Seattle-based electric bicycle manufacturer Rad Power Bikes has just unveiled its latest model, the RadTrike. Expanding upon Rad’s extensive line of diverse two-wheeled electric bicycles, the RadTrike offers a new three-wheeler option designed to open the door to a wider range of riders.
How much does the RadTrike cost?
Priced at $2,499, the RadTrike might not sound very budget-level when compared against the company’s other bikes starting at nearly half that price.
But compared to most electric trikes, it’s a deal.
But not only is the new RadTrike perhaps the most affordable electric trike available from a major manufacturer, but it’s also finally offering what it says is “the single most requested model in Rad’s history.”
RadTrike launched as three-wheeled e-bike
The model has been a long time coming, as Rad Power Bikes founder and chairman Mike Radenbaugh explained:
The journey to the RadTrike began with one of my first customers who couldn’t ride a traditional bike due to health issues. Since that early interaction, I’ve had countless conversations with customers looking to Rad for more solutions. Fast forward to now, we’ve honed our expertise to create a high-value, purpose-built three-wheel option that will popularize another micromobility category. The RadTrike is the next big acceleration in our mission to make transportation energy efficient, enjoyable, and accessible to all.
Rad Power Bikes has long been a favorite among returning riders – those that enjoyed riding bicycles decades ago but have since given it up due to the exertion required.
Electric bicycles make it easier to ride thanks to an assist motor that lets riders use less pedaling effort (or no pedaling effort if they elect to use the hand throttle).
But for riders who lack not just the strength to pedal by themselves but also the balance required by a two-wheeled bike, electric trikes can be the perfect solution.
That was a big part of the inspiration behind the RadTrike, as Rad Power Bikes senior product manager Sarah Bruce Courtney explained:
To some, two wheels is daunting and prohibitive. That’s why we created RadTrike. It was engineered specifically for comfort and stability but designed for fun and adventure. It was thoughtfully crafted so those who simply haven’t ridden a bike in a while, struggle with balance, or face mobility challenges can ride Rad with friends and family. Now, these individuals can ride to the grocery store, cruise around their neighborhood, or pursue new outdoor activities.
The RadTrike folds for easy storage in a car or other cramped places.
Who is it for?
But the RadTrike isn’t just for older riders or those with mobility issues. As Mike Radenbaugh explained on a call with Electrek, he envisions the three-wheeler being used in a number of roles ranging from leisure to utility.
And with the ability to load up baskets on the front and back of the trike with heavy cargo (and not having to balance that tippy load on just two wheels), e-trikes have the added benefit of serving as ultra-stable cargo platforms.
The RadTrike is designed with that stability in mind. When looking at early pictures of the bike, I commented to Mike that it seemed to be wider in the rear than other e-trikes I’ve seen. He explained that they designed it to be as wide as possibility for stability while still fitting through a standard exterior door.
The 18″ wheels also offer a compromise between the compactness of 16″ wheels and the better ride quality of larger 20″ wheels.
Speaking of compactness, the RadTrike is designed to fold. That makes it easier to store in a tight space or transport in a vehicle. It can fold in half like a typical folding e-bike, but if riders only need to get it into the back of a minivan or SUV, then the handlebars can be folded down to lower the height of the bike during transport.
RadTrike design features
Other familiar e-bike parts that we’ve seen on other Rad bikes are the five levels of pedal assist as well as throttle control. Though on the RadTrike, pedal-assist level 1 is designed to be extra slow and match an average walking pace. That allows someone riding a RadTrike to pedal along while still keeping pace with their walking partner.
The single-speed setup is optimized for a more typical trike speed or around 8-12 mph (13-20 km/h), though the bike can reach a top speed of 14 mph (22.5 km/h). That might sound slow compared to the rest of Rad’s 20 mph (32 km/h) e-bikes, but trust me when I tell you that everything feels faster on a trike. In fact, everything feels tippier too, which is why the speed is lower. Slowing down for turns is an important part of riding a trike to ensure that all the wheels stay firmly planted on the ground. The extra wide design of the RadTrike combined with the smaller wheel size create a lower center of gravity that helps increase its stability, but that still doesn’t mean anyone should try to turn this thing at 20 mph.
Some other unique parts on the RadTrike are a reverse feature, a 750W front wheel motor, a parking brake (since the lack of a kickstand means it could theoretically roll away if parked on a hill) as well as a coaster brake in the rear. An updated design is implemented for the 48V 10.4Ah battery pack, including a more precise 10-segment state-of-charge readout on the battery case.
There’s no suspension on the bike, but it’s also designed for smoother paths. This certainly isn’t an off-roading trike with fat tires — it’s a bike lane trike. Plus the steel frame has more flex than rigid aluminum frames, which should add a bit more absorption on bumps.
The removable battery is said to offer a range of 20-35 miles (32-56 km), and the comfy seat with backrest should make those miles quite pleasurable as well.
With a payload capacity of 415 pounds (188 kg), the RadTrike can fit both larger riders and a pile of cargo. It is also compatible with a large amount of Rad’s existing accessory line, including many of the cargo basket accessories, so riders will be able to haul around groceries and gear right from the start.
They won’t have to wait long either, as the RadTrike is already available to order for $2,499 with inventory ready to ship out in mid-January. Those wanting to take a test ride can find the RadTrike in stock at Rad’s flagship stores in Seattle; Brooklyn, NY; Huntington Beach, CA; Salt Lake City; and soon in St. Petersburg, FL.
Electrek’s Take
Yes, sign me up! I know it might sound strange but I actually love electric trikes. I see them as the pickup trucks or the SUVs of the e-bike world (without the egregious waste of resources of those actual vehicles).
They take bicycle parts and combine them into something that can comfortably haul around so much more.
Rad is being very careful to shy away from calling the RadTrike a kid-carrying vehicle, which I understand from the liability side. But at the same time, that’s going to be a HUGE feature for something like this. Where I live in Tel Aviv, it’s common to see parents riding an e-trike for school drop-off with two or three kids on a bench on back. I’ve even seen four kids with a dad on an e-trike (the smallest child was on a front-mounted child seat). Around here e-trikes are just treated as an obvious choice for a second vehicle. If one parent is already out with the family car, then the other parent can do after-school pickup on the trike.
Obviously you have to ride extra safely when you have kids on board, but in that sense the RadTrike could be a huge opportunity to legitimately replace a second family car with an e-bike (err, e-trike).
And of course when you factor in all that cargo space for grocery runs and other gear-intensive trips, this thing is a no-brainer.
So while it’s definitely going to be a nice option for the elderly and balance-impaired, don’t count it out as a totally normal e-bike for those that just want a bigger pedal vehicle for carrying more stuff. Like I said, the RadTrike is the SUV of the e-bike world.
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Global renewable developer and energy giant RWE has halted its US offshore wind operations “for the time being” because of the “political environment” the Trump administration has created.
RWE, Germany’s biggest electricity producer, said in March that it had dialed back its US offshore wind activities. But now, CEO Marcus Krebber said in a speech transcript, which he’ll deliver at the company’s Annual General Meeting in Essen on April 30, that its US offshore wind business is now closed (but it wasn’t all bad news):
In the US, where we have stopped our offshore activities for the time being, our business in onshore wind, solar energy, and battery storage has so far been developing very dynamically. At the start of this year, we reached an important milestone when our US generation capacity hit the 10 gigawatt mark. The construction of a further 4 gigawatts is secured.
He went on to say that renewables have created regional value and jobs, but that the company remains “cautious given the political developments.” RWE has introduced more stringent requirements for future US investments:
All necessary federal permits must be in place. Tax credits must be safe harbored and all relevant tariff risks mitigated. In addition, onshore wind and solar projects must have secured offtake at the time of the investment decision. Only if these conditions are met will further investments be possible, given the political environment.
About half of RWE’s installed renewable capacity is in the US, where it’s the third-largest renewable energy company through its subsidiary, RWE Clean Energy. RWE holds the rights to develop US offshore wind projects in New York, Louisiana, and California.
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RWE paid $1.1 billion for the New York lease area in 2022, where it’s meant to develop the 3 gigawatt (GW) Community Offshore Wind with the UK’s National Grid. Community Offshore Wind was projected to come online in the early 2030s and expected to power more than a million homes.
The developer paid $5.6 billion for the Louisiana lease in the Gulf of Mexico in 2023 as the lone bidder for development rights, and the Canopy Offshore Wind project off Northern California was not expected to be completed for another decade.
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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and his allies have raked in nearly $900,000 in trading fees over the past two days from the president’s $TRUMP cryptocurrency token, according to Chainalysis, a blockchain data company.
The surge came after a Wednesday announcement in which the top 220 holders of the token were promised dinner with the president.
“Have Dinner in Washington, D.C. With President Trump,” reads a message on the front page of the Trump coin’s website. The event, which is black tie optional and hosted at the president’s private club in the Washington area, is scheduled for May 22, with a reception for the top 25 holders. A “VIP White House Tour” will take place the following day, the site says. The website also hosts an active leaderboard displaying the usernames of top buyers.
The $TRUMP memecoin jumped more than 50% on the dinner news, boosting its total market value to $2.7 billion. It was met with fierce criticism from some of Trump’s political opponents who said the move was further evidence that the president was using crypto to enrich himself. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a prominent Trump critic, wrote on X that the sale was “the most brazenly corrupt thing a President has ever done. Not close.”
Roughly 80% of the $TRUMP token supply is controlled by the Trump Organization and affiliates, according to the project’s website. Since its launch in January, trading activity has generated about $324.5 million in trading fees for insiders, Chainalysis found. These fees are generated through the token’s built-in mechanism that routes a percentage of each trade to wallets controlled by the project — wallets that, according to the website, are linked to the coin’s creators.
Memecoins, often referred to as meme tokens, are a subset of digital assets that use blockchain technology and derive their value largely from internet culture, memes and social media hype rather than from an underlying utility or asset. The originators of memecoins can make fees when their coins are bought and sold.
They have grown in popularity in recent years as speculative assets, with some coins including dogecoin and fartcoin amassing total market values in excess of $1 billion.
Most of the $TRUMP supply remains locked under a three-year vesting plan, with coins gradually becoming available over time. Lockups like these are meant to protect investors by preventing insiders from cashing out all at once — a scheme commonly known in the crypto world as a “rug pull.” Vesting schedules aim to give retail buyers confidence that early holders won’t overwhelm the market and tank the token’s value.
Still, the dinner contest is being viewed by critics as an unusually explicit attempt to monetize presidential access.
As CNBC reported Friday, Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts are urging the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to investigate whether the promotion constitutes “pay to play” corruption.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The company behind the memecoin also did not respond to a request for comment.
Delaney Marsco, the director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit focused on campaign finance and government accountability, told NBC News the coin and dinner contest amounted to an unprecedented ethics breach — though it is unlikely to be illegal.
“Criminal conflicts of interest statutes don’t apply to the President,” she said. “That has allowed him to go against decades of of norms that every modern president since Carter has adhered to, which is to divest your financial interests, rid yourself of your businesses, and kind of go in to the presidency with a clean financial slate so that no one could accuse you of manipulating policy decisions or using your position in order to enrich yourself.”
“The fact that he is not barred by the law from having these financial interests like this meme coin allows him to engage in a lot of seemingly corrupt activity. It has the appearance of a pay to play, so the President is apparently selling access to himself,” Marsco added.
Molly White, an independent crypto researcher, told NBC News that the leaderboard only shows top $TRUMP holders — and then only by their chosen screen name, making it difficult to identify who is paying to potentially join the dinner.
Schiff and Warren have cited public reports showing that some $TRUMP investors have ties to foreign exchanges or received funds from crypto platforms banned in the U.S., including Binance.
White also noted that at least one top $TRUMP owner has an account on Binance, a cryptocurrency company that doesn’t allow American users.
Trump was elected with significant help from the cryptocurrency industry, which poured tens of millions of dollars into the 2024 election, outpacing corporate donations from traditional sectors like banking and oil. After opposing digital assets during his first term, Trump pivoted in 2024 to campaign as a champion of cryptocurrency, casting Democrats as hostile to innovation and as advocating for tighter regulation.
The $TRUMP token itself offers no product or service, according to the project’s website. It is part of a broader push by the Trump family into digital assets, despite the market’s volatility and regulatory risks.
In addition to the $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins, the family is backing World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance venture that has raised $550 million across two token sales since last October. Buyers are barred from reselling their tokens and receive no share of profits — but a Trump-affiliated entity is entitled to 75% of net revenue, including token sale proceeds.
Together, these projects have created new streams of revenue for Trump and his inner circle at a time when regulatory oversight of cryptocurrency has weakened sharply under his administration.
It’s that time of year again, time for events across the country to show off electric vehicles at Drive Electric Earth Month.
Drive Electric Earth Month is an offshoot of Drive Electric Week, a long-running annual tradition hosting meetups mostly in the US, but also occasionally in other countries. It started as Drive Electric Earth Day, but since not every event can happen on the same day, they went ahead and extended it to encompass “Earth Month” events that happen across the month of April. It’s all organized by Plug In America, the Sierra Club, the Electric Vehicle Association, EV Hybrid Noire, and Drive Electric USA.
Events consist of general Earth Day-style community celebrations, EV Ride & Drives where you can test drive several EVs in one place, and opportunities to talk to EV owners and ask them questions about what it’s like to live with an EV, away from the pressure of a dealership.
But the bulk of the events happened on the weekends surrounding Earth Day, April 22, so there were several last weekend and will be even more this upcoming weekend.
There are plenty of events in the big cities where you’d expect, but Plug In America wanted to highlight a few of the events in smaller places around the country. Here’s a sampling of upcoming events:
Big Island EV – Cruise and Picnic in Waimea, HI on April 26, 10am-1pm – EV drivers will congregate in various places around the Big Island (Kona, Waimea, Waikoloa and Hilo), then drive up Saddle Road to the Gil Kahele Recreation Area on Mauna Kea for a potluck and a chance to talk about the experience of owning EVs on the Big Island.
Santa Barbara Earth Day 2025 and Green Car Show in Santa Barbara, CA on April 26-27, 11am-8pm – This is part of Santa Barbara’s Earth Day celebration, which routinely attracts 30,000 participants and is one of the longest-running Earth Day celebrations on the planet. The Green Car Show includes ride & drives and an “Owners Corner” where owners can showcase their EVs and attendees can check them out and ask questions.
Earth Day’25 – EV’s role in a sustainable future in Queretaro City, Mexico on April 26, 9am-4pm – The sole Mexican event, this is a combined in-person/online seminar at the Querétaro Institute of Technology.
Norman Earth Day Festival in Norman, OK on April 27, 12-5pm – Another municipal Earth Day festival, with hands-on activities for kids to learn about the environment. A portion of the parking lot reserved for an EV car show for EV owners who pre-register to show off their vehicles.
Oregon Electric Vehicle Association Test Drive & Information Expo in Portland, OR on April 27, 10am-4pm – This one is at Daimler Truck’s North American HQ, and will have several EVs for test drives, owner displays (including DIY gas-to-EV conversions), and keynote presentations by EV experts. They’ll even have a 1914 Detroit Electric EV available for test rides!
And, we at Electrek want to give a shoutout to Rove’s EV Drive Days in Santa Ana 10am-3pm April 28 – ROVE is the company behind the “full-service” EV charging concept that we’ve talked about several times here on Electrek, and we like what they’re doing for EV charging. They’ve hosted a few community events, and this is their contribution to Earth Month.
Each event has a different assortment of activities (e.g. test drives won’t be available at every event, generally just the larger ones attended by local dealerships), so be sure to check the events page to see what the plan is for your local event.
These events have offered a great way to connect with owners and see the newest electric vehicle tech, and even get a chance to do test rides and drives in person. Attendees got to hear unfiltered information from actual owners about the benefits and trials of owning EVs, allowing for longer and more genuine (and often more knowledgeable) conversations than one might normally encounter at a dealership.
And if you’re an owner – you can show off your car and answer those questions for interested onlookers.
To view all the events and see what’s happening in your area, you can check out the list of events or the events map. You can also sign up to volunteer at your local events, and if you plan to show off your electric car, you can RSVP on each event page and list the vehicle that you plan to show (or see what other vehicles have already registered).
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