Uh oh, I’ve done it again. I’ve fallen in love with another one of the victims subjects of my Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week series. It’s an odd mashup of a quad and a pickup truck, complete with dumping bed. It’s the opposite of a mullet: party in front, business in back!
So I’m going to try to avoid going too head-over-heels here. But as I think you’ll see, that’s going to require a Herculean effort thanks to the awesome nature of this weird little utility vehicle.
Let’s start by trying to figure out what the heck we’re looking at here.
The front half is mostly a quad ATV. We’ve got what looks like double wishbone suspension up there, typical controls and a single-rider saddle to straddle.
The back half is where things get interesting. There looks to be a mini-truck axle with an electric motor mounted right onto the differential, with the entire axle riding on leaf spring suspension. Above that axle is a short truck bed that features a tail gate and two side gates, meaning the entire bed can open into a flatbed configuration. It looks a lot like my the electric rickshaw I bought earlier this year, though in a slightly more compact setup.
Though there’s one other awesome thing about the bed: it has a hydraulic dumper. That’s right, this tiny truck is actually a tiny dump truck!
The whole thing weighs 250 kg (550 lb) and is said to have a maximum load of 400 kg (880 lb). It is powered by a 1,500W motor that runs a 72V electrical system.
The 32 AH lead acid battery supplies 2.3 kWh of capacity, and the entire setup claims to be capable of a top speed of 60 km/h (37 mph).
At just 2.3 meters (7’6″) long, the little guy is basically a pint-sized farm truck. The saddle height is just 52 cm (20 inches), making it easy to hop on and off. It can even be outfitted with extra racks, off-road lighting, a winch and other accessories.
I’ve saved the most beautiful part of this whole thing for last: the price. You might expect to pay a pretty penny for this weird little half truck, half quad bike. But the price is listed at just $1,299!
Of course that’s just the initial price, might not include batteries or the hydraulic dumping upgrade, and definitely doesn’t include the several thousand more you’d have to pay in freight, customs, warehouse fees, arrival charges and local transportation (unless you live next to a port and can pick it up yourself when the boat arrives).
Oh yea, and there’s the small wrinkle that this thing almost certainly isn’t legal in the US. Unlike many of the other weird things I’ve imported from China, such as my mini electric truck and my electric boat, ATVs actually have federal standards in the US (yes, even for off-road). Their designs are regulated (that’s why you can’t buy a three-wheeled ATV anymore) and they require a bunch of paperwork to be filed in order for the ATV to be imported or sold. That’s actually why Radio Flyer and Tesla had to recall their Cyberquad for Kids ride-on EV, after it was deemed to be an ATV and not a “kid’s toy”, and thus was subject to federal standards that it did not meet.
So alas, I will have to simply enjoy drooling over the images of this Frankenstein’s monster of an off-road utility vehicle. Well, that and the awesome video below!
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A train transports oil tankers in Ajmer on July 7, 2025. Indian exporters are scrambling for options as they seek to mitigate the fallout of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened tariff salvo against the world’s most populous nation.
Himanshu Sharma | Afp | Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump‘s trade advisor Peter Navarro on Monday called on India to stop buying Russian crude oil, accusing the Asian giant of undermining international efforts to isolate Vladimir Putin‘s war economy.
Writing in in the Financial Times, Navarro described India’s dependence on Russian oil as “opportunistic,” adding that if India “wants to be treated as a strategic partner of the US, it needs to start acting like one.”
“In effect, India acts as a global clearinghouse for Russian oil, converting embargoed crude into high-value exports while giving Moscow the dollars it needs,” Navarro said in the op-ed.
His comments come shortly after trade negotiations between the U.S. and India, which had been scheduled to take place in New Delhi later this month, were reportedly called off.
India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and the Office of the U.S Trade Representative did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comments.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration said it planned to impose an additional 25% tariff on India over Russian oil purchases, bringing the total levies against the country to 50%. The cumulative rate of duties on India is among the highest on any of Washington’s trade partners.
India described the move as “extremely unfortunate” at the time, saying the tariffs were “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable.”
The White House has since warned that secondary levies on India could increase further, depending on the outcome of Trump’s peace talks with Putin.
For its part, India has said it has been unfairly targeted for its continuing trade with Russia since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, amid criticism from both the U.S. and European Union.
In a statement published Aug. 4, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said the country began importing from Russian because traditional supplies were diverted from Europe after the outbreak of the conflict.
“India’s imports are meant to ensure predictable and affordable energy costs to the Indian consumer. They are a necessity compelled by global market situation,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs said.
“However, it is revealing that the very nations criticizing India are themselves indulging in trade with Russia. Unlike our case, such trade is not even a vital national compulsion,” it added.
Trump’s criticism of India’s oil trade with Russia represents a clear shift from the Biden administration, which, along with other G7 nations, Australia and the European Union, established a $60 a barrel price cap in late 2022. The EU has since signaled it has reached an agreement to lower the price threshold.
This mechanism sought to limit Russia’s revenue from oil sales, while maintaining some stability in global energy markets.
Shilan Shah, deputy chief emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, said India could, in principle, find suppliers other than Russia to meet its energy needs “relatively easily,” with limited economic impact.
“But we doubt that India would make a wholehearted effort to wean itself off Russian oil. Domestically, it would not play well to be seen caving to Trump’s demands,” Shah said in a note published Aug. 4.
“In addition, Indian policymakers would be reluctant to upend generally cordial (and long-standing) relations with Russia,” he added.
BRP, the Canadian powersports giant behind names like Ski-Doo, Sea-Doo, and Can-Am, has just pulled the cover off the latest addition to its rapidly growing electric lineup: the 2026 Can-Am Outlander Electric ATV. Its impressive specs put it at the top of the performance charts in nearly every metric compared to the company’s gasoline-powered ATVs.
This isn’t just a one-off electric side project either. It’s part of a major offensive into electric powersports, and it shows that BRP is serious about expanding its lineup of quiet, powerful, and clean alternatives across the board, from snowmobiles to motorcycles, and now all-terrain utility vehicles.
The new Outlander Electric is built using BRP’s own in-house Rotax E-Power drivetrain, the same modular platform found in its electric motorcycles and snowmobiles. That means the company isn’t just buying off-the-shelf parts and bolting them to a legacy frame. Instead, this is ground-up electrification.
Power comes from an electric motor rated at 47 hp (35 kW) and 53 lb-ft (72 Nm) of torque, which BRP says is tuned for utility and responsiveness.
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With selectable ride modes (Normal, Sport, and Work), riders can tailor the feel for anything from recreational trail riding to serious on-the-job use. Towing capacity is listed as a healthy 1,830 lbs (830 kg), which puts it firmly in the “workhorse” category, and bests the towing capacity of the top-of-the-line gasoline-powered ATV offerings from companies like Polaris and Honda, as well as Can-Am’s own highest-spec gasoline-powered ATVs.
Range clocks in at up to 50 miles (80 km) from the 8.9 kWh battery. And BRP says that the battery charges from 20 to 80% in about 50 minutes with a Level 2 charger.
But the big deal here isn’t just the torque or the tech. It’s the quietness.
The Outlander Electric is designed to be whisper-quiet, making it ideal for farmers, hunters, park rangers, or anyone else who needs serious off-road capability without the roar of a gas engine. XPS Recon Force tires, a low-noise liquid-cooling system, and an optimized suspension all contribute to a near-silent ride.
This means you can sneak through the woods, work around livestock, or ride trails at dawn without disturbing your surroundings – or your neighbors.
Priced at US $1,299, the Can-Am Outlander Electric ATV is now available on Can-Am’s site and from its dealers.
“With the Outlander Electric, we’re not just launching a new ATV, we’re introducing a new way to experience the outdoors and get the job done,” said Julie Tourville, Director, Global Marketing, Can-Am Off-Road at BRP. “This vehicle is built to let riders and workers feel more connected to their surroundings. It’s powerful, quiet, and true to what we do at BRP. It shows how we bring purposeful innovation to life.”
Electrek’s Take
We’ve seen plenty of electric motorcycles and scooters over the years, including from Can-Am itself. But electric ATVs? Those are still rare enough to make this release feel like a big deal. As someone who personally owns and uses an electric UTV, I can tell you what a major difference the electric drivetrain makes for both the operational experience and the ownership experience.
Gas ATVs and UTVs are incredibly useful as working tools, but they’re also noisy, maintenance-heavy, and pretty nasty for the environment. Replacing them with electric models that don’t sacrifice capability is a game-changer, especially for folks who need to operate in noise-sensitive or emission-sensitive areas.
BRP also deserves credit for going wide, not just deep. In the last couple of years, they’ve rolled out the Can-Am Pulse and Origin electric motorcycles, four electric snowmobiles under the Ski-Doo and Lynx brands, and even an electric kart racing powerpack. Now, with the Outlander Electric ATV, they’re quickly closing in on completing an electric powersports bingo card.
The real question is whether people will pay up. Polaris unveiled what may be the nicest electric UTVs in the world a few years ago, but the sky-high pricing meant limited adoption. Considering Can-Am’s electric ATV is around twice the price of a typical gasoline-powered ATV, let’s hope there are enough people who can see and appreciate the advantages of electric to support this nascent market while it grows and matures.
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From the ashes of Elon Musk’s decision to fire the whole Supercharger team last year, a new company has risen: Hubber, which will take its founders’ expertise at setting up Tesla Superchargers and apply that to addressing the lack of high-speed urban charging for taxis and other commercial vehicles.
In the immediate aftermath of this decision, a lot of questions were asked around the industry – and a lot of companies started snatching up talent from the best EV charging team in the world.
Or, alternately, some of that talent went to form their own companies. That’s the case for Harry Fox, Connor Selwood and Hugh Leckie, who met at Tesla and together oversaw the rollout of 100 Supercharger sites with 1,200 total chargers across the UK & Ireland. And after the shakeup of the Supercharger team, they set off to charge a new path of their own.
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The three formed Hubber, which pitches itself as a new type of EV charging company, focused on solving “the urban charging gap.”
Hubber describes itself as “the UK’s leading specialist in urban high-powered EV charging, addressing one of the most urgent constraints in the energy transition: the shortage of fast, reliable charging in major cities.” It “acquires and develops prime urban sites into large-scale charging hubs, combining deep grid-connection know-how with a proven ability to deliver complex infrastructure at speed”.
A large amount of the traffic in UK cities is taken up by taxis and last-mile, and these vehicles tend to see higher utilization than commuter cars, so they need to charge more often. Hubber says that taxis charge five times as often as a private vehicle, which means they’ll need more access to fast EV charging.
This is further exacerbated in urban environments, where EVs might not park in a place they can charge. Lots of urban homes don’t have garages, and while there are street EV chargers available in London, they’re not everywhere yet. So convenient fast charging is essential.
And the needs for commercial drivers are different than those of other commuters. While nicely-appointed charging plazas (like Rove’s “full service” EV charger in Santa Ana, CA) are great for the average consumer, commercial EV drivers put more of a premium on speed and affordability, and don’t mind if a site is a little further off of a main thoroughfare, or not as close to food or shopping as other drivers might want.
So Hubber is looking at sites that other developers might pass over – like old warehouses or gas stations – and figuring out how to turn them into an ideal site for high-throughput charging.
With its cofounders’ experience at Tesla, Hubber will buy sites, transform them into a charger-ready location, and essentially provide the dream location that they would have liked to see during the site selection processes they went through in their previous jobs.
The charging hubs could still have some amenities, like restrooms and vending machines, of the type that would be useful for taxi or ride-hailing drivers to grab during a quick stop. But the main focus would be on getting people in and out and back on the road.
Here’s a rendering of what a potential site might look like. In this sample location, there would be room for light-duty vehicles up front, with an area for larger last-mile delivery vehicles with larger charging bays. A small covered area could provide restrooms and vending, and another portion of the site could be dedicated to transformers, batteries and the like.
Hubber is also thinking ahead to a possible autonomous future, where driverless ride-hailing vehicles like those from Waymo could have a place to charge. Although given that there aren’t currently great solutions for autonomous charging, an attendant might have to be involved for the foreseeable future.
The company would also like to expand beyond the UK and Ireland, but they’re sticking to home base for the time being. After all, things are just getting off the ground – but the £60 million (~$81m) investment that Hubber just secured is certainly a big boost towards getting the project moving.
Speaking of projects, Hubber’s first facility is opening this coming week, on August 20th. The site is at Forest Hill in South London, near Forest Hill Station. It will have 12 EV charging bays, with 3 150kW and 3 300kW dual-head chargers. The site will be operated by RAW charging, which will offer free fast charging for its first week of operation.
The silver lining, at least for the rest of the industry, is that it allowed this talent to be distributed around to other companies. This isn’t beneficial for Tesla and did cause chaos which has likely affected the rollout of NACS, slowed EV charging site development in the US, and so on, but it has been beneficial for other companies who managed to snatch up talent.
Or, for companies like Hubber, which were formed by that talent.
It’s an interesting idea, and I like the angle of focusing on taxis in order to increase utilization of the site. EV charging is potentially an interesting business long term, but currently a lot of chargers see low usage because it’s so easy for most of the people who own EVs to charge at home.
But we’re going to have to move beyond the market of people who can easily charge in a garage attached to a single family home, especially in cities. Getting an easy way for the cars that get used the most in a city to charge is a really important move, and we’re looking forward to seeing how Hubber can help with this. And having a leadership team consisting of people who formerly worked at the best charging team in the industry isn’t a bad start.
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