Why a U.S. national electric grid would be great for the climate — and is nearly impossible
A transmission tower is seen on July 11, 2022 in Houston, Texas. ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) is urging Texans to voluntarily conserve power today, due to extreme heat potentially causing rolling blackouts.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
This story is part of CNBC’s “Transmission Troubles” series, an inside look at why the aging electrical grid in the U.S. is struggling to keep up, how it’s being improved, and why it’s so vital to fighting climate change.
Building large-scale transmission lines that carry electricity across the United States has the potential to be an extremely cost-effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also improving reliability of the country’s energy grid.
But the energy grid in the U.S. has developed over decades as a patchwork of thousands of individual utilities serving their own local regions. There is no incentive for energy companies to see the forest for the trees.
“The system we have for planning and paying for new transmission does not adequately value or promote the vital benefits of interregional transmission. Transmission planning does not sufficiently take into account the benefits of a holistic system over the long term,” Gregory Wetstone, CEO of the non-profit American Council on Renewable Energy, told CNBC.
The regulatory framework that has evolved surrounding those local utilities and their electricity transmission processes completely short-circuits when it comes to planning longer, bigger-scale transmission lines.
“Lines crossing multiple states have to receive permits from many local and state agencies, and a single county can block the construction of a new transmission line that would benefit the entire region,” Wetstone told CNBC. “Imagine trying to build the national highway system that we now have if any single county along the way could block the entire project. It simply wouldn’t have been possible.”
The Department of Energy is in the process of conducting a National Transmission Planning Study,to look into all of this. The government’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory are working on executing that work, but the results of that study will not be published for some time, a NREL researcher told CNBC.
Unless the U.S. can modernize its electric grid and update the regulatory processes surrounding construction of new lines, the country’s climate goals will be harder and more expensive to achieve.
Why a macro-grid is a cost-effective climate win
Currently, electricity generation results in 32 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States .To mitigate the effects of global warming, electrical generation needs needs to move from burning fossil fuels, like oil and coal, to emissions-free sources of energy, like wind and solar.
One way of reducing emissions caused by electricity is to build as much clean energy generation as close as possible near to where the electricity is needed.
But building longer transmission lines, to carry wind and solar power from regions where those resources are abundant to the places where demand is highest, would actually be a cheaper way of reducing emissions.
“Multi-regional transmission designs enable the highest reduction in cost per unit of emissions reduction,” James McCalley, an electrical engineering professor at Iowa State University, told CNBC.
There are three reasons why:
Tapping into the most abundant resources. First, large-scale, multi-regional transmission lines — often called a “macro grid” — would connect the most powerful renewable energy sources with the highest demand centers, McCalley said.
“Many mid-U.S. states have excellent wind resources, and the southwest U.S. has excellent solar resources, but the population is insufficient to use them,” McCalley told CNBC. “Population density rises as you get closer to the coasts. Transmission lets you build rich resources and use them at the heaviest load centers.”
Heavy electrical transmission lines at the powerful Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, located in California’s Mojave Desert at the base of Clark Mountain and just south of this stateline community on Interstate 15, are viewed on July 15, 2022 near Primm, Nevada. The Ivanpah system consists of three solar thermal power plants and 173,500 heliostats (mirrors) on 3,500 acres and features a gross capacity of 392 megawatts (MW).
George Rose | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Balancing supply with demand over time zones and seasons. Second, transmission lines that span time zones would let the most effective power generating resources go to the region that needs the power when it needs it. “During the course of a 24 hour period, regions in different time zones peak at different times, and so the best resources in one non-peaking region and be used to supply demand at another peaking region,” McCalley told CNBC.
Similarly, large scale transmission would allow regions to share power generation to meet their annual capacity needs.
“Regions today require that they have total installed capacity equal to about 1.15 times their annual peak load. But the annual peak load occurs at different times of the year for different regions. So multi-regional transmission would enable sharing of capacity,” McCalley told CNBC.
For example, the Pacific Northwest peaks in energy demand in early spring and the Midwest peaks during summer months. They could, if connected, borrow from each other, “enabling each region to avoid constructing new capacity,” McCalley said.
Better reliability. Finally, improved energy sharing would also lead to a more reliable energy grid for consumers.
“After decades of underinvestment, our current grid is ill-equipped to handle the energy transition or increasingly frequent severe weather events,” Wetstone told CNBC. So in addition to making clean energy available cheaply, “a macro grid would also allow for the transfer of energy to prevent blackouts and price spikes during extreme weather events,” Wetstone said.
A 2021 NREL study, “Interconnections Seam Study,” found benefit-to-cost ratios that reach as high as 2.5, meaning for each dollar invested in transmission that connects the major components of the U.S. power grid — the Western Interconnection, the Eastern Interconnection, and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas — would return up to $2.50.
Here is a visualization from the National Renewable Energy Lab’s “Interconnections Seam Study” showing how transmission lines that connect the major regions of the U.S. power system could allow the US to access more renewable energy and allow regions to balance energy demand.
Graphic courtesy National Renewable Energy Lab
Why the US does not have a macro, cross-regional grid
“Who pays for transmission I think is the biggest problem,” Rob Gramlich, the founder of the transmission policy company Grid Strategies, told CNBC. “It’s a freaking mess,” he said.
Currently, transmission lines that are constructed in the U.S. have to go through a years-long planning, approval and regulatory process where all of the utilities, regulators and landowners determine who benefits and how much each beneficiary should pay.
“Figuring out how to share costs among the many parties that would benefit from (and be impacted by) new transmission can be contentious, as can navigating permitting processes at the county, state, and federal levels along new routes,” explains Patrick Brown, a researcher working on transmission issues at the NREL.
In addition, local stakeholders often dig in their heels in when a new transmission line has the potential to undercut their existing business.
“The majority of new transmission is built for local needs and disconnected from any regional or interregional planning. Not surprisingly, the owners of these local projects seek to protect their transmission and generation earnings from being reduced by less expensive renewable resources that would be brought onto the grid as a result of interregional transmission,” Wetstone told CNBC. “So the broader societal benefits of a larger and more resilient grid are often ignored.”
It will be especially challenging to determine exactly who benefits exactly how much for a transmission line that spans the entire country.
“The system in and of itself is a benefit to the nation,” McCalley told CNBC. “The principle of ‘beneficiaries pay’ is harder to implement in that case.” So there’s no clear answer yet on how a macrogrid line would be paid for.
“My view has been the federal government, in concert with state government, in concert with developers — that it’s got to be a coordinated, complementary division of funds somehow, between those three, and whether it’s 95-5, or 30-30-40 percentage, I don’t know,” McCalley said.
For example, the larger utility companies in the US (like PG&E, American Electric Power Company, Duke Energy, or Dominion) could partner with the companies that make this kind of transmission technology, and with federal power authorities (like the Bonneville Power Administration, Western Area Power Administration, Southeastern Power Administration and Southwestern Power Administration) to coordinate a macro-grid construction project, McCalley said.
The cooling towers at the Stanton Energy Center, a coal-fired power plant in Orlando, are seen near electrical transmission towers. The facility is projected to convert from burning coal to using natural gas by 2027. U.N. climate talks ended on November 13, 2021 with a deal that for the first time targeted fossil fuels as the key driver of global warming, even as coal-reliant countries lobbed last-minute objections.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
‘Get them in one room’
Despite the current morass of planning and building transmission lines in the U.S., “there are also many ways to overcome these barriers,” Brown at NREL told CNBC.
“Existing rights-of-way can be reused; new federal guidelines could encourage proactive interregional planning and coordination and help identify the highest-priority expansion options; and public engagement and community ownership can help get local stakeholders onboard.”
Regulators ought to be forced to work together, according to Konstantin Staschus, who has been working with transmission for his entire career, both in the U.S. and in Europe.
When the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, one of seven regional planning agencies in the United States, plans transmission line construction plans, it starts with a massive meeting. At the kickoff for its next round of transmission planning, MISO had a three hour planning meeting with 377 people in the meeting.
In the same way all of those stakeholders are pushed together to hash out their differences, so too should that happen for larger scale planning, according to Staschus, who was the Secretary-General of Europe’s transmission planning body, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity, for the first eight years of the regulatory body’s existence, from 2009 to early 2017.
“Get them in one room. Make them plan nationally. Make them redo it every year,” Staschus told CNBC.
“If they do that and if they’re experts — scratch their heads for months, figure out all the data and argue about the assumptions and the cost allocation, and they come with a proposal to their own management and convince them and then the management goes together to the various regulators and convinced them,” then the U.S. will be on a better path, Staschus told CNBC.
“But if you don’t treat it like a countrywide system, you won’t start this process.”
For Johnson of MISO, though, these kinds of idealistic discussions of building a national system come from people who don’t truly understand the challenge of getting a transmission line built even on a regional basis. For instance, the lines might run through entire states that don’t pull energy from that system.
“Those things are going to be far more complicated than what people are aware,” Johnson said. The challenge is not designing a transmission line, Johnson says, the challenge is determining who benefits how much and how much they have to pay.
What Johnson sees as more likely is stronger connections at the seams from one planning region to another. “I think of it kind of like a bucket brigade,” Johnson said, where one region can more seamlessly share power with its next door neighbor.
Jesse Jenkins, who is Princeton professor and a macro-scale energy systems engineer, says that while national-level grids are attractive, these interregional grids are essential.
“I don’t think we necessarily need a continent-scale macro grid, although there are plenty of studies showing the benefits of a such a ‘interstate highways’ system for transmission, so it would be nice to have,” Jenkins said. “What we absolutely need is a substantial increase in key inter-regional long-distance transmission routes. So it’s not all local lines (e.g. within single states). We need a lot of new or expanded/reconductored multi-state corridors as well.”
If the US can’t get national lines built, then interregional lines are better than nothing, agrees McCalley. But emissions reductions will remain more expensive than if we built a national grid.
“If we rely on what we have done in the past, it would be really hard because every state weighs in, and every state gets veto power, essentially. And so that won’t work,” McCalley said.
The Kia EV4 is now on sale as the most affordable EV in Canada. Starting at under $40,000, the electric sedan is even cheaper than the Fiat 500e.
Kia launches EV4 as Canada’s most affordable EV
While Kia is delaying the EV4 “indefinitely” for the US, the electric sedan is now on sale in Canada. Starting at just $38,995, the EV4 is now the most affordable dedicated EV in Canada.
It’s even cheaper than the Fiat 500e, which previously held the title with prices starting at $39,995. The EV4 is Kia’s first global electric sedan and part of its new low-cost EV lineup.
Not only is it affordable, but the EV4 is also surprisingly efficient. Based on the E-GMP platform that underpins Hyundai’s IONIQ series and Kia’s other EV models, the EV4 is available with two battery options: a standard 58.3 kWh or long-range 81.4 kWh, delivering up to 552 km (343 miles).
Like Kia’s latest EVs, the EV4 features its new Opposites United design with a redesigned “Digital Tiger Face” up front.
Although it may look like a typical sedan, Kia says it introduces a “new typology” with a low nose, long-tail silhouette, and fastback style.
The interior includes Kia’s new connected car Navigation Cockpit (ccNC) infotainment, featuring nearly 30″ of screen space. The setup consists of dual 12.3″ driver cluster and navigation screens in a curved panoramic display, plus an additional 5″ climate control. It also offers wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Kia’s electric sedan even includes a built-in NACS port for recharging at Tesla Superchargers. It can charge from 10% to 80% in about 28 minutes with the 58.3 kWh battery. The 81.4 kWh battery takes around 31 minutes.
The EV4 is available in five different trims: Light FWD Standard Range, Wind FWD Long Range, Wind Premium FWD Long Range, GT-Line FWD Long Range, and GT-Line Limited FWD/AWD Long Range.
The Light variant is the only model with the standard 58.3 kWh battery. All other variants are powered by the long-range 81.4 kWh battery. Both battery options power a front-mounted 150 kW (201 hp) motor.
Kia’s electric sedan is the first to feature its latest i-Pedal 3.0, which now includes three levels of regenerative braking, a reverse i-Pedal function, and i-Pedal memory that retains driver settings on restart.
| 2026 Kia EV4 trim | Driving range | Starting Price |
| EV4 Light FWD Standard Range | 391 km (243 miles) | $38,995 |
| EV4 Wind FWD Long Range | 552 km (343 miles) | $42,995 |
| EV4 Premium FWD Long Range | 515 km (320 miles) | $45,495 |
| EV4 GT-Line FWD Long Range | 488 km (303 miles) | $48,495 |
| EV4 GT-Line Limited FWD Long Range | 488 km (303 miles) | $51,995 |
The EV4 includes standard ADAS features, including Kia’s available Highway Driving Assist 2 (HDA2), which uses speed limit information from the navigation system on controlled access roads and highways to automatically adjust the vehicle’s speed.
The 2026 Kia EV4 FWD is now available for order at dealerships across Canada. The AWD version is expected to go on sale later in 2026.
While the EV4 is now on sale as the most affordable EV in Canada, US buyers are missing out thanks to new tariffs and other policy changes under the Trump administration.
For those in the US, although the EV4 is sadly not available, Kia is currently offering over $10,000 off every EV in its US lineup. Interested in a test drive? You can use the links below to find Kia’s EVs in your area.
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Tesla has reported yet another crash involving its Robotaxi fleet in Austin to the NHTSA. The new data keeps the program’s accident rate alarmingly high compared to human drivers, even as the company prepares to remove human safety supervisors from the vehicles.
As we have been tracking in our previous coverage of the Robotaxi pilot in Austin, Tesla is required to report crashes involving its automated driving systems (ADS) to the NHTSA under a Standing General Order.
For months, we’ve seen these reports trickle in from Tesla’s small pilot fleet in Texas. In November, we reported that the fleet had reached 7 total crashes as of September.
Now, a new report filed by Tesla reveals an 8th crash occurred in October 2025.
According to the filing, the incident took place on October [Day Redacted], 2025, in Austin. The valid report (Report ID: 13781-11986) lists the “Highest Injury Severity Alleged” as “No Injured Reported,” but details are scarce because, as is typical for Tesla, the narrative description of the crash has been redacted to hide proprietary information.
We have been highlighting how Tesla often abuses NHTSA’s capability to redact much of the information in the crash reports, especially the ‘Narrative’ section, which explains precisely what happened in the incident.
It’s possible that Tesla’s Robotaxis are not responsible for some of these crashes, but we wouldn’t know because Tesla redacts most information.
In this new filing for the accident that happened in October, Tesla went even further as it even refrains from answering some of the sections. Instead, it says “see the narrative,” which again is redacted.
Here’s the updated list of Tesla Robotaxi crashes:
| Report ID | Incident Date | City | State | Crash With | Highest Injury Severity Alleged |
| 13781-11986 | OCT-2025 | Austin | TX | Other, see Narrative | No Injured Reported |
| 13781-11787 | SEP-2025 | Austin | TX | Animal | No Injured Reported |
| 13781-11786 | SEP-2025 | Austin | TX | Non-Motorist: Cyclist | Property Damage. No Injured Reported |
| 13781-11784 | SEP-2025 | Austin | TX | Passenger Car | Property Damage. No Injured Reported |
| 13781-11687 | SEP-2025 | Austin | TX | Other Fixed Object | Property Damage. No Injured Reported |
| 13781-11507 | JUL-2025 | Austin | TX | SUV | Property Damage. No Injured Reported |
| 13781-11459 | JUL-2025 | Austin | TX | Other Fixed Object | Minor W/O Hospitalization |
| 13781-11375 | JUL-2025 | Austin | TX | SUV | Property Damage. No Injured Reported |
We do know that the crash involved “Other” as the conflict partner, and the vehicle was “Proceeding Straight” at the time.
Tesla Robotaxi Crash Rate
While a few fender benders might not seem like headline news, it becomes significant when you look at the math.
Last month, Tesla confirmed the fleet had traveled roughly 250,000 miles. With 7 reported crashes at the time, Tesla’s Robotaxi was crashing roughly once every 40,000 miles (extrapolating from the previously disclosed Robotaxi mileage).
For comparison, the average human driver in the US crashes about once every 500,000 miles.
This means Tesla’s “autonomous” vehicle, which is supposed to be the future of safety, is crashing 10x more often than a human driver.
While Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet reportedly increased in November, with the number of cars spotted going up to 29, there’s no evidence that the Robotaxi mileage increased. In fact, the utilization rate indicates Tesla is running only a few vehicles at a time – meaning that mileage might have actually gone down.
And that is not even the scariest part.
The Supervisor Paradox
The most critical detail that gets lost in the noise is that these crashes are happening with a human safety supervisor in the driver’s seat (for highway trips) or passenger seat, with a finger on a kill switch.
These employees are trained to intervene and take control of the vehicle if the software makes a mistake.
If the car is crashing this frequently with a human babysitter trying to prevent accidents, imagine what the crash rate would be without them.
Yet, that is exactly what Tesla is doing.
Elon Musk recently claimed that Tesla would remove safety monitors from the Robotaxi fleet in Austin within “three weeks.”
Yesterday, we reported that a Tesla Robotaxi was spotted for the first time without anyone in the front seats, and Musk confirmed that Tesla started testing without a supervisor.
Electrek’s Take
This is becoming hard to watch.
We have Waymo operating fully driverless commercial services in multiple cities with over 100 million miles of data showing they are safer than humans. They are not without their issues, but they are at least sharing data that is encouraging, including not redacting the NTHSA crash reporting.
Meanwhile, Tesla is struggling to keep a small test fleet in Austin from hitting things, even with professional safety drivers on board.
Removing the safety supervisors when your crash rate is already orders of magnitude worse than the average human seems reckless. It feels like another case of prioritizing the “optics” of autonomy over the actual safety required to deploy it.
If Tesla pulls the supervisors while the data looks like this, it’s no longer a pilot program. It’s a gamble. And it’s not just gambling on its stock price, it’s gambling with everyone’s safety.
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Environment
Hiboy Christmas Sale offers up to 50% off EVs + bonus savings, EcoFlow DELTA 3 Ultra Plus 440W solar bundle at new $1,799 low, more
Kicking off this week’s Monday Green Deals is Hiboy’s full-momentum Christmas EV Sale with up to 50% discounts and many bonus savings codes left over from Black Friday that is returning many e-scooters and e-bikes to their best rates, like Hiboy’s MAX Pro Electric Scooter at its $567 low. We also have EcoFlow’s next 48-hour Christmas flash sale that has dropped the DELTA 3 Ultra Plus Power Station with a 440W solar bundle to a new $1,799 low. From there, you can find ECOVACS’ Goat O1000 RTK Robot Lawn Mower at a new $699 low, a wide array of Samsung laundry and kitchen appliances at up to $1,650 off, a new annual EGO string trimmer low, the best prices in months on Goal Zero power stations, and many more of the best ongoing holiday deals/sales waiting for you below. And don’t forget about the hangover deals from last week that are collected together at the bottom of the page in our latest edition of Electrified Weekly.
Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.
Hiboy’s Christmas Sale offers EV commuting solutions at up to 50% off + bonus savings codes – all starting from $150
Hiboy currently has a Christmas EV Sale in full swing right now, with up to 50% discounts on its various e-scooters and e-bikes – plus, the brand’s Black Friday bonus savings codes are still active. One budget-friendly model that still gives you significant commuting support is the Hiboy MAX Pro Electric Scooter at $566.99 shipped, after using the code DAS6 at checkout, beating out its Amazon pricing by $45. While it carries a $1,000 MSRP, you’ll more often find it cut down between $800 and $730 these days, with sale events having seen the price go as low as $567. With the extra savings code activated, you’re getting a second chance at the best price we have tracked, which only popped up during last month’s Black Friday sale. Head below to see the lineup of top picks from Hiboy’s Christmas Sale – and there is still time to get your orders in and receive them ahead of the big holiday.
While it may not sport the fanciest bells and whistles like some of the latest releases, Hiboy’s MAX Pro electric scooter is a more budget-friendly option that brings along some substantial traveling power for this low price. The 650W motor housed inside comes powered by a 48V battery for up to 46.6 miles of travel range at up to 22 MPH top speeds. There are three riding modes here (eco, drive, sport), alongside customizable cruise controls, and more. Other features include 11-inch pneumatic tires, both e-brakes and disc brakes, an LED headlight, sidelights, and a taillight, dual suspension, a one-click folding design, an integrated digital display, and more. There are even in-app smart controls for locking the scooter when not in use, and others.
Hiboy’s top Christmas Sale e-scooter offers:
- S2 Lite Electric Scooter for kids: $235 (Reg. $440)
- 13 MPH for up to 10.6 miles
- use code DAS2 at checkout for extra saving
- S2R Plus Electric Scooter: $310 (Reg. $806)
- 19 MPH for up to 22 miles
- use code DAS3 at checkout for extra savings
- ECOM 14 Eco-Friendly Big Wheel Electric Scooter: $346.09 (Reg. $540)
- 22 MPH for up to 31 miles
- use code DAS5 at checkout for extra savings
- S2 Pro Electric Scooter: $375 (Reg. $450)
- 19 MPH for up to 25 miles
- use code DAS3 at checkout for extra savings
- KS4 Pro Premium Electric Scooter: $390 (Reg. $750) | matches at Amazon
- 19 MPH for up to 25 miles
- Q2 Electric Seated Scooter: $399 (Reg. $700) | matched at Amazon
- 20 MPH for up to 22 miles
- S2 MAX Electric Scooter: $450 (Reg. $885)
- 19 MPH for up to 40 miles
- use code DAS6 at checkout for extra savings
- MAX Pro Electric Scooter: $567 (Reg. $1,000)
- 22 MPH for up to 46 miles
- use code DAS6 at checkout for extra savings
- Hiboy X300 Big-Wheel Electric Scooter: $588 (Reg. $1,050)
- 23 MPH for up to 37.3 miles
- use code DAS6 at checkout for extra savings
- U2 Pro Electric Scooter: $840 (Reg. $1,500) | $10 more at Amazon
- 25 MPH for up to 34 miles
- TITAN Electric Scooter: $955.50 (Reg. $1,700)
- 25 MPH for up to 46 miles
- use code HST9 at checkout for extra savings
- TITAN Pro Electric Scooter: $1,350 (Reg. $2,000)
- 31 MPH for up to 80 miles
- use code HSTP10 at checkout for extra savings
- And much more…
Hiboy’s top Christmas Sale e-bike offers:
- BK1 Electric Balance Bike for kids: $150 (Reg. $400)
- 9 MPH for up to 5 miles
- use code DAS2 at checkout for extra savings
- DK1 (Blue) Electric Dirt Bike for kids: $313 (Reg. $610)
- 5/7.5/15.5 MPH for up to 13.7 miles
- use code DAS3 at checkout for extra savings
- DK1 (red) Electric Dirt Bike for kids: $316 (Reg. $610)
- 5/7.5/15.5 MPH for up to 13.7 miles
- use code DAS3 at checkout for extra savings
- C1 Folding e-bike: $550 (Reg. $700)
- 20 MPH for up to 43.5 miles
- EX6 Step-Thru Fat-Tire e-bike: $786 (Reg. $1,580)
- 25 MPH for up to 75 miles
- use code DAB5 at checkout for extra savings
- 2024 P6 Fat-Tire All-Terrain e-bike: $950 (Reg. $1,480)
- 28 MPH for up to 62 miles
- use code DAB5 at checkout for extra savings
- 2025 EX9 Urban Commuter e-bike: $1,135 (Reg. $2,000)
- 28 MPH for up to 62 miles
- use code DAE1 at checkout for extra savings
- EX7 Full Suspension e-bike: $1,350 (Reg. $2,000)
- 28 MPH for up to 75 miles
- And much more…
You can browse the full Hiboy Christmas Sale lineup of deals on the main landing page here.
Latest EcoFlow Xmas flash sale drops DELTA 3 Ultra Plus 440W solar bundle to new $1,799 low (Save $1,900), more
As part of its ongoing Christmas Holiday Sale, EcoFlow has launched the next of its 48-hour holiday flash sales with up to 60% discounts across four offers, one of which gives you the latest DELTA 3 Ultra Plus Portable Power Station with two 220W solar panels at $1,799 shipped, beating its Amazon pricing by $200. This bundle package has been on the market since late September with a $4,197 MSRP, though you can usually find it starting lower for $3,699 at Amazon. It launched with a discount to $1,899 and has been seeing price cuts in the time since that have dropped the costs back to that rate or higher at $1,999. This 48-hour flash deal, however, cuts things further than ever, giving you a $1,900 markdown off the going rate ($2,398 off the MSRP) and landing it at a new all-time low price.
If you want to learn more about this new power station, or browse the full lineup of deals, be sure to check out our original coverage of these flash offers before they’re gone after December 16.
Pass lawn mowing to ECOVACS’ Goat O1000 RTK robot while at a new $699 low for Xmas (Reg. $1,000)
Amazon is currently offering the ECOVACS Goat O1000 RTK Robot Lawn Mower for $699 shipped. Coming down from its $1,000 full price, we’ve been seeing regular discounts keeping the price down between $900 and $850, with October’s Prime Day event dropping things as low as $750. We did see it drop to $700 during a brief Black Friday/Cyber Monday window, while today’s deal beats that rate by $1, giving you $301 in total savings at the best new price we have tracked – plus, there’s still time to get it well ahead of Christmas!
If you want to learn more about this autonomous mower, be sure to check out our original coverage of this new low price here.
Save up to $1,650+ on Samsung’s smart appliances for your laundry and kitchen upgrades starting from $299
Samsung is currently offering Christmas Holiday discounts across its wide array of appliances for your laundry room, kitchen, and more. One notable return from the brand’s Black Friday promotions is the Bespoke AI Laundry Hub for $1,999 shipped, which beats its Best Buy pricing by $1. Normally, this stacked unit would run you $2,699 at full price, which we’ve seen go as low as $1,999 over 2025 during sales. While it has dropped lower in past years, you’re still getting a solid $700 markdown here to the best rate that has been offered from the brand this year. You can find other Samsung holiday device deals on the landing page here.
If you want to browse the entire lineup of our favorite Samsung appliance deals, be sure to check out our original coverage of this holiday sale here.
Off-season savings take EGO’s 56V 15-inch rapid reload string trimmer down to $149 annual low ($50 off)
Amazon is now offering the best rate of the year on the EGO POWER+ 56V 15-inch Rapid Reload String Trimmer with 2.5Ah battery at $149 shipped. It’s coming down from $199 here today, which is where the price has been keeping for most of the time since June, with discounts having dropped prices to $179 and as low as $159 over the year. You’re now looking at 2025’s best price, courtesy of the $50 markdown that comes beaten only by a one-time Prime-exclusive cut to the $144 back in 2024.
If you want to learn more about this string trimmer, be sure to check out our original coverage of this deal here.
Save up to $175 on Goal Zero’s compact Yeti 700 or 500 power stations at best prices in months from $375
By way of its official Amazon storefront, Goal Zero is offering its Yeti 700 Portable Power Station at $524.89 shipped, while the smaller Yeti 500 Portable Power Station is down at $374.89 shipped. Normally, these two stations would fetch $700 and $500 at full price, which is where they’ve mostly been keeping since March. While we have seen the price drop lower in the past, you’re still looking at solid $175 and $125 markdowns to the best prices we have tracked in the last eight months.
If you want to learn more about these two power stations, be sure to check out our original coverage of these deals here.
Best Winter EV deals!
- Velotric Nomad 2X e-bike (camo) with DELTA 3 Plus station: $3,048 (Reg. $3,298)
- Velotric Nomad 2X e-bike (sage or fig) with DELTA 3 Plus station: $2,948 (Reg. $3,298)
- Heybike Hero 750W Mid-Drive Carbon-Fiber All-Terrain e-bike: $2,099 (Reg. $3,099)
- Segway Xyber e-bike (at lowest price): $2,900 (Reg. $3,300)
- Lectric XPedition 2.0 35Ah Cargo e-bike w/ $893 bundle: $1,999 (Reg. $2,761)
- Ride1Up TrailRush German Mid-Drive e-bike: $1,995 (Reg. $2,095)
- Heybike Hero 1,000W Carbon-Fiber All-Terrain e-bike: $1,899 (Reg. $2,599)
- Tenways Wayfarer e-bike with $366 bundle: $1,899 (Reg. $2,199)
- Velotric Fold 1 Plus e-bike with DELTA 2 station: $1,898 (Reg. $2,198)
- Segway Xafari e-bike (at lowest price): $1,800 (Reg. $2,400)
- Aventon Aventure 3 Smart All-Terrain e-bike: $1,799 (Reg. $1,999)
- Aventon Aventure 3 Smart Step-Through All-Terrain e-bike: $1,799 (Reg. $1,999)
- Lectric XPedition 2.0 26Ah Cargo e-bike w/ $744 bundle: $1,799 (Reg. $2,543)
- Lectric XP Trike2 750 Long-Range eTrike: $1,699 (Reg. $1,799)
- Aventon Level 3 Step-Over Smart Commuter e-bike: $1,699 (Reg. $1,899)
- Aventon Level 3 Step-Through Smart Commuter e-bike: $1,699 (Reg. $1,899)
- Lectric XPeak 2.0 Long-Range Off-Road e-bike: $1,599 (Reg. $1,699)
- Aventon Abound Cargo e-bike: $1,599 (Reg. $1,999)
- Ride1Up VORSA Modular Multi-Use e-bike: $1,595 (Reg. $1,695)
- Lectric XP Trike2: $1,399 (Reg. $1,499)
- Lectric XPeak 2.0 Standard Off-Road e-bike: $1,399 (Reg. $1,499)
- Lectric XPedition 2.0 13Ah Cargo e-bike with $346 bundle: $1,399 (Reg. $1,745)
- Heybike ALPHA All-Terrain e-bike with $266 bundle: $1,299 (Reg. $1,699)
- Lectric XPress 750 Commuter e-bikes with $518 bundle: $1,299 (Reg. $1,817)
- Lectric XP4 750 LR Folding Utility e-bikes with $514 bundle: $1,299 (Reg. $1,813)
- Lectric XP Lite 2.0 JW Black LR e-bike with $350 bundle: $1,099 (Reg. $1,449)
- Heybike Hauler Dual-Battery Cargo e-bike with $89+ bundle (new low): $999 (Reg. $1,413)
- Lectric XP4 Standard Folding Utility e-bikes with $227 bundle: $999 (Reg. $1,226)
- Lectric XP Lite 2.0 Long-Range e-bikes with $350 bundles: $999 (Reg. $1,349)
- Segway ZT3 Pro All-Terrain Electric Scooter: $850 (Reg. $1,000)
- Segway E3 Pro Electric Scooter: $600 (Reg. $700)
Best new Green Deals landing this week
The savings this week are also continuing to a collection of other markdowns. To the same tune as the offers above, these all help you take a more energy-conscious approach to your routine. Winter means you can lock in even better off-season price cuts on electric tools for the lawn while saving on EVs and tons of other gear.
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