Luna launches ‘Sur-Ron killer’ Talaria Sting electric motorbike with 50% more power
What looks like a Sur-Ron electric motorbike, but packs in 50% more get-up-and-go? The Talaria Sting R MX4. And the popular California-based electric bike dealer Luna Cycle has just launched the powerful yet low-cost electric trail bike as the newest member of its rapidly expanding inventory.
For years the name “Sur-Ron” has been synonymous with fun-packed small format off-road electric motorbikes. The Sur-Ron X has offered the thrill of a dirt bike in a vehicle the same size and nearly the same weight as an electric bicycle (and nearly as easy to ride).
But Talaria, a relative newcomer to the field compared to Sur-Ron, has sought to bite off a piece of that hooligan e-bike pie. Now with the new Talaria Sting R MX4, which boasts 50% more power than a Sur-Ron X, it just may be on the road to dethroning the current leader.
At the very least, it’s going to offer some serious competition.
The small size of these bikes – barely larger than a mountain bike – makes them ideal for nimble off-road riding as well as performing stunts. The Talaria Sting R MX4 has been tested on Luna Cycle’s dyno and produced 7.39 peak horsepower, which dwarfs the 4.8 hp of the previous Talaria model and the Sur-Ron X.
When Luna Cycle began carrying the Sur-Ron several years ago, they realized that several parts including brakes and other systems would need to be upgraded to handle higher speed riding. But according to Luna Cycle, the Talaria factory seems to understand how important those components are right from the get-go. The new Talaria model comes standard with 230mm brake rotors plus four levels of regenerative braking, an upgraded IPM motor with magnetic encoder, and an upgraded 2.7 kWh battery.
Unlike the belt-reduction transmission in a Sur-Ron, the Talaria Sting R MX4 uses a gearbox. It requires an oil change every 3,000 miles (5,000 km), but it removes the hassle of replacing worn or broken belts in a belt-reduction transmission.
The Talaria Sting R MX4 ships with a speed-limited function, though a pair of wire snippers will unlock the top speed of 52 mph (84 km/h), which adds a fair amount over the Sur-Ron X’s top speed of 46 mph (75 km/h).
Compared to the US $4,350 Sur-Ron X, the Talaria costs only a tad more at US $4,500. But with nearly 20% more battery and 50% more power, it’s easy to see how the team behind Talaria set their sights on eating Sur-Ron’s lunch.
There are few other competitors in this space, though SONDORS recently unveiled renderings of its 50 mph (80 km/h) MetaBeast which looks set to challenge both Sur-Ron and Talaria. The SONDORS MetaBeast may even be street legal, though it has yet to begin production and many of its specs seem to remain up in the air.
Of course riders should keep in mind that these are almost certainly illegal for on-road operation in all 50 states, making them off-road only bikes when operated in unlocked mode.
There are also legitimate concerns in mountain biking communities about trail access cases where riders of light electric motorbikes like these have damaged mountain bike trails that are off-limits to motorcycles. So there’s a certain amount of responsibility that comes with a bike like this.
But when ridden in its element, bikes like those from Talaria and Sur-Ron help bring the fun of dirt bikes at a price closer to an electric bicycle. And now they’re doing it with even more power.
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Enbridge is going big on solar again in Texas, and Meta is snapping up all the solar power it can get.
Last month, Electrek reported that the Canadian oil and gas pipeline giant just launched its first solar farm in Texas. Now it’s given the green light to Clear Fork, a 600 megawatt (MW) utility-scale solar farm already under construction near San Antonio. The project is expected to come online in summer 2027.
Once it’s up and running, every bit of Clear Fork’s electricity will go to Meta Platforms under a long-term contract. Meta will use the solar power to help run its energy-hungry data centers entirely on clean energy.
The solar farm project’s cost is around $900 million. Enbridge says it expects Clear Fork to boost the company’s cash flow and earnings starting in 2027.
Enbridge EVP Matthew Akman said the project reflects “growing demand for renewable power across North America from blue-chip companies involved in technology and data center operations.”
Meta’s head of global energy, Urvi Parekh, added that the company is “thrilled to partner with Enbridge to bring new renewable energy to Texas and help support our operations with 100% clean energy.”
Meta’s first multi-gigawatt data center, Prometheus, is expected to come online in 2026.
Clear Fork is part of a growing trend: tech giants like Meta, Amazon, and Google are racing to lock down renewable energy contracts as they expand their fleets of AI-ready data centers, which use massive amounts of electricity.
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A fully electric Japanese electric pickup truck? It’s not a Toyota or Honda, but Isuzu’s new electric pickup packs a punch. The D-MAX EV can tow over 7,770 lbs (3,500 kg), plow through nearly 24″ (600 mm) of water, and it even has a dedicated Terrain Mode for extreme off-roading. However, it comes at a cost.
Meet Isuzu’s first electric pickup: The D-MAX EV
After announcing that it had begun building left-hand drive D-MAX EV models at the end of April, Isuzu said that it would start shipping them to Europe in the third quarter.
By the end of the year, Isuzu will begin production of right-hand drive models for the UK. Sales will follow in early 2026.
Isuzu announced prices this week, boasting the D-MAX EV features the same “no compromise durability” of the current diesel version.
The D-MAX EV pickup features a full-time 4WD system, a towing capacity of up to 3.5 tons (7,700 lbs), and an added Terrain Mode, which Isuzu says is designed for “extreme off-road capability.” With 210 mm (8.3″) of ground clearance, Isuzu’s electric pickup can wade through up to 600 mm (24″) of water.
Powered by a 66.9 kWh battery, Isuzu’s electric pickup offers a WLTP range of 163 miles. With charging speeds of up to 50 kW, the D-MAX EV can recharge from 20% to 80% in about an hour.
The electric version is nearly identical to the current diesel-powered D-Max, both inside and out, but prices will be significantly higher.
| Isuzu D-Max EV specs and prices | |
| Drive System | Full-time 4×4 |
| Battery Type | Lithium-ion |
| Battery Capacity | 66.9 kWh |
| WLTP driving range | 163 miles |
| Max Output | 130 kW (174 hp) |
| Max Torque | 325 Nm |
| Max Speed | Over 130 km/h (+80 mph) |
| Max Payload | 1,000 kg (+2,200 lbs) |
| Max Towing Capacity | 3.5t (+7,700 lbs) |
| Ground Clearance | 210 mm |
| Wading Depth | 600 mm |
| Starting Price (*Ex. VAT) | £59,995 ($81,000) |
Isuzu’s electric pickup will be priced from £59,995 ($81,000), not including VAT. The double cab variant starts at £60,995 ($82,500). In comparison, the diesel model starts at £36,755 ($50,000).
The EV pickup will launch in extended and double cab variants with two premium trims: the eDL40 and V-Cross. Pre-sales will begin later this year with the first UK arrivals scheduled for February 2026. Customer deliveries are set to follow in March.
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In this photo illustration, Claude AI logo is seen on a smartphone and Anthropic logo on a pc screen. (Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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OpenAI and Anthropic continue to lead a fundraising bonanza in artificial intelligence, raising historic rounds and stratospheric valuations.
But when it comes to finding AI exits for venture firms, the market looks a lot different.
AI startups raised $104.3 billion in the U.S. in the first half of this year, nearly matching the $104.4 billion total for 2024, according to PitchBook. Almost two-thirds of all U.S. venture funding went to AI, up from 49% last year, PitchBook said.
The biggest deals follow a familiar theme. OpenAI raised a record $40 billion in March in a round led by SoftBank. Meta poured $14.3 billion into Scale AI in June as part of a way to hire away CEO Alexandr Wang and a few other top staffers. OpenAI rival Anthropic raised $3.5 billion, while Safe Superintelligence, a nascent startup started by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, raised $2 billion.
While Meta’s massive investment into Scale AI amounted to a lucrative exit of sorts for early investors, the overarching trend has been a lot more money going in than coming out.
In the first half, there were 281 VC-backed exits totaling $36 billion, according to PitchBook. That includes the roughly $700 million acquisition of EvolutionIQ, an AI platform for disability and injury claims management, by CCC Intelligent Solutions, and the public listing of Slide Insurance, which builds AI-powered insurance offerings for homeowners. Slide is valued at about $2.3 billion.
“The dominant exit trend right now is frequent but lower-value acquisitions and fewer IPOs with significantly higher value,” said Dimitri Zabelin, PitchBook’s senior research analyst for AI and cybersecurity.
CoreWeave’s IPO, which took place at the very end of the first quarter, was the exception on the infrastructure side. The stock shot up 340% in the second quarter, and the company is now valued at over $63 billion.
Zabelin said the pattern of more investments in applications with smaller deals has been in place for the past year.
“Vertical solutions tend to plug more easily into existing enterprise gaps,” Zabelin said.
The acquisitions wave is being driven, in part, by what Zabelin calls bolt-on deals where larger companies buy smaller startups to enhance their own future valuations, hoping to enhance their value ahead of a future sale or IPO.
“That also has to do with the current liquidity conditions in the macro environment,” Zabelin said.
Outside of AI, activity is slow. U.S. fintech funding dropped 42% in the first half of the year to $10.5 billion, according to Tracxn. Cloud software and crypto have also seen sharp pullbacks.
Zabelin said IPO activity could pick up if economic conditions improve and if interest rates come down. Investors clearly want opportunities to back promising AI companies, he said.
“The appetite for AI, specifically vertical applications, will continue to remain robust,” Zabelin said.
— CNBC’s Kevin Schmidt contributed to this report.
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