Lectric XP Trike first ride: Testing the low-cost electric trike made for everyone
Lectric eBikes is know for two things – making affordable e-bikes and making a lot of them. The company’s main goal has been to look at the e-bike market, figure out what people want, and find a way to make it more affordable. They’v’e done it time and again with their other e-bikes and that’s exactly what they’ve done this time with the new Lectric XP Trike.
The company invited me out to see the new e-trike at their headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona. There I had the chance to hop aboard and get a sense of just what this $1,499 electric trike can do.
And the answer, it turns out, is a lot. It can haul. It can climb. It can fold. It’s a three-wheeled Swiss Army knife with a ridiculous amount of torque and seating for one.
I only spent a single day with the capable little trike, and so this isn’t a full review… yet. That’s still to come. But even with only a few hours in the saddle, I can already tell you that this is absolutely going to be a major hit… if they can keep it in stock.
Check out how the Lectric XP Trike performed in my first ride video below. Then keep reading for the nitty gritty details.
Lectric XP First Ride video
What the e-trike offers
Let’s nail the specs right away, so we can quickly get to the ride.
I’d say that the trike is almost like a three-wheeled version of the famous $999 Lectric XP 3.0 folding e-bike, albeit with hydraulic brakes, a bigger battery, and an extra wheel.
The Lectric XP Trike has a 500W motor that puts out 1,092 peak watts of power. It’s mounted in a mid-drive setup as the trike’s jackshaft, giving it the ability to power both of the rear wheels via an open differential axle.
It draws power from a 48V 14Ah battery with 672 Wh of capacity, which is enough for 60 miles (96 km) of range in the lowest power mode on pedal assist. But honestly, even on throttle at the trike’s top speed of 14 mph (22 km/h), you’ll probably still get a solid 30-40 miles (48-64 km).
The bike rolls on 20″ x 2.6″ tires, has a single speed drivetrain, and rocks hydraulic disc brakes on 180 mm discs. The brake levers each have a parking brake, which I’ve never seen before on hydraulic brakes.
The 69.5 lb (31.5 kg) e-bike folds to fit in tight spaces, and that folding trick allows it to arrive in fully-assembled form. You don’t have to bolt anything together, you just unfold it and ride. That’s going to be a major benefit for many riders, especially older ones that don’t want to be bent over a box lifting a 70 pound bike around.
Speaking of weight, it’s actually relatively lightweight for an electric trike. And the low step-through size makes it great for shorter riders down to 4’10” (147 cm). It’s apparently good for taller riders also, with a rating for folks up to 6’4″ (193 cm). I’m squarely in the middle of that range, so I can’t personally speak to the extremes, but it felt great to me in terms of sizing.
It can also fit a wide range of rider weights thanks to its maximum capacity of 330 lb (150 kg). In addition to the rider payload, the rear rack can carry 75 lb (34 kg), while the front basket can carry 35 lb (16 kg).
And as part of the launch, Lectric is including the cargo package consisting of the front and rear basket for free! Getting an entire trike plus the cargo package for just $1,499 is a hell of a deal.
So how does it ride?
Here’s the crazy part: Despite being nice and gentle when you keep it in the lower power modes, there’s some significant torque in the higher power modes that is great for hill climbing.
The Lectric team took me to a hill that looked like a small mountain, and I was able to ride the Lectric XP Trike right up the side of it. We even put a few dozen pounds of steel weight in the rear basket to give me a sense of what it’d be like if I was a heavier rider. The trike didn’t care – it just kept climbing like a machine.
Coming back down the side of the mountain helped me appreciate those hydraulic disc brakes, especially when I remembered how much steel weight I had in the back.
Moving to a park next, I did a combination of paved trail and off-road grass riding. The trike performed well at both. Tight donuts are even possible, though you have to be careful about going too tight. I could get the outer wheel to lift up in tight turns if I really tried, but it was something I had to make an effort to achieve. I never felt like I would tip in a normal turn.
Is it as stable as the RadTrike? Not quite. That one feels like the king of stable trikes to me. And the Lectric XP Trike is a tad narrower in the back and has a bit higher center of gravity with taller wheels and a higher cargo rack in back. But it still feels plenty stable, and I’d be comfortable putting my parents on it – if that puts things into perspective.
While there’s no suspension on the trike, you’re never really going fast enough to feel like it’s critical. Suspension is more important to me at higher speeds where I hit obstacles with more force and where I have less time to avoid them. At a maximum speed of 14 mph, you see things coming up in slow motion and can easily wiggle around them.
As you can see in the video above, I even took the Lectric XP Trike over some seriously rugged terrain in a washed out dry riverbed. I was truly surprised how well it handled such rough off-road conditions.
That being said, the three wheels takes some getting used to when avoiding obstacles. You have to learn how to put the pot holes or rocks between two of the three wheels or take a wide berth around them.
It’s something that new trike riders will take a few days to get used to, but quickly becomes second nature.
Is the Lectric XP Trike worth the price?
At just $1,499, this is a smoking hot deal, and it follows Lectric’s playbook of bringing popular e-bikes at affordable prices to the masses.
How long will the bike last? I have no idea. I only spent a day with it.
But the trike felt solid so far, and I also saw a room full of customer service representatives sitting in Lectric’s Phoenix headquarters waiting to help anyone should they have an issue in the future, which gives me good confidence on the customer support side.
For the thousands of people aging into electric trike territory every day, I’m excited to see options like this hitting the market. And once I get even more time on the XP Trike than just a fun day in the sun, I’m sure I’ll like it even more.
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Chevy is resurrecting both the Spark and EUV nameplates with the all-new, affordable Chevy Spark EUV. GM hopes its new, 249-mile range EV will be a “game changer” that helps accelerate the company’s EV transition in export markets.
There’s an old saying that goes, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” And to that end it seems that GM’s Chevy brand has figured out a way to put China’s electric technology lead to work in their favor, rebadging the Baojun Yep Plus SUV built by the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture.
Meet the all-new 2026 Chevy Spark EUV – a compact, Bronco-lookin’ four-door crossover that’s ready to take South America, Africa, and the Middle East by storm.
Big style, tiny package
Like its Baojun-badged siblings, the new MY2026 Chevrolet Spark EUV is powered by a single 75 kW (101 hp), 180 Nm (130 lb-ft) motor driving the front wheels. Power comes from the Baojun’s 42 kWh LFP battery that, with regenerative braking, is good for up to 360 km (220 miles) on the NEDC driving cycle.
The new Spark is also equipped with a 10.1″ infotainment screen and 8.8″ digital instrument cluster. Interestingly, the Spark EUV ships with support for both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto standard – two technologies that GM claim lead to “unsafe” driver in North America.
Built to turn heads and spark excitement, the 2026 Chevrolet Spark EUV debuts in the ACTIV trim, boasting a bold, boxy exterior, a sleek two-tone roof, and sporty 16” wheels. Compact yet spacious, it’s the perfect everyday runner, offering seamless balance of practicality, driving dynamics and personality.
And for those who love to stand out, the Spark EUV offers six vibrant color options, including Sea Blue with a Polar White roof, Track Yellow, Tiger Blue, Gentle Gray with a Star Twinkle Black roof, and Milky Tea. But personalization doesn’t stop there – drivers can further customize their Spark EUV with exclusive accessories like Ground Effects for the front and rear, Side Moldings, Assist Steps, and Side and Rear Storage Boxes.
Whether you’re an adventurer, gaming enthusiast, music lover, sports fan or someone who enjoys pop culture, a range of unique accessories and themes ensures your Spark EUV stands out and feels uniquely yours.
“The Chevrolet Spark EUV is the coolest and most attainable vehicle in its segment – and is positioned to drive EV adoption in the Middle East,” explains Jack Uppal, General Motors Africa and Middle East President and Managing Director. “Not only is it fun to drive, but the Chevrolet Spark EUV also offers customers the chance to personalize their vehicle with a variety of customization options, making it uniquely their own.”
In addition to basically re-using R&D and tooling budgets from the Baojun brand, the 2026 Chevy Spark EUV keeps its price low with relatively low EV tech. The charging, for example, tops out at “just” 50 kW – a far cry from the 300-plus kW from Tesla, let alone the 480 kW from some of the cutting-edge Chinese brands.
The 2026 Chevrolet Spark EUV will be available in UAE, KSA, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Lebanon, Iraq, Oman, and Egypt later this Summer. No official word on pricing.
Electrek’s Take
I know this is an overseas model with almost no chance of coming to the US – and that’s our loss. A practical, fun, affordable EV like this could do huge numbers if it was priced right. And with the Baojun Yep starting at less than $12,000 US in China, I can’t imagine a sub-20K MSRP would be entirely out of the question.
SOURCE | IMAGES: GM.
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The 2025 US Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Ownership Study from J.D. Power tells us that more people are more satisfied with their EV experience than last year – and the EV owners who are the most satisfied with their rides can be found behind the wheel of the BMW iX.
Now in its fifth year, the J.D. Power U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Ownership Study focuses on the the first year of vehicle ownership. The overall EVX ownership index is a 1000-point score that measures EV owner satisfaction in both premium and mass market segments across 10 factors. Those being (in alphabetical order):
- accuracy of stated battery range
- availability of public charging stations
- battery range
- cost of ownership
- driving enjoyment
- ease of charging at home
- interior and exterior styling
- safety and technology features
- service experience
- vehicle quality and reliability
And, for the second year in a row, a BMW has taken the top two spots in J.D. Power’s survey, slotting just ahead of the Rivian R1T and R1S models (the leaders in 2023). In the mass-market BEV segment, BMW’s MINI sub-brand also performed well.
The reason BMW is consistently pulling ahead? It seems to come down to education. “First-time EV buyers are receiving minimal education or training,” explains Brent Gruber, executive director of the EV practice at J.D. Power. “Dealer and manufacturer representatives play the crucial role of front-line educators, but when it comes to EVs, the specific education needed to shorten the learning curve just isn’t happening often enough. The shortfall in buyer education is something we’re seeing with all brands.”
For their part, BMW and MINI do a great job with consumer education – and the company’s Genius program (cunning cribbed from Apple’s Genius Bar playbook) is the best in the car business. With that in mind, it’s hard to imagine this going down any other way.
Bigger trends in the EV space
After a decline in BEV owners’ overall satisfaction results in 2024, J.D. Power reports that owners of both premium and mass market battery electric EVs are expressing a change of sentiment this year. Part of that is better education, another part is more mainstream awareness of EV charging basics, but most of that is the overall growth and improvement of America’s publicly accessible DC fast charging network.
Among mass market BEV owners, satisfaction is up 86 points year over year (396) as infrastructure buildout continues and brands benefit from the opening of the Tesla Supercharger network. Satisfaction with public charger availability is highest among owners of premium BEVs (551).
These results should come as no surprise to Electrek readers and Quick Charge listeners. We covered a Paren study late last year that showed a nearly 50% increase in DC fast charging sessions YOY over Thanksgiving weekend. In that study, the company’s proprietary EV charger reliability index was up 3.4% compared to last year, reaching 85.5% and signaling an improving charging experience overall for EV drivers.
Another big EV trend covered in J.D. Power’s survey is the market’s permanence. EVs have staying power, in other words, with the vast, sweeping majority of first-time EV buyers indicating that they’re not going back to ICE.
verall, 94% of BEV owners are likely to consider purchasing another BEV for their next vehicle, a rate that is also matched by first-time buyers. Manufacturers should take note of the strong consumer commitment to EVs as the high rate of repurchase intent offers the ability to generate brand loyal customers if the experience is a positive one. In fact, during the past several years, the BEV repurchase intent percentage has fluctuated very little, ranging between 94-97%. This year’s study also finds that only 12% of BEV owners are likely to consider replacing their EV with an internal combustion engine (ICE)-powered vehicle during their next purchase.
“With five years of conducting this study and surveying thousands of EV owners, it’s apparent that once consumers enter the EV fold, they’re highly likely to remain committed to the technology,” Gruber adds.
J.D. Power reports that BEVs reached a market share of 9.1% in 2024, up from 8.4% in 2023. That’s in line with Cox Automotive’s numbers, which led that company to predict that 1 of every 4 new cars sold in the US (cleverly sidestepping the truck segment) would be battery-powered in 2025.
You can check out the results of the J.D. Power surveys, below, then let us know what you think of these results in the comments.
EVs with most satisfied owners
SOURCE | IMAGES: J.D. Power; BMW.
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Dutch charge point operators Fastned have opened their first DC fast-charging station with up to 400 kW chargers in Italy, marking the eighth nation the company has built stations in.
Fastned’s new EV charging location was built into the existing Truck Park Brescia Est service plaxa on the busy A4 motorway roughly between Milan and Venice. The A4 is a major traffic artery in the northern part of Italy, but that’s not the only reason the site was chosen.
Fastned says that the majority of electric vehicles registered in the boot-shaped nation are located in the northernmost regions of the country of the country. More specifically, the new charging facility is located roughly halfway between Bergamo and Verona, while the A4 continues west to Lake Lugano and Lake Como or and east to Lago di Garda.
The facility offers four Alpitronic-built HYC400 Hyperchargers, DC fast charging stations with a massive, 400 kW output – quite a bit more than what even the newest Tesla EVs can make use of, but still significantly slower than either the megawatt charging some battery electric semi trucks or the latest 6C luxury cars from China can make use of.
The new Fastned charge park was originally set to open in 2024, but wasn’t officially commissioned by the Italian motorway operator A4 Holding Group until this week.
Electrek’s Take
You might be asking yourself why I’m writing about a new charging station in Europe when I usually write about big trucks and tractors. The answer is simple: I read “Truck Park Brescia Est” and assumed this was a truck stop. By the time I figured it out I’d already written about three quarters of the article, and rather than throw it away I decided to use it as yet another opportunity to point out that Tesla is a step or three behind the latest charging tech from China.
I also re-posted an episode of Quick Charge on this same topic (above). Enjoy!
SOURCE | IMAGES: Fastned, via Electrive.
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