Lectric eBikes reveals specs and shocking low price on its new electric trike
Phoenix-based electric bike company Lectric eBikes has been a consistent price leader in the electric bike industry. Now the company has just let it slip that they’re working on an electric trike that will be launched at an unbelievably low price. Badging on the three-wheeler seems to point to a new product in the XP line known as the Lectric XP Trike.
The company’s CEO Levi Conlow posted a teaser on Facebook earlier today, revealing that Lectric has been quietly working on an electric trike.
And not just any trike, but one that bears a price tag of just $1,499. That comes in at $1,000 less than the most recent major trike launch, the RadTrike from Rad Power Bikes.
It’s also significantly less expensive than many other electric trikes on the market that can cost well over $3,000.
The truly interesting thing about the Lectric XP Trike isn’t just the price, but rather that it appears to offer significantly more that most other trikes.
For example, instead of using a front hub motor for front wheel drive, the Lectric XP Trike uses a more sophisticated drivetrain. It features a centrally mounted motor to drive both rear wheels through a differential axle (a simplified version of the way a typical rear-wheel-drive car functions).
It looks like they actually used a hub motor mounted as a mid-drive motor, which is a rare but not totally foreign drive method. It was popularized by a highly acclaimed cargo e-bike setup known as the StokeMonkey over a decade ago, and allows a cost effective hub motor to function like a much more expensive mid-drive motor.
The Lectric XP Trike also features hydraulic disc braking in the front and rear, which is a more premium type of brake that provides higher performance and lower maintenance.
Levi listed the battery as 14Ah, though didn’t specify the voltage. Assuming it matches the 48V batteries in all of Lectric’s other e-bikes, that would put the battery at a healthy 672 Wh.
The Lectric XP Trike is also listed as fully-foldable and arriving fully-assembled, meaning riders won’t need to assemble it themselves. The inclusion of a central folding mechanism in addition to the handlebar folding mechanism should allow it to fit in tighter spaces while folded.
We’re still missing key specs on the Lectric XP Trike, but Levi shared that a full reveal will be coming later this week on January 13th.
The ultra-affordable e-trike is true to Lectric’s reputation for crazy low prices. The company’s most affordable e-bike, the $799 Lectric XP Lite, is a 48V folding e-bike with value that hasn’t been matched in the industry.
The same goes for the company’s $999 Lectric XP 3.0 e-bike, which is a 28 mph (45 km/h) dual-passenger e-bike that undercuts all the other utility e-bikes we’ve seen so far.
And even the company’s $1,799 Lectric XPremium e-bike, despite being its most expensive, is a ridiculously good deal for a mid-drive e-bike with a torque sensor and dual batteries.
Don’t believe me? Check out the video from my review of that e-bike below.
Electrek’s Take
This. Is. Huge.
I hate to describe it this way, but this is kind of a RadTrike killer. And not just that, it basically shuts down every other electric trike on the market. Period.
Compared to the RadTrike, the Lectric XP Trike has 40% more battery, dual wheel rear drive instead of single wheel front drive and hydraulic brakes. And it costs $1,000 less.
It’s unclear if those cargo baskets come with the bike or if they’re added accessories. If they do come standard then it’s an even more killer deal, as those baskets will cost you over $100 to add yourself. Many companies hold those back behind a paywall.
Of course the Lectric XP Trike also has some downsides. It doesn’t have suspension. It doesn’t have a larger tractor seat saddle like the RadTrike or some others. It seems to have a bit of a wiring mess, though that might be due to the prototype nature of what is presumably the first model that we’re looking at in the picture.
But there’s no way around it, this is a crazy deal for anyone who needs a trike due to mobility or balances issues. Or anyone who just wants a trike.
In fact, I’ve been riding the RadTrike around for an upcoming review this week (that Lectric just kind of spoiled by pre-empting with this crazy unveil… thanks, Lectric), and it’s an awesome way to get around even as a healthy, able-bodied 33-year-old. You don’t have to be up there in years to enjoy a trike, though older folks are definitely a major part of the electric trike market.
I’ll be tuning in for more details and following this Lectric XP Trike launch very closely.
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EV sales kept up their momentum in December 2024, with incentives playing a big role, according to the latest Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book report.
December’s strong EV sales saw an average transaction price (ATP) of $55,544, which helped push the industry-wide ATP higher, according to Kelley Blue Book. The December ATP for an EV was higher year-over-year by 0.8%, slightly below the industry average, and higher month-over-month by 1.1%. Tesla ATPs were higher year-over-year by 10.5%.
Incentives for EVs remained elevated in December, although they were slightly lower month-over-month at 14.3% of ATP, down from 14.7% in November.
EV incentives were higher by an impressive 41% year-over-year and have been above 12% of ATP for six consecutive months. Strong sales incentives, which averaged more than $6,700 per sale in 2024, were one reason EV sales surpassed 1.3 million units last year, according to Cox Automotive, a new record for volume and share.
(My colleague Jameson Dow reported yesterday, “In 2024, the world sold 3.5 million more EVs than it did in the previous year … This increase is larger than the 3.2 million increase in EV sales from the previous year – meaning that EV sales aren’t just up, but that the rate of growth is itself increasing.”)
Kelley Blue Book estimated that in December, approximately 84,000 vehicles – or 5.6% of total sales – transacted at prices higher than $80,000 – the highest volume ever. KBB lumps gas cars and EVs together into this luxury vehicle category, so this is where Tesla Cybertruck is slotted.
However, Tesla bundles sales figures of Cybertruck with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi(!) into a category it calls “other models,” so we don’t know for sure exactly how many Cybertrucks Tesla sold in Q4, much less in December. However, Electrek‘s Fred Lambert estimates between 9,000 and 12,000 Cybertrucks were sold in Q4, and that’s not a stellar sales figure.
What will January bring when it comes to EV ATPs? What about tax credits? Check back in a month and I’ll fill you in.
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Tesla is now claiming that Cybertruck was the ‘best-selling electric pickup in US’ last year despite not even reporting the number of deliveries.
There’s a lot of context needed here.
As we often highlighted, Tesla is sadly one of, if not the most, opaque automakers regarding sales reports.
Tesla doesn’t break down sales per model or even region.
For comparison, here’s Ford’s Q4 2024 sales report compared to Tesla’s:
You could argue that Tesla has fewer models than Ford, and that’s true, but Tesla’s report literally has two lines despite having six different models.
There’s no reason not to offer a complete breakdown like all other automakers other than trying to make it hard to verify the health of each vehicle program.
This has been the case with the Cybertruck. Tesla is bundling its Cybertruck deliveries with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi deliveries.
Despite this lack of disclosure, Tesla has been able to claim that the Cybertruck has become “the best-selling electric pickup truck” in the US in 2024:
It very well might be true. Ford disclosed 33,510 F-150 Lightning truck deliveries in the US in 2024 while most estimates are putting Cybertruck deliveries at around 40,000 units.
Those are global deliveries, but Tesla only delivered the Cybertruck in the US, Canada, and Mexico in 2024, and most of the deliveries are believed to be in the US.
However, there’s essential context needed here, as we highlighted in our recent ‘Tesla Cybertruck sales are disastrous‘ article.
First off, Tesla had a backlog of over 1 million reservations for the Cybertruck that it has been building since 2019. This led many to believe Tesla already had years of demand baked in for the truck and that production would be the constraint.
However, based on estimates, again, because Tesla refuses to disclose the data, Cybertruck deliveries were either flat or down in Q4 versus Q3 despite Tesla introducing cheaper versions of the vehicle and ramping up production.
Again, that’s after just about 40,000 deliveries.
Furthermore, with almost 11,000 deliveries in Q4 in the US, Ford more likely than not outsold Cybertruck with the F-150 Lightning in Q4.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla is in damage control here. There’s no doubt that it is having issues selling the Cybertruck.
Inventory is full of Cybertrucks and Tesla is now discounting them and offering free lifetime Supercharging.
Tesla is great at ramping up production, and it’s clear the Cybertruck is not production-constrained anymore. It is demand-constrained despite having over 1 million reservations.
Again, those reservations were made before Tesla unveiled the production version, which happened to have less range and cost significantly more.
The upcoming cheaper single motor version should help with demand, but I have serious doubts Tesla can ramp this program up to more than 100,000 units in the US.
As a reminder, Tesla installed a production capacity of 250,000 units annually and Musk said he could see Tesla selling 500,000 Cybertrucks per year.
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