Lectric eBikes fully reveals $1,499 XP Trike as latest salvo in the e-trike wars
Lectric eBikes, the Phoenix-based electric bike maker that is known for its ultralow prices, has done it again with a new budget-friendly e-bike. This time the company rolled out an electric tricycle known as the Lectric XP Trike at far below the going market rates. But how did they do it, and what makes their e-trike so affordable? Let’s check it out.
Lectric’s CEO Levi Conlow teased the Lectric XP Trike earlier this week, but now we’ve finally gotten the complete rundown of specs.
The trike features a 500-watt rear motor with a peak power rating of 1,092 watts. It is mounted on a central jackshaft at the rear of the trike to drive the two rear wheels through a differential axle, allowing two-wheel drive. The motor itself is a hub motor, though it is implemented more like a mid-drive motor.
A cursory look at the trike shows that it’s actually quite similar to Lectric’s already quite popular $999 Lectric XP 3.0 folding e-bike. You could almost say it’s a very similar bike, yet with a larger battery, hydraulic brakes, and an extra wheel.
In fact, it sort of has two extra wheels, in the sense that the rear end is similar to a trike conversion style setup that allows the front of a more typical e-bike to be combined with a trike assembly in the rear. That likely helped expedite the design process and allowed Lectric to quickly bring an electric trike to market after the last major e-trike launch, the RadTrike from Rad Power Bikes. Sticking with more standard parts that could be adapted into a three-wheeler also helped Lectric keep the cost down while maintaining a similar strategy to the Lectric XP 3.0 e-bike.
It’s a different design but one that still follows Lectric’s playbook, as the company explained:
We took our award-winning XP series e-bikes and added a bigger battery, hydraulic brakes, and a third wheel to create the industry’s first fully foldable and fully-assembled electric tricycle. This 65 lb three-wheeler is purposefully designed with convenience and fun top of mind.
At just 65 pounds (29.5 kilograms), the Lectric XP Trike’s folding frame will be a manageable lift for many people.
The frame folds in both the center and at the handlebars to fit into tight places. That handlebar folding mechanism will likely be the most useful for lowering the height of the trike to fit in SUVs and other rear-opening vehicles, though the center fold may help the smaller bundle fit into tighter closets, etc.
Folding also allows the electric trike to arrive fully assembled, meaning riders simply need to unfold it, inspect the bike and ride.
The electric three-wheeler is powered by a 48V and 14Ah battery with 672 Wh of capacity. Lectric claims that riders can travel as far as 50 miles (80 kilometers) on a single charge, though that high efficiency is likely helped by the slower 14 mph (22 km/h) top speed. A slower top speed might sound like a downer, but it is an important safety consideration for three-wheelers that can feel tippy at higher speeds.
It’s hard to say how wide the rear wheels are set on the Lectric XP Trike, but narrower wheels can compound the tipping feeling, making it important to keep speeds reasonable. Don’t expect to fly at 20-28 mph (32-45 km/h) like the rest of Lectric’s e-bikes! But at least you have both pedal assist (5 levels) and throttle to choose from.
To bring you down from top speed, the XP Trike has hydraulic disc braking and also includes a parking brake to prevent the trike from rolling away when parked on an incline. Hydraulic disc brakes are normally seen on faster and more expensive e-bikes, but the XP Trike’s massive weight capacity of 450 pounds (204 kilograms) means that it will likely need to make full use of those powerful hydraulic stoppers when fully loaded. Fortunately, the motor is rated for a peppy 65 Nm of torque to help get that weight rolling when filled to the max.
Features like the included parking brake and a new upgradable two-part seat with back rest are news to us since the teaser was shared earlier this week.
The trike rolls on a trio of 20″x 2.6″ tires that provide slightly more cushioning than most narrower street tires, perhaps offering a bit more off-road readiness than a purely urban e-bike, but not nearly as much as that provided by larger fat tires.
Since most riders will surely stick to manicured paths, the tire size is likely appropriate for the target market.
The introductory price of $1,499 will include a cargo package consisting of a front and rear basket, though it looks like that might just be a promotion for the launch. Pre-orders will open on February 17, with the XP Trike expected to begin shipping in April.
Electrek’s Take
Wow, you can’t help but be blown away by the price here.
I’m also glad to see that the company has an upgradeable saddle and a parking brake since those were two things that appeared to be missing to me when I first saw the teaser earlier this week. The included rear cargo basket also adds a ton of value to this already value-packed deal.
I definitely hope the XP Trike can live up to its wildly high weight rating of 450 pounds (204 kilograms). I imagine the company had to test at well over that amount to be able to claim that number, but it just seems quite high.
The biggest difference between this e-trike and the more expensive e-trikes is that it looks like they started with a similar base to their XP 3.0 bike instead of redesigning a ground-up trike. That’s definitely a quick way to get to a viable product and keep costs down, but I’ll certainly want to test this one out myself to see how it handles. Trikes can feel tippy when the weight is higher up, and the rear wheels aren’t very wide, so I’ll be curious to see how it feels in the rear and how stable the trike is. The wheels are only 2 inches taller than on a RadTrike, but the cargo seems to be higher also.
I might have liked to see some suspension or a multispeed drivetrain instead of the single speed, but it’s hard to complain about leaving too much off when the price is this low. And at these slow speeds, I can get by with both no suspension and a single-gear ratio.
There’s no denying it – the XP Trike brings affordable electric tricycles to folks that can’t afford several thousands of dollars for the higher-end e-trikes. And it does it with some good components thrown in too. The last thing a retiree wants to be doing is spending time on their hands and knees adjusting mechanical brakes, so seeing components like hydraulic disc brakes makes me very happy. I am curious to see how they implemented a parking brake, though, since those can be tricky on hydraulic brake setups.
Here’s looking forward to hopefully trying one of these soon to see how it stacks up to other e-trikes I’ve tested, like the RadTrike.
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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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