New SONDORS Metacycle ‘credit’ drops the electric motorcycle’s price to just $4,000
If your main gripe against electric motorcycles has been “they’re just too expensive,” well then you’re going to need to start looking for another excuse. That’s because a new credit offered by SONDORS will reduce the effective price of the company’s Metacycle electric motorcycle to just $4,000.
The email rolled into my inbox today like so many others, touting a new announcement from SONDORS. But the bolded “$2,500 credit” certainly got my attention.
Was there a new tax credit for electric motorcycles that I had missed?
Not quite. Instead, SONDORS is offering their own purchase credit for its Metacycle electric motorcycle, at least if you’re prepared to put down a $500 deposit in the next two weeks.
According to the company, “the first 1,000 SONDORS Metacycle orders with $500 down receive $2,500 credit towards their new purchase.”
That would reduce the price of the Metacycle from the current $6,500 to just $4,000.
In order to qualify, the orders have to be placed between today and March 15th, 2023.
The bikes are slated for Q4 2023 delivery, which if recent SONDORS timeline accuracy is any indication, means that these are 2024 bikes.
It’s not an altogether unprecendented move in the electric motorcycle industry. Zero pulled a similar move recently, offering the equivalent of the expired federal motorcycle tax credit as a discount for new purchases.
But the SONDORS credit is significant for a few reasons.
First of all, without going all “would a rose by any other name smell as sweet” on you, the word “credit” is simply a fancy way of announcing a price drop, which has its own implications.
And this price drop is huge. The bike debuted at $5,000 over two years ago, and that was the promotional pricing. That price point was never expected to last, which was confirmed when it increased to $6,500. That was assumed to be a more sustainable price point for the company. But dropping the price to $4,000 puts the bike at 20% below what even the early adopters paid, and they were basically giving SONDORS an 18+ month interest-free loan.
What could this mean for customers who purchased a Metacycle yesterday for $6,500? Will they be able to cancel their order and claim the new credit by re-ordering? And what about those customers who funded the bike’s development and production?
Lastly, this has serious implications for SONDORS’ bottom line. Why make such a drastic price decrease? Is the demand for Metacycle faltering? Is the company trying to raise some quick cash after postponing an upcoming IPO? Or is there something else in the works?
Regardless the reason, it’s hard to ignore the significant deal this offers. The Metacycle, despite failing to deliver on some of the loftier original promises from its launch presentation, has proven itself to be a capable urban commuter bike that is still punchy enough for short jaunts at highway speeds.
I took the bike on one of its first public review rides (see my video review below) and found it to be a fun and nimble ride. I’d gladly own and ride it as a commuter bike, and I’d recommend it for that use case. My testing showed that the bike felt like the perfect upgrade for someone that comes from an electric bicycle background and is ready to upgrade to a motorcycle.
The scooter-style setup with modest power and acceleration as well as dual hand brake levers makes the bike easy to ride for newcomers to motorcycles. Yet it still has fun performance that you can’t get from a typical electric bicycle.
At $4,000, this thing is a steal. But with something of an opaque picture of SONDORS’ current financial footing after the postponed IPO, it’s hard to say whether or not it’s a risky steal.
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National Grid Renewables has broken ground on its 100 MW Apple River Solar Project in Polk County, Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin solar farm, which will use US-made First Solar Series 6 Plus bifacial modules, will be constructed by The Boldt Company, creating 150 construction and service jobs. Apple River Solar will generate over $36 million in direct economic benefits over its first 20 years.
Once it comes online in late 2025, Apple River Solar will supply clean energy to Xcel Energy, which serves customers throughout the Upper Midwest. According to National Grid Renewables, the solar farm will generate enough energy to power around 26,000 homes annually. It will also offset about 129,900 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year – equivalent to taking 30,900 cars off the road.
“We are excited to see this project begin as it underscores our dedication to delivering clean, reliable and affordable energy to our customers,” said Karl Hoesly, President, Xcel Energy-Wisconsin and Michigan. “This project is an important step in those goals while bringing significant economic benefits to Polk County and the local townships.”
Electrek reported in February that Xcel Energy, Minnesota’s largest utility, expects to cut more than 80% – and possibly up to 88% – of its emissions by 2030, putting it on track to hit Minnesota’s goal of net zero by 2040. It also says it’s on track to achieve its clean energy goals for all the Upper Midwest states it serves – Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Michigan.
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Tesla has announced that it will finally deliver 500 kW charging as it is about to install its long-awaited V4 Supercharger cabinets.
The rollout of Supercharger V4 has been a strange one, to say the least.
Tesla has been deploying the new charging stations for two years and calling them “Supercharger V4”, but it has only been deploying the charging stalls.
Supercharger stations are made of two main parts: the stalls, which are where the charging cable is located, and the cabinets, which are generally located further back and include all the power electronics.
For all these new “Supercharger V4”, Tesla was actually using Supercharger V3 cabinets. This has been limiting the power output of the charging stations to 250 kW – although
Today, Tesla officially announced its “V4 Cabinet”, which the automaker claims will enable of “delivering up to 500kW for cars and 1.2MW for Semi.”
Here are the main features of the V4 Cabinet as per Tesla:
- Faster charging: Supports 400V-1000V vehicle architectures, including 30% faster charging for Cybertruck. S3XY vehicles enjoy 250kW charge rates they already experience on V3 Cabinet — charging up to 200 miles in 15 minutes.
- Faster deployments: V4 Cabinet powers 8 posts, 2X the stalls per cabinet. Lower footprint and complexity = more sites coming online faster.
- Next-generation hardware: Cutting-edge power electronics designed to be the most reliable on the planet, with 3X power density enabling higher throughput with lower costs.
Tesla reports that its first sites with the new V4 Cabinets are going into permitting now. The company expects its first sites to open next year.
We recently reported about Tesla’s new Oasis Supercharger project, which includes larger solar arrays and battery packs to operate the charging station mostly off-grid.
Early in the deployment of the Supercharger network, Tesla promised to add solar arrays and batteries to all Supercharger stations, and Musk even said that most stations would be able to operate off-grid.
While Tesla did add solar and batteries to a few stations, the vast majority of them don’t have their own power system or have only minimal solar canopies.
Back in 2016, I asked Musk about this, and he said that it would now happen as Tesla had the “pieces now in place” with Supercharger V3, Powerpack V2, and SolarCity:
It took about 8 years, but it sounds like the pieces are now getting actually in place with Supercharger V4, Megapacks, and this new Oasis project.
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Hyundai has a new secret weapon it’s about ready to unleash. To revamp the brand in China and counter BYD’s surge, Hyundai is launching a new AI-powered EV next year. The new model will be Hyundai’s first dedicated electric car for the world’s largest EV market.
With the help of Haomo, a Chinese autonomous startup, Hyundai will launch its first EV equipped with generative AI. It will also be its first model designed specifically for China.
A Hyundai Motor official said (via The Korea Herald) the company is “working to load the software” onto the new EV model, “which will be released in the Chinese market next year.” The spokesperson added, “The level of autonomous driving is somewhere between 2 and 2.5.”
In comparison, Tesla’s Autopilot is considered a level 2 advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) on the SAE scale (0 to 5), meaning it offers limited hands-free features.
With Autopilot, you still have to keep your eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel, or the system will notify you and eventually disengage.
Haomo’s system, DriveGPT, unveiled last spring, takes inspiration from the OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT.
The system can continuously update in real-time to optimize decision-making by absorbing traffic data patterns. According to Haomo, DriveGPT is used in around 20 models as it looks to play a bigger role in China.
Hyundai hopes new AI-powered EV boosts sales in China
Electric vehicle sales continue surging in China. According to Rho Motion, China set another EV sales record last month with 1.2 million units sold, up 50% from October 2023.
Over 8.4 million EVs were sold in China in the first ten months of 2024, a notable 38% increase from last year.
BYD continues to dominate its home market. According to Autovista24, BYD accounted for 32.9% of all PHEV and EV (NEV) sales in China through September, with over half of the top 20 best-selling EV models.
Tesla was second with a 6.5% share of the market, but keep in mind these numbers only include plug-in models (PHEV).
Like most foreign automakers, Hyundai is struggling to keep up with the influx of low-cost electric models in China. Beijing Hyundai’s sales have been slipping since 2017. Through September, Korean automaker’s share of the Chinese market fell to just 1.2%.
Last month, Hyundai opened its first overseas digital R&D center in China to help kick off its return to the region.
According to local reports, Hyundai is partnering with other local tech companies like Thundersoft, a smart cockpit provider, and others in China to power up its next-gen EVs
With its first AI-powered EV launching next year, Hyundai hopes to turn things around in the region quickly. The new model will be one of five to launch in China through 2026.
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