As much fun as e-bikes are for getting around the city, I love taking them off-road and onto trails. That’s where fat tires really come alive, and the Denago Fat Tire Step-Thru electric bike showcases just what I love about e-bikes with big honkin’ tires.
This definitely isn’t a mountain bike or overlanding bike – this is a comfortable bike that can handle both light trails and urban/suburban riding. That means it’s going to be a great option for nature trails, gravel paths, dirt roads, and that sort of riding.
Between a powerful motor, large capacity battery and a comfortable setup, the Denago Fat Tire Step-Thru has a nice assortment of features and components for recreational riding on a wide range of terrains.
Check out my video review below if you want to see my real world testing of the bike. Then keep scrolling for my complete review.
Denago Fat Tire Step-Thru e-bike video review
Denago Fat Tire Step-Thru tech specs
- Motor: 750 W rear geared hub motor with 80 Nm torque
- Top speed: 20 mph (32 km/h) on throttle, 28 mph (45 km/h) on pedal assist
- Range: 35-60 mi (55-100 km)
- Battery: 48V 19.2Ah (921 Wh) frame-integrated, removable
- Max load: 300 lb (136 kg)
- Frame: 6061 aluminum
- Weight: 79 lb (36 kg)
- Suspension: Zoom fork, 60-75 mm travel (depends on bike size)
- Brakes: Hydraulic disc brakes, 180 mm rotors
- Extras: Color LCD display with speedometer, wattmeter, battery gauge, PAS level indicator, odometer, tripmeter, USB charger, left-side thumb throttle, torque sensor, included front and rear fenders, rear rack, headlight and frame-integrated tail lights
A balance of power and comfort
If you’ve been into e-bikes for a while or have begun digging into the topic ahead of buying your first e-bike, you’ll know that suspension and fat tires are two of the best things you can do for comfort. While the Denago here doesn’t have full-suspension, it almost feels like it does thanks to front suspension and plush fat tires. The lack of rear suspension is only noticeable on big obstacles and angry pot holes.
For the gravel roads and light trails that I spent most of my time riding on, the bike had plenty of shock absorption for me.
It also had plenty of power, combining a 750W motor with a top speed of 28 mph on pedal assist. Checking with a GPS speedometer showed that the 28 mph was often reading a big high by around one or two miles per hour, but it was pretty darn close. Optimistic speedometers are pretty common in the e-bike industry, unfortunately.
The 750W motor is quite torquey and will get you rolling quickly as well as climb a decent hill, though the bike’s heavy weight of 79 lbs (36 kg) certainly works against it when it comes to acceleration and hills. The included torque sensor should help mitigate that weight on startup by better translating your pedal force into responsive pedal assist, though I found that it strangely still had a decent pedal assist lag. Torque sensors normally help e-bikes start applying pedal assist power nearly immediately when the rider begins pedaling, but the Denago still had a bit of a lag. It was nothing that a short blip of the throttle couldn’t compensate for, but it still surprised me, and not in a good way.
What did surprise me in a good way was the range. With a big battery measuring 921 Wh, I could get a real world throttle range of over 35 miles (56 km), which is quite good for heavy fat tire e-bikes. With pedal assist in a low power level, I’d expect that to be over 60 miles (100 km) of range, though I couldn’t be bothered to keep it in low power mode for that long to find out. Higher power pedal assist and riding fast is just too tempting to pass up.
For any fast e-bike like this, I absolutely want to see strong brakes as an important safety feature. Fortunately, Denago delivers with hydraulic stoppers on large 180 mm discs. This is a huge win for me because there’s nothing worse than struggling to stop a heavy e-bike. Powerful brakes make the bike more controllable and give riders more confidence.
To afford those nice brakes, the company must have saved a few dollars on the drivetrain. You get a 7-speed shifter, but it’s not a particularly nice one. The Shimano Tourney setup is on the lower end of Shimano’s hierarchy but is acceptable for the type of leisure and recreational riding that most people will use this e-bike for, which is exactly how I was riding it.
To make up for the fairly basic transmission, we get some really nice integrated tail lights. In fact, this bike must either be built in the same factory as Aventon’s e-bikes, or else Denago just ripped off their tail light design, because these awesome tail lights look and feel just like the ones that debuted on the Aventon Aventure last year and and have since found their way onto most of Aventon’s other e-bikes.
Regardless of where they came from, I’m a huge fan of frame-integrated lighting because it is harder to damage. E-bike lights that stick out are prime targets for damage at bike racks or anywhere else that bikes come into close contact with other bikes or objects. These frame integrated lights are slim and tucked away yet still quite visible to cars and other road users.
In fact, this would have been a prime opportunity to incorporate turn signals since the tail lights are actually spread apart. I’ve talked before about how I find most e-bike turn signals to be gimmicky since they are usually only a couple inches apart on a main central tail light. But with two independent lights on either side of the bike’s rear triangle, this could have been a great turn signal setup. Oh well, maybe on the next version.
Even so, there’s still a lot to like here. We’ve got a comfortable trail bike with a nice and accessible step-through frame design. We’ve got plenty of power and even more battery capacity than I know what to do with. There are nice components like those brakes and even a color LCD screen, and there are even two different sizes to better fit larger and smaller riders.
The Denago Fat Tire Step-Thru e-bike may have a few cheaper parts and carry some extra poundage, but it wears the weight well by not feeling too bulky while riding (just be careful lifting it by yourself!).
At the MSRP of $1,999, I’m not entirely blown away. It’s not a bad price when you compare it to other full-featured bikes. It’s only a hundred bucks more than the Aventon Aventure.2, and comes with 33% more battery. But there are certainly better bang-for-your-buck deals out there. People often point to budget rides like the Lectric XP 3.0, and I’d agree that you get a lot with those types of e-bikes, but they don’t have the range or big-wheel comfort to match this ride. So if you want a large, comfortable bike that comes with lots of power and battery, you’ve got to pay for those luxuries. And in this case, you’ll have to fork over a cool two G’s. A bit pricey, but still a great e-bike for cruising.
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It flies, it floats, it’s electric — and now it’s officially a hit. The world’s first electric hydrofoil ferry, a Candela P-12 vessel named Nova, has wrapped up its first season of public service in Stockholm, and new data confirms what many suspected: this sleek, silent, water-skimming machine isn’t just a cool piece of tech — it’s also wildly successful.
The Nova, which first entered Stockholm’s public transport system last fall, uses a combination of electric propulsion and hydrofoil technology to quite literally lift above the water. This reduces drag, increases efficiency, and makes it the fastest electric passenger vessel in the world, cruising comfortably at 25 knots (around 29 mph or 46 km/h).
As it prepares to return to the water on April 15 after a winter pause, Stockholm’s public transport authority has released performance data from Nova’s autumn run. The numbers reveal that the boat isn’t just fast — it’s popular, green, and pulling people out of their cars.
Compared to the diesel ferries it operates alongside, Nova emits 95% less CO₂ and uses 84% less energy per passenger-kilometer. That translates to just 23 grams of CO₂ per passenger-kilometer, compared to 439 grams for the older diesel vessels. In other words, it’s a drop in a bucket compared to the old standard.
It’s not just an environmental win — it’s a rider favorite too. With 80% average occupancy (and many trips fully booked), Nova has become quite literally one of the hottest tickets on Stockholm’s Route 89. Some of that success may come from its 30-minute travel time between Tappström and Stockholm City Hall — roughly half the time it takes to get there by car or bus.
The numbers are clear with the data revealing that Nova attracts more people to travel on water, with a 30% increase in ridership on route 89. According to Candela CEO Gustav Hasselskog, this shows that high-speed, comfortable waterborne transit can actually convert car commuters into ferry riders — a holy grail for sustainable city planning.
In response to the strong demand, Region Stockholm will expand Nova’s service from five to six days a week this spring, and to daily operations by May. In August, the pilot program will be evaluated — and Candela is already eyeing more routes across Stockholm’s vast archipelago.
The P-12’s combination of speed, silence, and ultra-low operating costs makes it ideal for routes with moderate passenger volume — a gap that many traditional ferries struggle to serve efficiently.
Candela isn’t stopping in Sweden, either. The company already has customers lined up in Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, and the U.S., suggesting that this may be just the beginning of the era of flying electric ferries.
“We are incredibly happy that Region Stockholm has enabled us to demonstrate the hydrofoil technology in the city’s public transport. We see that waterways in most cities have enormous potential for fast, low-cost, and emission-free transport that can relieve road networks and increase accessibility,” said Hasselskog. “This is just the beginning.”
Electrek’s Take
I’ve followed Candela with such interest over the years not just because of their fun electric speedboats (though I love those too, as you can tell from my first ride video below), but also because of the company’s ability to help take more cars off the road and switch commuters to ferry riders.
As someone who lives a largely car-free lifestyle, that’s huge for me. When we talk about reforming urban transportation, such lofty goals require a holistic approach and we should include a diverse field of options that can work together to achieve those intentions. Flying electric boats might not be most people’s first thought, but they achieve the same goal as many other alternatives, shifting commuters to more sustainable alternatives to cars.
We’ve already seen how capable electric hydrofoil ferries like these are, even watching the Candela P-12 tackle large swells in open seas. So short commutes like these that allow rapid recharging via DC Fast Charging at each stop make so much sense for such a capable machine.
Even when compared to traditional electric ferries, which are already an improvement by reducing emissions, electric hydrofoil ferries like these go so much further. They not only use even less energy than a traditional electric ferry, but they offer a faster trip and a smoother ride, making the idea of ferry travel that much more enticing. In this case seen in Stockholm, commuters get to arrive faster, more comfortably, and in a pretty cool way. That’s a win-win-win if you ask me!
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Renewables and nuclear provided 40.9% of the world’s power generation in 2024, passing the 40% mark for the first time since the 1940s, according to a new global energy think tank Ember report.
Renewables added a record 858 TWh in 2024, 49% more than the previous high in 2022. Solar was the largest contributor for the third year running, adding 474 TWh to reach a share of 6.9%. Solar was the fastest-growing power source (+29%) for the 20th year in a row.
Solar has doubled in just three years, providing more than 2,000 TWh of electricity in 2024. Wind generation also grew to 8.1% of global electricity, while hydro – the single largest renewable source – remained steady at 14% of global electricity.
“Solar power has become the engine of the global energy transition,” said Phil MacDonald, Ember’s managing director. “Paired with battery storage, solar is set to be an unstoppable force. As the fastest-growing and largest source of new electricity, it is critical in meeting the world’s ever-increasing demand for electricity.”
Ember’s sixth annual Global Electricity Review, published today, provides the first comprehensive overview of the global power system in 2024 based on country-level data. It’s published alongside the world’s first open dataset on electricity generation in 2024, covering 88 countries that account for 93% of global electricity demand, as well as historical data for 215 countries.
What drove the rising power demand
The analysis finds that fossil fuels also saw a small 1.4% increase in 2024 due to surging electricity demand, pushing global power sector emissions up 1.6% to an all-time high.
Heatwaves were the main driver of the rise in fossil generation, accounting for almost a fifth (+0.7%) of the increase in global electricity demand in 2024 (+4.0%), mainly through additional use of cooling. Without these temperature effects, fossil fuel generation would have risen by only 0.2%, as clean electricity generation met 96% of the demand growth not caused by hotter temperatures.
“Amid the noise, it’s essential to focus on the real signal,” continued MacDonald. “Hotter weather drove the fossil generation increase in 2024, but we’re very unlikely to see a similar jump in 2025.”
Aside from weather effects, the increasing use of electricity for AI, data centers, EVs, and heat pumps is already contributing to global demand growth. Combined, the growing use of these technologies accounted for a 0.7% increase in global electricity demand in 2024, double what they contributed five years ago.
Clean power will grow faster than demand
Ember’s report shows that clean generation growth is set to outpace faster-rising demand in the coming years, marking the start of a permanent decline in fossil fuel generation. The current expected growth in clean generation would be sufficient to meet a demand increase of 4.1% per year to 2030, which is above expectations for demand growth.
“The world is watching how technologies like AI and EVs will drive electricity demand,” said MacDonald. “It’s clear that booming solar and wind are comfortably set to deliver, and those expecting fossil fuel generation to keep rising will be disappointed.”
Beyond emerging technologies, the growth trajectories of the world’s largest emerging economies will play a crucial role in defining the global outlook. More than half of the increase in solar generation in 2024 was in China, with its clean generation growth meeting 81% of its demand increase in 2024. India’s solar capacity additions in 2024 doubled compared to 2023. These two countries are at the forefront of the drive to clean power and will help tip the balance toward a decline in fossil generation at a global level.
Professor Xunpeng Shi, president of the International Society for Energy Transition Studies (ISETS), said: “The future of the global power system is being shaped in Asia, with China and India at the heart of the energy transition. Their increasing reliance on renewables to power demand growth marks a shift that will redefine the global power sector and accelerate the decline of fossil fuels.”
Read more: Made-in-America solar just got a big win in Louisiana
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The next-gen LEAF is almost here, and it’s looking better than ever. This isn’t the electric hatch you are used to seeing. Nissan’s new LEAF EV has more range, a fresh crossover design, and yes, it can finally charge up at Tesla Superchargers with an NACS port. With the official reveal just around the corner, someone already spotted the new LEAF at a Tesla charger in Canada.
Nissan is launching the new LEAF in the US and Canada
A little over a week ago, we finally got our first look at the third-generation LEAF. Nissan’s iconic electric hatch has grown into a “sleek and spacious family-friendly crossover.”
The US and Canada will be the first to see the reimagined LEAF later this year. It will join the Ariya in Nissan’s North American EV lineup as it looks to spark growth in one of its most important markets.
Based on the CMF-EV platform, the same one underpinning the Ariya, Nissan promises the new LEAF will have “significant range improvements.” Although no other details were revealed, Nissan’s vehicle programs chief, Francois Bailly, told TopGear.com that it’s expected to have WLTP driving range of up to 373 miles (600 km).
It will likely be lower on the EPA scale, but anything even close to 300 miles would be a major improvement over the current 212 EPA-estimated miles offered on the 2025 LEAF SV Plus.
The next-gen LEAF will also be Nissan’s first EV to feature an integrated NACS charging port. With its official debut later this year, the new model is out for testing and was just caught testing at a Tesla Supercharger in Canada.
If you didn’t know what vehicle it is, the LEAF is hardly recognizable. The new image from KindelAuto gives us a closer look at the new crossover design. It almost looks like a Tesla sitting in front of the charger.
The new LEAF is one of 10 new and refreshed Nissan vehicles set to launch in the US and Canada. It will arrive later this year, followed by the fourth-gen Rogue in 2026, which will be available as a PHEV for the first time.
Nissan also plans to build a new “adventure-focused SUV” at its Canton, Mississippi, plant in late 2027. The teaser shows what appears to be a rugged electric Xterra. We’ll have to wait for more details on that one.
Nissan will reveal additional info about the upcoming LEAF mid-year. Check back soon for more updates.
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