This 3,000W electric trike is for grandpas with style… and with a spare $500
When it comes to the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column, we don’t discriminate based on wheel number. We’ve covered plenty of two and four-wheelers, but three-wheelers need some love too. As long as a product is weird, wild, and comes from the seemingly endless Alibaba shopping catalog, it has a chance of earning this coveted weekly title. And that’s just what this awesome little electric trike has achieved today.
A hardcore electric trike
Keep in mind that this ain’t your daughters cute little tricycle. In fact, it’s more like your dad’s trike, especially if your dad has a grey ponytail just begging to once again flap in the wind against the back of his leather vest.
Sure, this is a far cry from a true Harley product, but you can at least feel some spiritual influence. You know, like a distant cousin. An adopted one. Twice removed.
That small amount of influence runs mostly skin deep, though. The stitched leather (likely pleather) saddle, the aggressive rake angle of the fork and those beefy tires all speak to the aggressive looking design of this e-trike. It’s just missing leather bar tassels and a black compliance half helmet for the complete effect.
The 3,000W motor isn’t a powerhouse at just 4 horsepower, but then again this electric trike seems to be more about looks than performance. The top speed of just 50 km/h (31 mph) reminds us that the ride is about turning heads, not speedometer needles.
There are even a few nice accents here and there, such as the big and easy-to-read LED display, the large front headlight, the dual coilover shocks for rear suspension (complete with separate hydraulic reservoirs), and included mirrors mounted to the hydraulic disc brake hand lever assemblies.
A rear cargo basket seems to provide ample room for a set of bocce balls, an oxygen tank or a pile of spare bingo cards, and maybe even all three if you Tetris them all in just right.
A closer inspection even reveals a locking storage compartment! Or maybe that’s the battery compartment? I’ll be honest, the literature is a bit lacking on this one. I’ve had to go out on a limb looking for details.
But perhaps the low price will assuage any swirling concerns you may have. Priced at $589, this e-trike is practically just a few cashed social security checks away! Well, that’s before the untold thousands of dollars you’d have to spend in importing and shipping charges to get one sent halfway around the world.
And then there’s the legal issues of determining whether you’d even be able to import one for street use. Though if you’re planning on sticking to the confines of the Del Boca Vista community center, then perhaps street legality is a moot point.
Me? I think I’ll save the electric trike for a few more decades. But when it comes time to relive my youth, you better believe China is going to hear me come-a-knocking!
Please don’t try this at home
Ok, we’ve had our fun with a few jabs at some of Alibaba’s finest e-trike engineering. But please don’t take this as a recommendation to spend your fixed income on a set of wheels from halfway around the world.
As we’ve seen time and time again, importing vehicles from Alibaba is a complicated, timely and sometimes costly endeavor. Jumping into a project like this orthotics-first is not for the faint of heart. It’s probably a better idea to just enjoy window shopping instead of being foolish like me and actually sending your hard earned money off to whatever factory seems to catch your eye that week.
But hey, you’ve been warned. And if you still go through with it, be sure to tell me what happened!
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China just laid out a plan to roll out over 100,000 ultra-fast EV charging stations by 2027 – and they’ll all be open to the public.
The National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) joint notice, issued on Monday, asks local authorities to put together construction plans for highway service areas and prioritize the ones that see 40% or more usage during holiday travel rushes.
The NDRC notes that China’s ultra-fast EV charging infrastructure needs upgrading as more 800V EVs hit the road. Those high-voltage platforms can handle super-fast charging in as little as 10 to 30 minutes, but only if the charging hardware is up to speed.
China had 31.4 million EVs on the road at the end of 2024 – nearly 9% of the country’s total vehicle fleet. But charging access is still catching up. As of May 2025, there were 14.4 million charging points, or roughly 1 for every 2.2 EVs.
To keep the grid running smoothly, China wants new chargers to be smart, with dynamic pricing to incentivize off-peak charging and solar and storage to power the charging stations.
To make the business side work, the government is pushing for 10-year leases for charging station operators, and it’s backing the buildout with local government bonds.
The NDRC emphasized that the DC fast chargers built will be open to the public. This is a big deal because a lot of fast chargers in China aren’t. For example, BYD’s new megawatt chargers aren’t open to third-party vehicles.
As of September 2024, China had expanded its charging infrastructure to 11.4 million EV chargers, but only 3.3 million were public.
Read more: California now has nearly 50% more EV chargers than gas nozzles
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Tesla is starting to experience some consequences for misleading Full Self Driving customers – at least that’s the finding of one arbitration ruling that has Tesla refunding one customer $10,000 plus legal fees for failing to deliver on their promises. Find out more on today’s legally challenging episode of Quick Charge!
An arbitration “court” found that Tesla misled customers with its Full Self Driving product, and has now been forced to refund at least one person’s $10,000 payment (plus legal fees) for the not-quite autonomous driving software. France, too, is piling on claims of deceptive business practices – but there’s some good news for FSD fans! If you’re still willing to pay for it, Tesla will thrown in 0% financing on a brand new Cybertruck.
Check out the relevant links, below, to learn more.
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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
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