Connect with us

Published

on

Electrek returned to Eurobike again this year, and as usual, the show was dominated by electric bikes. If you’re an old school curmudgeon that has dug in his heels trying to slow the forward pedaling motion of e-bikes, that might leave you dismayed. For all of the rest of us, it was a great chance to see hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of companies showing off new e-bikes, e-bike gear, and sometimes unrelated yet equally cool transportation… things.

The shows sheer vastness makes it impossible to cover even a small fraction of its entirety, but below you’ll find several of the standout features we saw at the show.

FUELL Flluid-2 and Flluid-3 e-bikes

First of all, a big thank you to FUELL for sponsoring our Eurobike 2023 coverage this year. It made it possible for us to check out the show and get an extended experience testing out the new Flluid-3 as well as talk to the team about the new Flluid-2 on display.

Both bikes are quite simillar, with the main difference being that the Flluid-2 has dual batteries for 2 kWh of capacity while the Flluid-3 comes in a step-through frame. Otherwise, quite similar.

They both rock the new Valeo Cyclee mid-drive motor with built-in gearbox, offering the possibility of predictive automatic shifting. I experienced that automatic shifting, which you can read more about in detail here, and it was pretty darn awesome. You can also put the bike in manual electric shifting mode, but I enjoyed letting it do both the thinking and the acting for me, allowing me to simply pedal.

The rest of the FUELL Flluid-2 and Flluid-3 are equally impressive, as they should be for bikes that start at $5,495. The massive 1 kWh and 2 kWh batteries offer max ranges of over 100 miles and 200 miles (160 km and 320 km), respectively. Most people don’t need that much range, but it adds peace of mind, plus the ability to turn charging into a weekly affair.

The bikes also feature Gates carbon belt drives, quality hydraulic disc brakes, GPS-location for anti-theft, strong racks, tight hugging fenders, Pirelli tires, and more. Basically, they look like they were designed a motorbike designer, because they were. These bikes answer the question, what would happen if Erik Buell built electric bicycles.

Rayvolt and eXXite

I always love seeing Rayvolt at an e-bike show because frankly I think they build the most beautiful electric bikes. Everyone else is competing for second place when it comes to artistic design meets engineering.

These e-bikes are just stunning. Barcelona-based Rayvolt combines Catalonian leatherwork with brass accents and bright colors to create beautiful rolling works of art. And having tested many of these bikes myself, I can tell you that they ride as good as they look.

The bikes are also quite high tech, being some of the first to offer features like backwards pedaling to activate regenerative braking.

Rayvolt’s sister brand eXXite was also at the show with its much more modern but equally nicely designed e-bikes.

I recently got an XS folding e-bike from Exxite and am excited to have that review coming soon. Suffice it to say, when it comes to uniqueness, no one can touch these companies.

Ellio

I only recently learned about Ellio while at Micromobility Europe a couple weeks ago, but the company definitely caught my attention. Their bikes use a combination of a mid-drive motor to power the rear wheel and a front hub motor to create an all-wheel-drive e-bike.

The company just unveiled the Ellio Max that uses the company’s signature two-wheel-drive, combining it with a 1,150 Wh battery for long range and a 45 km/h (28 mph) top speed for fast commuting.

It’s a bit pricey at €7,995 (approximately US $8,700). But it’s also got a Gates belt drive, hydraulic disc brakes, automatic electric shifting, stem suspension, optional seatpost suspension and other high end features.

eurobike 2023 ellio

Yadea e-bikes

Yadea is a massive two-wheeled EV manufacturer from China that is perhaps better known for its electric motorbikes and scooter. But this year they showed up at Eurobike in force with several new electric bicycle models.

The Innovator is a 250W folding electric bike. That may not sound like much power… and it’s not. But the bike has some nice features, like a mid-drive motor, hydraulic disc brakes and a neat frame design.

The company also showed off its heavier Trooper 01. That 45 km/h (28 mph) speed pedelec bike uses a motorcycle-style design akin to a SUPER73 type of e-bike. A 750W motor and dual suspension combine to make this into a fierce looking offering in the category.

Benno

Benno was at the show with an impressive looking display that put an airstream camper trailer in tow behind its e-bike.

It was just a static display and there’s no telling how well it would work in practice. But one thing is for sure: you better put that e-bike in Sport mode!

Greenway batteries

Greenway is a fairly large battery supplier that builds lithium-ion batteries for many of the top e-bike manufacturers. There’s a chance your e-bike has a Greenway battery and you just aren’t aware of it.

But what really caught my eye was their powerstation e-bike battery combo. Basically, it’s an inverter hub that lets you dock your e-bike battery to either charge it or use it to power other devices.

The company representative explained that it’s also a great way to reuse old e-bike batteries that have dropped below their 70% end-of-life rating. At that level, most e-bike batteries are considered replacement worthy, yet the battery still has some good life left in it for static uses just like this. Reduce, reuse, recycle!

Mahle

While we’re talking about e-bike battery power stations like the Greenway option, Mahle was showing off their own version called the e185 range extender battery and Energy Hub combo.

The range extender battery, which works with Mahle’s X20 e-bike system, is designed to fit into any standard water bottle holder on an e-bike and add 170 Wh of capacity. According to the company, that can boost the bike’s range by up to 60 km (36 mi). At just 1.1 kg (2.4 lb), it weighs the same as a one liter water bottle.

The battery also comes with a neat charging dock known as the Energy Hub to make it easier to juice back up after a long ride. You can even use the hub to turn the range extender battery into a powerbank for charging your phone or other devices. The only downside is that it has a single USB-C port, meaning you can either juice it up or juice up something else from it, but not at the same time.

Ducati e-bikes

It’s always great to see Ducati’s e-bikes in person, as these are super high-end electric mountain bikes.

They’re technically largely Thok bikes, with Ducati lending some branding value, but that doesn’t mean these aren’t beautiful machines with high-end parts!

Tern HSD

Tern recently updated its HSD with a new generation for the model, bringing one of the more mid-priced options in its diverse line of heavy-hauling cargo bikes into 2023 with a bang.

The bike includes a number of improvements based on customer desires as well as an upgraded Bosch powertrain.

The new Tern HSD includes the new Bosch Smart System and several upgrades to the design. Its 400 lb (181 kg) weight rating is one of the highest in the industry, and Tern actually tests that in accordance with certified laboratory testing. It’s not a guesstimate weight rating like many of the lower cost e-bike companies out there.

I had a chance to tests out the new HSD myself, and I’ll be sharing those thoughts more in-depth soon in a dedicated HSD article, so be on the lookout!

Engwe

Engwe was at Eurobike with a few models I’ve seen before and a few that were new to me. The company’s X24 and X20 have added smaller diameter wheels to the popular Engwe X26 platform.

The design has a complicated and frankly somewhat confusing triple suspension setup that ensures both the main rider and the rear passenger each get their own suspension for a more comfortable ride.

I’m looking forward to testing one of these out to see what that feels like in practice.

Comodule

I’ve always got to shoutout Comodule, some of the coolest micromobility folks in the business. They make the connected software that runs many of your favorite bikes and used in companies like Riese & Müller, SUPER73, CAKE, and more.

Their Äike T scooter was also on display, showing off the world’s first USB-C charging e-scooter.

I’ve got an Äike T waiting for me to do a full in-depth testing soon.

Myboo

Ok, I’ll be honest and say that I don’t really know much about these Myboo bikes. But they use beautiful bamboo construction and that’s enough for me to drool over them.

Muli

This is one of the coolest designs for a small format cargo bike I’ve ever seen – especially for a front loader cargo bike.

The front basket has an ingeniously simple design that allows it to pop open and close in an instant. When you need a cargo bike, you’ve got plenty of cargo space. But when you don’t want the extra bulk, it transforms back into a “normal” bike that is no wider than a typical city commuter e-bike.

Plus the entire thing is made in Europe. Pretty cool!

Acer

Consumer electronics company Acer (yes, the laptop maker) showed off several of its new electric bikes at Eurobike. The one that really caught my eye though was the ebii, which is getting ever closer to production.

I love seeing companies that aren’t known for bike design take a stab at it. The result is sometimes odd but other times results in really innovative designs like this.

This is one I’ll definitely keep following on its path to production.

Solar scooter

This one isn’t an e-bike at all, but rather a solar-powered scooter. The company’s S80 Solar Scooter is quite literally covered with photovoltaic cells. They’re on both the floorboard and the steering tube.

The Chinese factory’s representatives at the booth explained how the scooter works, offering somewhere between 35 to 70 watts of solar power to recharge the scooter. Considering the 468 Wh battery on board, that means a full recharge takes between 7 and 14 hours of sunlight.

In other words, you can probably get between half to a full charge per day when the scooter is parked outside.

I’m definitely looking forward to getting my hands on this one for testing.

Kilow

While we’re on the subject of things that aren’t bikes, I might as well bring up Kilow. This French company seems to make e-bikes and e-scooters too, but the thing that really caught my eye was their quadricyle.

It looks like something between a Jeep and Moke, but is designed to operate at street-legal speeds for quadricycles in Europe, meaning it won’t have as many regulatory hurdles as “real” cars.

I also love the model, “less is more”!

Tenways Cargo One

Tenways has always been synonymous with budget-level city commuter e-bikes, at least in my mind. But the company showed off an interesting kid-carrying front loader cargo e-bike that show.

The worldwide debut of the Cargo One puts Tenways into a different category entirely, not just in bike style but also quality of design and manufacture.

This isn’t a simple slap-it-together single speed e-bike. Instead, this is a much more ambitious family cargo e-bike.

Cixi

I’ve saved the weirdest for last, folks. Meet Cixi.

This looks a lot like an Arcimoto FUV from the outside, with its dual front wheel setup and 120 km/h (75 mph) top speed. But not only is this a leaning three-wheeler, but it’s also technically a “bike”. Or at least it has functional pedals that are apparently hooked up to some type of generator to register pedal input. Thus, the rider can pedal to control the vehicle’s power output.

It’s a pedal assist electric car, if I’ve ever seen one. Or perhaps a pedal assist three-wheeled electric motorcycle. I guess I don’t know what it is. But it’s definitely weird, and so I love it!

That wraps up our Eurobike 2023 roundup. What was your favorite (or least favorite) from the bunch? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comment section below!

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Environment

Several Waymo self-driving I-Pace electric cars set on fire in LA riots

Published

on

By

Several Waymo self-driving I-Pace electric cars set on fire in LA riots

At least 5 Waymo self-driving I-Pace electric cars were set on fire amid protests that turned violent in Los Angeles this weekend.

It could represent as much as 5% of Waymo’s fleet in Los Angeles being destroyed.

The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched several raids in the Los Angeles area last week that triggered large-scale protests across the city over the weekend.

The protests were mostly peaceful and aimed to bring attention to federal agents indiscriminately arresting and detaining people, but in some cases, they were violent clashes with the police.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

Things took a turn for the worse with President Trump calling the National Guard.

There have been several instances of rioting, looting, and general property damage.

In a unique case, it appears that one or more rioters purposely called multiple Waymo vehicles to Arcadia and Alameda streets, where they slashed the vehicles’ tires, broke the windows, and wrote anti-ICE messages on them.

At around 5 PM on Sunday, the Waymo vehicles were set on fire:

With the ongoing protests, the fire department couldn’t get access to the vehicles and they eventually completely burned down:

Waymo is believed to be operating a fleet of about 100 self-driving cars in the Los Angeles area. Therefore, a significant percentage of the fleet was burned down today.

The company completes over 120,000 rides per week in California, but it operates a bigger fleet in the Bay Area and covers a big service area than in LA.

Waymo shouldn’t have too many issues replenishing its fleet, considering it recently acquired over 2,000 Jaguar I-Pace electric vehicles to more than double its entire fleet over the next year.

The company currently operates over 1,500 vehicles across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin.

With a high utilization rate, the relatively small fleet has already taken significant market shares of those ride-hailing markets. It is estimated that Waymo accounts for approximately 20% of the ride-hailing market in San Francisco.

The new vehicles are going to enable Waymo to expand into new markets.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Environment

‘Bitcoin Family’ hides crypto codes etched onto metal cards on four continents after recent kidnappings

Published

on

By

'Bitcoin Family' hides crypto codes etched onto metal cards on four continents after recent kidnappings

The Taihuttus on a ski trip to Sierra Nevada in southern Spain. They sold everything they owned in 2017 to bet on bitcoin — and now travel full-time as a family of five.

Didi Taihuttu

A wave of high-profile kidnappings targeting cryptocurrency executives has rattled the industry — and prompted a quiet security revolution among some of its most visible evangelists.

Didi Taihuttu, patriarch of the so-called “Bitcoin Family,” said he overhauled the family’s entire security setup after a string of threats.

The Taihuttus — who sold everything they owned in 2017, from their house to their shoes, to go all-in on bitcoin when it was trading around $900 — have long lived on the outer edge of crypto ideology. They travel full-time with their three daughters and remain entirely unbanked.

Over the past eight months, he said, the family ditched hardware wallets in favor of a hybrid system: Part analog, part digital, with seed phrases encrypted, split, and stored either through blockchain-based encryption services or hidden across four continents.

“We have changed everything,” Taihuttu told CNBC on a call from Phuket, Thailand. “Even if someone held me at gunpoint, I can’t give them more than what’s on my wallet on my phone. And that’s not a lot.”

CNBC first reported on the family’s unconventional storage system in 2022, when Taihuttu described hiding hardware wallets across multiple continents — in places ranging from rental apartments in Europe to self-storage units in South America.

The Taihuttu family dressed up for Halloween in Phuket, Thailand, where they recently moved homes after receiving disturbing messages pinpointing their location from YouTube videos.

Didi Taihuttu

As physical attacks on crypto holders become more frequent, even they are rethinking their exposure.

This week, Moroccan police arrested a 24-year-old suspected of orchestrating a series of brutal kidnappings targeting crypto executives.

One victim, the father of a crypto millionaire, was allegedly held for days in a house south of Paris — and reportedly had a finger severed during the ordeal.

In a separate case earlier this year, a co-founder of French wallet firm Ledger and his wife were abducted from their home in central France in a ransom scheme that also targeted another Ledger executive.

Last month in New York, authorities said, a 28-year-old Italian tourist was kidnapped and tortured for 17 days in a Manhattan apartment by attackers trying to extract his bitcoin password — shocking him with wires, beating him with a gun, and strapping an Apple AirTag around his neck to track his movements.

The common thread: The pursuit of crypto credentials that enable instant, irreversible transfers of virtual assets.

Exodus CEO: U.S. buying bitcoin would be a global signal — but taxpayers shouldn’t foot the bill

“It is definitely frightening to see a lot of these kidnappings happen,” said JP Richardson, CEO of crypto wallet company Exodus. He urged users to take security into their own hands by choosing self-custody, storing larger sums on hardware wallets, and — for those holding significant assets — exploring multi-signature wallets, a setup typically used by institutions.

Richardson also recommended spreading funds across different wallet types and avoiding large balances in hot wallets to reduce risk without sacrificing flexibility.

That rising sense of vulnerability is fueling a new demand for physical protection with insurance firms now racing to offer kidnap and ransom (K&R) policies tailored to crypto holders.

But Taihuttu isn’t waiting for corporate solutions. He’s opted for complete decentralization — of not just his finances, but his personal risk profile.

As the family prepares to return to Europe from Thailand, safety has become a constant topic of conversation.

“We’ve been talking about it a lot as a family,” Taihuttu said. “My kids read the news, too — especially that story in France, where the daughter of a CEO was almost kidnapped on the street.”

Now, he said, his daughters are asking difficult questions: What if someone tries to kidnap us? What’s the plan?

One of the steel plates the Taihuttu family uses to store part of their bitcoin seed phrase. Didi etched it by hand using a hammer and letter punch — part of a decentralized storage system spread across four continents.

Didi Taihuttu

Though the girls carry only small amounts of crypto in their personal wallets, the family has decided to avoid France entirely.

“We got a little bit famous in a niche market — but that niche is becoming a really big market now,” Taihuttu said. “And I think we’ll see more and more of these robberies. So yeah, we’re definitely going to skip France.”

Even in Thailand, Taihuttu recently stopped posting travel updates and filming at home after receiving disturbing messages from strangers who claimed to have identified his location from YouTube vlogs.

“We stayed in a very beautiful house for six months — then I started getting emails from people who figured out which house it was. They warned me to be careful, told me not to leave my kids alone,” he said. “So we moved. And now we don’t film anything at all.”

“It’s a strange world at the moment,” he said. “So we’re taking our own precautions — and when it comes to wallets, we’re now completely hardware wallet-less. We don’t use any hardware wallets anymore.”

To throw off would-be attackers, Didi Taihuttu encrypts select words from each 24-word seed phrase — then splits the phrases into four sets of six and hides them around the world.

Didi Taihuttu

The family’s new system involves splitting a single 24-word bitcoin seed phrase — the cryptographic key that unlocks access to their crypto holdings — into four sets of six words, each stored in a different geographic location. Some are kept digitally through blockchain-based encryption platforms, while others are etched by hand into fireproof steel plates using a hammer and letter punch, then hidden in physical locations across four continents.

“Even if someone finds 18 of the 24 words, they can’t do anything,” Taihuttu explained.

On top of that, he’s added a layer of personal encryption, swapping out select words to throw off would-be attackers. The method is simple, but effective.

“You only need to remember which ones you changed,” he said.

Part of the reason for ditching hardware wallets, Taihuttu said, was a growing mistrust of third-party devices. Concerns about backdoors and remote access features — including a controversial update by Ledger in 2023 — prompted the family to abandon physical hardware altogether in favor of encrypted paper and steel backups.

While the family still holds some crypto in “hot” wallets — for daily spending or to run their algorithmic trading strategy — those funds are protected by multi-signature approvals, which require multiple parties to sign off before a transaction can be executed.

The Taihuttus use Safe — formerly Gnosis Safe — for ether and other altcoins, and similarly layered setups for bitcoin stored on centralized platforms like Bybit.

Didi Taihuttu during a recent visit to Sierra Nevada, Spain. The family’s lifestyle — unbanked, nomadic, and all-in on bitcoin — makes them outliers even in the crypto world.

Didi Taihuttu

About 65% of the family’s crypto is locked in cold storage across four continents — a decentralized system Taihuttu prefers to centralized vaults like the Swiss Alps bunker used by Coinbase-owned Xapo. Those facilities may offer physical protection and inheritance services, but Taihuttu said they require too much trust.

“What happens if one of those companies goes bankrupt? Will I still have access?” he said. “You’re putting your capital back in someone else’s hands.”

Instead, Taihuttu holds his own keys — hidden across the globe. He can top up the wallets remotely with new deposits, but accessing them would require at least one international trip, depending on which fragments of the seed phrase are needed. The funds, he added, are intended as a long-term pension to be accessed only if bitcoin hits $1 million — a milestone he’s targeting for 2033.

The shift toward multiparty protections extends beyond just multi-signature. Multi-party computation, or MPC, is gaining traction as a more advanced security model.

Didi, Romaine, and their three daughters live largely off-grid, managing crypto through decentralized exchanges, algorithmic trading bots, and a globally distributed cold storage system.

Didi Taihuttu

Instead of storing private keys in one place — a vulnerability known as a “single point of compromise” — MPC splits a key into encrypted shares distributed across multiple parties. Transactions can only go through when a threshold number of those parties approve, sharply reducing the risk of theft or unauthorized access.

Multi-signature wallets require several parties to approve a transaction. MPC takes that further by cryptographically splitting the private key itself, ensuring that no single individual ever holds the full key — not even their own complete share.

The shift comes amid renewed scrutiny of centralized crypto platforms like Coinbase, which recently disclosed a data breach affecting tens of thousands of customers.

Taihuttu, for his part, says 80% of his trading now happens on decentralized exchanges like Apex — a peer-to-peer platform that allows users to set buy and sell orders without relinquishing custody of their funds, marking a return to crypto’s original ethos.

While he declined to reveal his total holdings, Taihuttu did share his goal for the current bull cycle: a $100 million net worth, with 60% still held in bitcoin. The rest is a mix of ether, layer-1 tokens like solana, link, sui, and a growing number of AI and education-focused startups — including his own platform offering blockchain and life-skills courses for kids.

Lately, he’s also considering stepping back from the spotlight.

“It’s really my passion to create content. It’s really what I love to do every day,” he said. “But if it’s not safe anymore for my daughters … I really need to think about them.”

WATCH: ‘Bitcoin Family’ tracks moon cycles to make crypto investment decisions

'Bitcoin Family' tracks moon cycles to make crypto investment decisions

Continue Reading

Environment

Morgan Stanley upgrades this mining stock as best pick to play rare earths

Published

on

By

Morgan Stanley upgrades this mining stock as best pick to play rare earths

A wheel loader operator fills a truck with ore at the MP Materials rare earth mine in Mountain Pass, California, January 30, 2020.

Steve Marcus | Reuters

The rare-earth miner MP Materials will enjoy growing strategic value to the U.S., as geopolitical tensions with China make the supply of critical minerals more uncertain, according to Morgan Stanley.

The investment bank upgraded MP Materials to the equivalent of a buy rating with a stock price target of $34 per share, implying 32% upside from Friday’s close.

MP Materials owns the only operating rare earth mine in the U.S. at Mountain Pass, California. China dominates the global market for rare earth refining and processing, according to Morgan Stanley.

“Geopolitical and trade tensions are finally pushing critical mineral supply chains to top of mind,” analysts led by Carlos De Alba told clients in a Thursday note. “MP is the most vertically integrated rare earths company ex-China.”

Beijing imposed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements in April in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. It has kept those restrictions in place despite trade talks with U.S.

Trump removed some restrictions Wednesday on the Defense Production Act, which could allow the federal government to offer an above market price for rare earths. MP Materials is the best positioned company to benefit from this, according to Morgan Stanley. Its shares rose more than 5% on Thursday.

MP Materials is developing fully domestic rare earth supply chain in the U.S. and plans to begin commercial production of magnets used in most electric vehicle motors, offshore wind wind turbines, and the future market for humanoid robots, according to Morgan Stanley.

The investment bank expects MP Materials to post negative free cash flow this year and in 2026, but the company has a strong balance sheet should accelerate positive free cash flow from 2027 onward.

Continue Reading

Trending