helped me learn the motorcycle better. Also it helped that the City Slicker was so light that I could just gently lay it on its side instead of needing a motorcycle lift.
Anyway, the point is that CSC has proven that they’re there to take care of issues if they ever arrive, and that helps give me back most of the confidence that I’d normally get from having a local dealer nearby.
Summing it up
Alright, it’s about time to bring this first-ride review to a close. Basically, my takeaway from this test ride is that the RX1E is punching way above its weight class, which is ironic because it’s actually kind of a heavy bike (465 pounds) that feels much lighter than it really is.
I did a mixture of city riding and canyon carving, and the bike excelled at both. In fact, it was so comfortable and easy to ride that I was actually pushing much harder in the canyon turns than I normally do. The bike carries its weight low and feels so responsive that I just had more confidence pushing myself more than usual.
For pleasure riding, it was a blast. For utility riding, it was a dream. It’s fast. It’s peppy. It’s fun. It has the gear I want and the features I need. I wouldn’t mind if it were $1,000 cheaper, but I can’t even say that it isn’t worth it. Dollar for dollar, it comes in at higher value than nearly any other electric motorcycle I know of.
If you’re looking for a starter electric motorcycle that won’t break the bank, this very well could be it.
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GM may have decided to pull the plug on the forward-looking Chevy Brightdrop electric van a few months ago, but don’t let that stop you, but don’t let that fool you. Right now might be the best time ever to get your hands on one.
SKIP THE STORY: jump right to the deals (trusted affiliate link).
It’s hard to overstate how good the deals on Chevy’s Brightdrop got while GM was still trying to build up demand for its fleet-focused van, and now that the company has decided to stop production, the deals have gotten even better, with a newly announced $699 lease for 39 mo. with $2,999 down through January 2nd — and that’s before you factor in an additional $3,000 discount reserved for Costco Executive Members!
Despite that, I’ve heard more than one fleet manager express hesitation at the thought of adding a discontinued product to their fleet, even if it is a killer discount. To them, I offer the following, model-agnostic rebuttal:
Legacy brands support their products
Companies like GM aren’t going anywhere soon, and neither are the customers they’ve spent millions of dollars acquiring over the past several decades. They’ll keep building parts and offering service and maintenance on vehicles like the Brightdrop for at least a decade — not least of which because they have to!
GM sells each Brightdrop with a minimum 8 year/100,000 mile warranty on the battery and other key components, which can be extended either through GM itself or through reputable third-party companies like Xcelerate Auto for seven more.
There are precious few large fleets out there looking at 15 year, 200-plus thousand mile vehicle replacement cycles. For those that are, however, all indications so far are that the vehicle’s battery health and general performance will still be well within usable limits.
So, yes: parts longevity and manufacturer support will be there (something I’d be less confident about with a startup like Rivian or Bollinger, for example), but there’s more.
Section 179 and local incentives
The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) of 2025 gutted America’s energy independence goals and ensuring its auto industry would fall even further behind the Chinese in the EV race, but the loss of Section 45W wasn’t the only change written into the IRS’ rulebook. Section 179, an immediate expense reduction that business owners can take on depreciable equipment assets, has been made significantly more powerful for 2025.
The section 179 expense deduction is limited to such items as cars, office equipment, business machinery, and computers. This speedy deduction can provide substantial tax relief for business owners who are purchasing startup equipment.
The revised Section 179 tax credit (or, more accurately, expense reduction) allows for a 100% deduction for equipment purchases has doubled to $2.5 million, with a phase-out kicking in at $4 million of capital investments that drops to zero at $6.5 million. That credit and can be applied to new and used vehicles, as well as charging infrastructure, battery energy storage systems, specialized tools, and more (as long as they’re new to you).
What’s more, with regional incentives like the up to $15,000 off a new medium-duty van available from Illinois utility ComEd, the net cost of GM’s $699 promo lease drops to ~$315/mo., and there is still state money out there, as well, depending on where you live.
All of which is to say: don’t let a little thing like GM discontinuing the Brightdrop convince you to skip it. If you do that, the bean counters that killed off the Buick Grand National, GMC Syclone, and Pontiac Fiero win.
SOURCE | IMAGES: GM Envolve.
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US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data released on November 25 and reviewed by the SUN DAY Campaign reveal that, during the first nine months of 2025 and for the past year, solar and battery storage have dominated growth among competing energy sources, while fossil fuels and nuclear power have stagnated.
Solar set new records in September
EIA’s latest “Electric Power Monthly” report (with data through September 30, 2025), once again confirms that solar is the fastest-growing source of electricity in the US.
In September alone, electrical generation by utility-scale solar (>1 megawatt (MW)) ballooned by well over 36.1% compared to September 2024, while “estimated” small-scale (e.g., rooftop) solar PV increased by 12.7%. Combined, they grew by 29.9% and provided 9.7% of US electrical output during the month, up from 7.6% a year ago.
Moreover, generation from utility-scale solar thermal and photovoltaic systems expanded by 35.8%, while that from small-scale systems rose by 11.2% during the first nine months of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. The combination of utility-scale and small-scale solar increased by 29.0% and produced a bit over 9.0% (utility-scale: 6.85%; small-scale: 2.16%) of total US electrical generation for January-September, up from 7.2% a year earlier.
And for the third consecutive month, utility-scale solar generated more electricity than US wind farms: by 4% in July, 15% in August, and 9% in September. Including small-scale systems, solar has outproduced wind for five consecutive months and by over 40% in September.
Wind leads among renewables
Wind turbines across the US produced 9.8% of US electricity in the first nine months of 2025 – an increase of 1.3% compared to the same period a year earlier and 79% more than that produced by US hydropower plants.
During the first nine months of 2025, electrical generation from wind plus utility-scale and small-scale solar provided 18.8% of the US total, up from 17.1% during the first three quarters of 2024.
Wind and solar combined provided 15.1% more electricity than did coal during the first nine months of this year, and 9.8% more than the US’s nuclear power plants. In fact, as solar and wind expanded, nuclear-generated electricity dropped by 0.1%.
Renewables are now only second to natural gas
The mix of all renewables (wind, solar, hydropower, biomass, and geothermal) produced 8.7% more electricity in January-September than they did a year ago, providing 25.6% of total US electricity production compared to 24.2% 12 months earlier.
Renewables’ share of electrical generation is now second to only that of natural gas, which saw a 3.8% drop in electrical output during the first nine months of 2025.
Solar + storage have dominated 2025
Between October 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025, utility-scale solar capacity grew by 31,619.5 MW, while an additional 5,923.5 MW was provided by small-scale solar. EIA foresees continued strong solar growth, with an additional 35,210.9 MW of utility–scale solar capacity being added in the next 12 months.
Strong growth was also experienced by battery storage, which grew by 59.4% during the past year, adding 13,808.9 MW of new capacity. EIA also notes that planned battery capacity additions over the next year total 22,052.9 MW.
Wind also made a strong showing during the past 12 months, adding 4,843.2 MW, while planned capacity additions over the next year total 9,630.0 MW (onshore) plus 800.0 MW (offshore).
On the other hand, natural gas capacity increased by only 3,417.1 MW and nuclear power added 46.0 MW. Meanwhile, coal capacity plummeted by 3,926.1 MW and petroleum-based capacity fell by an additional 606.6 MW.
Thus, during the past year, renewable energy capacity, including battery storage, small-scale solar, hydropower, geothermal, and biomass, ballooned by 56,019.7 MW while that of all fossil fuels and nuclear power combined actually declined by 1,095.2 MW.
The EIA expects this trend to continue and accelerate over the next 12 months. Utility-scale renewables plus battery storage are projected to increase by 67,806.1 MW (a forecast for small-scale solar is not provided). Meanwhile, natural gas capacity is expected to increase by only 3,835.8 MW, while coal capacity is projected to decrease by 5,857.0 MW, and oil capacity is anticipated to decrease by 5.8 MW. EIA does not project any new growth for nuclear power in the coming year.
SUN DAY Campaign’s executive director Ken Bossong said:
The Trump Administration’s efforts to jump-start nuclear power and fossil fuels are not succeeding. Capacity additions from solar, wind, and battery storage continue to dramatically outpace those from gas, coal, and nuclear, and by growing margins.
Read more: EIA: Solar + storage dominate, fossil fuels stagnate to August 2025
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The bZ3X is off to a strong start as Toyota’s most affordable electric SUV, starting at around $15,000 in China.
The bZ3X is a $15,000 Toyota electric SUV in China
Toyota’s joint venture, GAC Toyota, launched the bZ3X in China this March, an affordable, compact electric SUV aimed at young families.
The bZ3X is Toyota’s “first 100,000 yuan-level pure electric SUV,” starting at just 109,800 yuan, or roughly $15,000.
By May, the electric SUV was the best-selling foreign-owned EV in China, beating out the Volkswagen ID.3, Nissan N7, BMW i3, and Volkswagen ID.4 CROZZ.
According to the latest update, the bZ3X remains a hot seller. GAC Toyota announced that bZ3X sales exceeded 10,000 units for two consecutive months, with 10,010 units sold in November. Cumulative deliveries have now surpassed 62,000 units.
GAC Toyota recently put the electric SUV through rigorous testing on a winter road trip across China, “showcasing its impressive capabilities as a 100,000-yuan-class pure electric vehicle.”
Measuring 4,645 mm in length, 1,885 mm in width, and 1,625 mm in height, the bZ3X is about the same size as BYD’s popular Yuan Plus (sold as the Atto 3 overseas).
Inside, the electric SUV is a major upgrade over the Toyota vehicles we’re accustomed to, with advanced ADAS features, smart storage, and large digital screens.
The bZ3X is available in seven different trims in China, two of which include a LiDAR. Upgrading to the LiDAR version costs 149,800 yuan ($20,500).
Toyota’s electric SUV is available with 50.04 kWh and 67.92 kWh battery pack options, providing a CLTC range of 430 km (267 miles) and 610 km (379 miles), respectively.
Less than two weeks ago, GAC Toyota launched pre-sales for the bZ7, a new flagship electric sedan. According to Toyota, the new flagship EV “possesses a higher level of intelligence than any of Toyota’s offerings in global markets,” as the automaker fights to regain market share in China’s fierce auto market.
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