Theron Reever: Electric ATV that will make you stop waiting for the Tesla Cyberquad
Today, we bring you an exclusive first-drive review of the Theron Reever, an electric ATV that could make you stop waiting for the Tesla Cyberquad and set the stage for a new segment being electrified.
Over the last few years, we have seen the wave of electrification taking over the auto industry spilling over to motorsports.
Taiga Motors has been a great example with its electric snowmobile and electric jet ski, and Electrek’s own Micah Toll is constantly testing some new fun battery-powered vehicles.
Now we get to present you with a first step into electrifying a new segment in a serious way: electric ATVs.
There have been a few electric ATVs on the market already, but most of them have not been designed to be electric from the ground up; they are often converted from gasoline-powered ATVs and often with lead-acid batteries.
The Theron Reever is different. The team behind it has designed the ATV from the ground up to be the best ATV possible – to do that these days, you have to do it with a battery-electric powertrain.
Theron Reever
Theron Sport is a small start-up based in Shawinigan, Quebec, founded by engineer Bastien Theron with the goal of bringing an electric ATV to market.
Bastien, along with two partners, built a small team that developed the Reever, which could end up being the first production electric ATV built to be electric from the ground up.
The team is building the ATV itself down to the frame, and it made a point to try to source parts as locally as possible and reduce the reliance on China, where supply chain issues have immobilized many vehicle programs over the last few years.
When touring Theron’s shop, I was impressed by the level of knowledge that Bastien, the CEO and cofounder, had for every single component that was going into the electric ATVs down the wire harnesses.
One of the best examples is Theron’s battery module in the Reever. With the prototype, Theron used modules from a salvaged Tesla vehicle.
Since Tesla has open-sourced its patents, the company had the opportunity to take a lot of inspiration from the Tesla module (left) for its own battery module (right).
Theron is using similar cylindrical li-ion battery cells as Tesla’s and with its battery modules, it is able to put up to 20 kWh of battery capacity in the relatively small form factor that is the Reever ATV.
In comparison, the original Nissan Leaf, a full-size car, had a 24 kWh battery pack.
It’s hard to talk about what kind of range can be enabled with 20 kWh of battery capacity since it completely depends on how you use the ATV, but Theron quotes a range of 180 km (110 miles), which is more than the average ATV rider needs for a whole week.
It’s a two-seater, so whether or not you are alone on the ATV will have a major difference. It also has a towing capacity of up to 1,500 pounds, and it can be used as a workhorse. All those situations will affect your range.
The Theron Reever can be charged on a regular outlet overnight, or if you have a J1772 level 2 charger (like for electric cars), it will be charged up in just three hours.
The ATV’s battery pack powers a 52 kW electric motor that enables a top speed of up to 100 km/h (62 mph), which is probably faster than you ever want to go on an ATV.
Over the last year, Theron has produced several advanced prototypes of the Reever, and several of them are already in the hands of customers. It has an interesting approach to including its early clients in the development process by delivering them prototypes that they test for them. Theron regularly picks those prototypes back up to update them with production parts until they have a full production version of the Reever.
I had the opportunity to play with one of those electric Reever ATV prototypes last weekend and put a first-ride review together.
Here’s my first-ride video review of the Theron Reever electric ATV prototype:
Theron Reever pricing and availability
The company has been mostly operating in stealth mode until now. It is now advanced enough in the development process that it is comfortable taking reservations.
Simultaneously, it is currently in the process of closing a financing round that would finance its production line, which is currently being designed to bring the electric ATV to volume production next year.
You can reserve the Theron Reever for a $450 USD deposit on the company’s website.
The electric ATV starts at $14,000 USD for the version with the 10 kWh battery pack.
If you want the version with a bigger 20 kWh battery pack for more range and energy capacity, you are going to have to pay $17,500.
Both versions can be upgraded with a second motor for an all-wheel-drive powertrain for $4,000 USD.
Based on my discussions with the company, production will be limited to about 100 units in 2023, but the plan is to ramp up significantly from there with the volume production line. It is going to be a first-come, first-served kind of thing.
Electrek’s Take
I am extremely excited about this project. As I have stated before, I am often skeptical of small start-ups in the EV sphere just because of how difficult it is to bring a vehicle to market, but I am more optimistic about projects like this that don’t involve an actual car.
It’s still extremely difficult to bring an ATV to production, but the entire homologation process and regulatory space is an order of magnitude less complicated and expensive to navigate, which greatly increase the chances of success for a project like this one.
Theron is not out of the woods yet, but I like their chances, and I think that they have a good team with the right approach.
After meeting them, it has become clear that they are EV nerds who are also EV enthusiasts, and they want to create the best ATV experience possible with an electric powertrain.
They are currently completely focused on bringing the Reever to production, but there are quite a few cool things to come after that will make the ownership experience even cooler. First off, the company plans to enable Reever owners to turn their ATVs into power stations. You will be able to power most electric tools and devices anywhere using your ATV’s battery packs.
Theron also designed the vehicle to be compatible with accessories that will also be powered by the battery pack, like an electric snowblower and an intelligent trailer.
It’s hard not to get excited by this project. I reserved one, and I can’t wait.
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The Reliance Industries Ltd. oil refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat, India, on Saturday, July 31, 2021.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
India is navigating a tricky balancing act after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a “penalty” over its continued imports of Russian oil — a trade that New Delhi appears reluctant to end anytime soon.
Despite Trump telling reporters Friday that he “heard” India would halt purchases, officials in New Delhi have remained noncommittal. Foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that the country decides its energy import sources “based on the price at which oil is available in the international market and depending on the global situation at that time.”
“The Indians must be having some confusion” following Trump’s threat — a reversal from the more tolerant approach taken under the Biden administration, Bob McNally, president of consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”
“Now we’re flipping around and saying, ‘What are you doing taking all this Russian oil?'” McNally said.
In March 2022 — a month after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine — Daleep Singh, a former U.S. deputy national security adviser for international economics in the Biden administration, reportedly said that “friends don’t set red lines” and “there is no prohibition at present on energy imports from Russia.”
“What we would not like to see is a rapid acceleration of India’s imports from Russia as it relates to energy or any other exports that are currently being prohibited by us or by other aspects of the international sanctions regime,” Singh said.
On July 30, Trump announced that India would face a 25% tariff beginning Aug. 1, along with an unspecified “penalty” for buying Russian oil and military equipment.
But analysts suggest that India, which is the third-largest energy consumer in the world, isn’t blinking. Reuters reported that there are no immediate changes planned to India’s long-term contracts with Russian suppliers, citing two anonymous Indian government sources that did not wish to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Russia has become the leading oil supplier to India since the war in Ukraine began, increasing from just under 100,000 barrels per day before the invasion, or a 2.5% share of total imports, to more than 1.8 million barrels per day in 2023, or 39%. According to the International Energy Agency, 70% of Russian crude was exported to India in 2024.
India’s energy minister Hardeep Singh Puri defended New Delhi’s actions in a July 10 interview with CNBC, saying that it helped stabilize global prices and was even encouraged by the U.S.
“If people or countries had stopped buying at that stage, the price of oil would have gone up to 130 dollars a barrel. That was a situation in which we were advised, including by our friends in the United States, to please buy Russian oil, but within the price cap.”
Russian oil exports had been capped at $60 per barrel in December 2022 by the Group of Seven nations, representing the world’s top economies, while the European Union had lowered the price cap to just above $47 per barrel in July.
Still, pressure is mounting. Vishnu Varathan, Managing Director at Mizuho Securities, said that the U.S. threats present a “clear and present danger” to India. He said that New Delhi is likely to remain non-committal on oil purchases as it assesses the trade-offs of this “Russia option” as a bargaining chip.
India will need to scour the global market for comparable oil bargains with Russian oil, Varathan, who is also the head of macro research for Asia ex-Japan, added.
New Delhi could explore alternatives, including Iran — if an exemption from the U.S. can be negotiated — as well as a few other producers “either within or outside of the OPEC+ that have been pressured by the U.S,” Varathan said.
The OPEC+ bloc had agreed on Sunday to raise output by 547,000 barrels per day in September, as concerns mount over potential supply disruptions linked to Russia.
India is going to face a tough choice, Rapidan’s McNally said.
“Trump is serious. He’s frustrated with Putin… India is going to have a tough choice to make, but it’s hard to see them continuing to import that a million and a half barrels [of] Russian crude if Donald Trump decides to really put the whole relationship on the line over it.”
Wagons don’t get a lot of love Stateside, with American buyers choosing SUVs over – well, pretty much every other type of vehicle imaginable. That’s our loss, as the latest plug in hybrid versions of the Volkswagen Passat are here to prove.
The latest Passat Variant eHybrid (or, in some markets, Vario, which is what the Europeans like to call wagons) is different from the version we get in the US. Unlike the domestic version which is based on a low-cost platform specific to the US and China, the Euro-market version is built on the MQB platform that underpins VW’s flagship Arteon four-door coupe and both VW‘s and Audi’s entry-luxe SUVs.
That might seem weird, since VW has sold more than 34 million units sold worldwide and the Passat is the second top-selling Volkswagen of all time (behind the Golf and ahead of the Beetle). It’s understandable, then, that the European execs are pretty proud of their Passat.
The latest evolutionary stage of the modular transverse matrix (MQB evo)forms the highly innovative technical basis of the ninth Passat generation. Thanks to the significant economies of scale of the MQB evo, Volkswagen has again democratised numerous high-tech developments and made them available for hundreds of thousands of drivers. The two completely newly developed plug-in hybrid drives (eHybrid) are a perfect example of this. In combination with a new battery, they make all-electric ranges of around 100 km possible. This distance turns the new Passat Variant into an electric vehicle for everyday life – this is additionally ensured by short charging times as the battery can now be charged at AC charge points with 11 kW instead of the previous 3.6 kW. The Passat Variant eHybrid can even be charged with up to 50 kW at DC fast charging stations. In addition, the combination of electric drive motor and new economical turbocharged petrol engine provides overall ranges of around 1,000 km.
KAI GRÜNITZ
Member of the Brand Board of Management, VW
In case the jealous American wago-philes reading this aren’t jealous enough, Volkswagen has announced new Passat eHybrid Match and Black Editions that add nearly £5k of options for the new model year effectively for free.
“Match is better equipped than the outgoing Life, with additional features including metallic paint, VW’s IQ.Light LED matrix headlights, tinted rear windows and an ‘assistance pack’ which adds area view and emergency assist,” reports Alastair Crooks, from the UK car site AutoExpress. “The new Black Edition comes with metallic paint, 19-inch alloy wheels, a panoramic sunroof, tinted rear windows (darker than the Match’s), heated front and rear seats, a head-up display, a 15-inch central touchscreen and the same assistance pack as the Match.”
The entry-level Match replaces the previous Life trim, but costs the same £45,555 (about $60,500), while the Black Edition costs the same as the outgoing R-Line, from £48,900 (about $64,950). The order books open 14 August.
You can take a look at some of the VW press photos of the European Passat wagon Variant, below, then let us know if you’d rather have this for $60K or the discount American version in the comments.
VW Passat Variant gallery
SOURCE | IMAGES: VW, via AutoExpress.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
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Wirtgen Vögele recently revealed the battery-powered MINI 500e and the MINI 502e electric pavers. With an electrically heated screed, a range of paving widths, and zero-emission operations, they’re paving a greener, cleaner path.
Co-developed by Wirtgen Vögele and Italian road equipment manufacturer C. M. S.r.l., the new electric pavers will enable contractors to bid on construction projects that are subject to even the strictest noise and emission limits – but the company is quick to point out that they’re capable enough to serve on conventional job sites.
“These pavers excel on small-scale construction projects and jobs covering a small area – the type of work for which paving crews would not previously have been able to use machines,” reads the official Wirtgen Vögele copy. “Thanks to their elimination of manual labor, among other benefits, the new MINI pavers improve the efficiency and quality of asphalt paving, particularly in the construction of sidewalks and drains, as well as in tight downtown locations.”
The new Wirtgen MINI 502e (the one with wheels) and the MINI 500e (the one with crawler tracks) offer pave widths from 0.25 to 1.8 m, feature a battery-electric drive outputting 22.8 kW (30 hp), and your choice of either a 15 kWh or 22 kWh 48V li-ion battery – good enough battery capacity for up to 16 hours of continuing paving. Both versions can be fully charged on a conventional 110/120 “L1” power socket in about eight hours.
Electrek’s Take
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what the federal EV incentives are or even what the guys on your crew want to operate. What matters is that construction noise upsets Mrs. Clancik’s terrier, and she will force the town council to keep the noise down all by herself.
If your construction company wants to bid on any municipal work, that means you’re gonna have to stay quiet. Maybe even keep the smells to a minimum, too. Buying electric equipment means you can do both.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Wirtgen, via Construction Equipment International.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
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