China’s online shopping site Alibaba is chock-full of interesting electric vehicles with all sorts of wacky designs. And for this week’s entry in the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week, a super low-cost electric jeep like this looks just about as fun as it does oddly proportioned.
The vendor lists a price range of between US $1,000 to $2,400, but when I discussed it with them I was quoted a price of closer to US $1,700.
So what does US $1.7k get you in the world of cheap electric jeeps?
Not much, if you’re expecting something that can tackle the Rubicon trail. But if you’re looking for something fun to tool around the trailhead, this might be it. Well, as long as your legs aren’t too long.
Yes, I know there’s a muffler. They didn’t have pictures of the electric version for me
The electric jeep is more of a shrunken version, measuring a mere 2.2 meters (7.5 feet) long, bumper to bumper.
It’s got two seats, but the video below of an adult operating it makes it look like you and your riding buddy better be pretty close pals.
The electric jeep comes with three different motor options of 500W, 800W, and 1,500W. With the largest of the three offering a measly two horsepower of continuous power and perhaps 50% more in peak power, this isn’t going to be a high performance ride. The 48V 20Ah lead acid battery pack doesn’t sound too large, but they somehow magically quote a range of up to 130 km (80 miles). Good luck with that.
They do show it climbing an incline, but it doesn’t do so very fast. The little electric jeep’s top speed is just 35-40 km/h (22 to 25 mph), with the final figure in that range likely decided by how large your lunch was today.
There’s also only 10 cm (4 inches) of ground clearance, so you’ll want to be careful with any seriously uneven terrain.
If you do get stuck though, don’t fret. The little electric jeep includes a winch as part of the price. It’s not pictured, but they assured me it comes in the box. If you want any other accessories though, like the wheel cowls, taller roll bar, jerry cans or spare wheels, those will cost you extra.
And if your winch cable isn’t long enough to reach the nearest tree, the entire thing only weighs 180 kg (400 lb), so you can probably just grab one end and heave a bit.
It’s not quite as old school Willys jeep-looking as the last awesome electric jeep I found, but in a way I kind of like this one better. It doesn’t try too hard for a vintage army look, and instead offers a more 90s Wrangler vibe.
Of course this is a jeep with a lowercase ‘j’, so don’t expect any real Wrangler nods, but the design certainly looks like it’d be fun for playing around in while off-road. It won’t have quite the utility of most other electric UTVs, but it sure would turn more heads.
And before you start pulling out your wallet, please allow me to help you put that bad idea to rest. As usual, here’s my disclaimer that this column is meant to be tongue-in-cheek. It’s fun to find these weird and awesome EVs on Alibaba, but I never recommend anyone buying one. In fact, one of my readers bought something similar a couple years ago and found that the production quality was seriously lacking, to the point that he wouldn’t have been able to assemble it if he hadn’t owned a welder and been able to re-engineer it in his garage.
Then there’s the whole risk of buying on Alibaba in general. While I’ve had positive experiences buying some vehicles like my electric mini-truck and five seater electric boat, I’ve also had horror stories. I ordered an electric excavator several months ago, and while the transaction seemed to be going fine, the crate that finally showed up had a totally different useless machine in it that was effectively worthless. I was out some serious dough with absolutely no recourse (full story on that one coming soon, once I calm down).
So in good old fashioned “Do what I say, not what I do”, please don’t try and order weird things like this from Alibaba. Let’s just all enjoy window shopping and keeping our hard earned money in our bank accounts, getting drained monthly by Netflix, just like the good lord intended.
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On today’s road-ready episode of Quick Charge, Tesla released data hinting that its Autopilot ADAS solution may be less safe to use than before. We’ve also got some news from inside the Tesla diner experience, plus a 250,000 mile Ford Mustang Mach-E that still has more than 90% of its battery capacity left!
We also cover Lucid’s plans to reinvigorate American EV manufacturing WITHOUT help from Washington by forging stronger bonds between automakers, mineral miners, and battery recyclers – plus: Optimus breaks down.
New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (most weeks, anyway). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.
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Renewables continued to dominate fossil fuels on price in 2024, according to a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The big takeaway: Clean energy is the cheapest power around – by a wide margin. So it’s pretty bad business that the biggest grid upgrade project in US history just got kneecapped by Trump’s Department of Energy to stop the “green scam.”
On average, solar power was 41% cheaper than the lowest-cost fossil fuel in 2024, and onshore wind was 53% cheaper. Onshore wind held its spot as the most affordable new source of electricity at $0.034 per kilowatt-hour, with solar close behind at $0.043/kWh.
IRENA’s report says global renewables added 582 gigawatts (GW) of capacity last year, which avoided about $57 billion in fossil fuel costs. That’s not a small dent. Even more impressive: 91% of all new renewable power projects built in 2024 were cheaper than any new fossil fuel option.
Technological innovation, strong supply chains, and economies of scale are driving the cost advantage. Battery prices are helping too: IRENA says utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) are now 93% cheaper than they were in 2010, with prices averaging $192/kWh in 2024.
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But it’s not all smooth sailing. The report flags short-term cost pressures from trade tensions, material bottlenecks, and rising costs in some regions. North America and Europe feel more squeezed than others due to permitting delays, limited grid capacity, and higher system costs.
Meanwhile, countries in Asia, Africa, and South America could see faster cost drops thanks to stronger learning rates and abundant solar and wind resources.
One big challenge is financing. In developing countries, high interest rates and perceived investor risk inflate the levelized cost of electricity of renewables. For example, wind power generation costs were about the same in Europe and Africa last year ($0.052/kWh), but financing made up a much larger share of project costs in Africa. IRENA estimates the cost of capital was just 3.8% in Europe but 12% in Africa.
And even if projects are affordable to build, many are getting stuck in grid connection queues or stalled by slow permitting. Those “integration costs” are now a major hurdle, especially in fast-growing G20 and emerging markets.
Tech is helping with some of that – hybrid solar-wind-storage setups and AI-powered tools are improving grid performance and project efficiency. But digital infrastructure and grid modernization still lag in many places, holding renewables back.
“Renewables are rising, the fossil fuel age is crumbling,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “But leaders must unblock barriers, build confidence, and unleash finance and investment.”
IRENA’s bottom line is that the economics of renewables are stronger than ever, but to keep the momentum going, governments and markets need to reduce risks, streamline permitting, and invest in grids.
Electrek’s Take
Speaking of unblocking barriers and investment, the opposite just happened today in Trump World. The Department of Energy just canceled a $4.9 billion conditional loan commitment for the 800-mile Grain Belt Express Phase 1 transmission project, the biggest transmission line in US history.
It’s a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line connecting Kansas wind farms across four states. It will connect four grids, improving reliability. It will be able to power 50 data centers and create 5,500 jobs. Phase 1 is due to start next year.
The new grid will also connect all forms of energy, not just renewables, and it’s super pathetic that Invenergy had to stoop to put up a map on the project’s home page today showing how it will transmit fossil fuels, the “existing dispatchable generation source,” and felt it had to leave renewables off the map entirely. Sorry, Kansas wind farms, you get no mention because this administration doesn’t like you.
Chicago-based Invenergy plans to build the 5 GW Grain Belt Express in phases from Kansas to Illinois. The company says the project will save customers $52 billion in energy costs over 15 years. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) complained to Trump about the project, calling it a “green scam,” and got the government loan canceled based on a lie, claiming it would cost taxpayers “billions.” This was Invenergy’s response on X:
This is bizarre. Senator Hawley is attempting to kill the largest transmission infrastructure project in U.S. history, which is already approved by all four states and is aligned with the President’s energy dominance agenda. Senator Hawley is trying to deprive Americans of… pic.twitter.com/ZLwTNUGZxA
As usual, Trump was swayed by the last person in the room, and Hawley shot an entire region in the foot when an upgraded grid and more renewables are needed more than ever. Hopefully, this project can continue despite the ignorant shortsightedness coming from the Republicans (who ironically released an AI Action Plan today).
It beggars belief that this political party is this isolated from the rest of the world – well, besides our besties Iran, Libya, and Yemen, who aren’t part of the Paris Agreement either – and being that the US is the world’s No 2 polluter, the world will suffer for its arrogance.
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Earnings are down 23% on falling electric vehicle sales and lower margins, but Tesla’s stock is not crashing because CEO Elon Musk is promising a return to earnings growth through autonomous driving and humanoid robots.
We previously reported on how Tesla’s Robotaxi effort is a major shift in strategy for Tesla, which has been promising unsupervised self-driving in its customer vehicles for years.
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Instead, the Robotaxi service consists of an internal fleet operating within a geo-fenced area, currently only in Austin, Texas, and powered by teleoperation and in-car supervisors with a finger on a kill switch at all times.
“I believe half of the population of the US will be covered by Tesla’s Robotaxi by the end of the year.”
He added that he believes that regulatory approval will be the biggest hurdle, even though Tesla’s current service requires a Tesla employee in each car, which is a major hurdle to scaling.
Musk and Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of self-driving, both claimed that the Bay Area will be the first market where Tesla plans to expand its Robotaxi service. However, Elluswamy added that the program will initially have a driver in the driver’s seat.
This is laughable. Who believes that? How can Elon say that with a straight face when Tesla only has a joke of a system that requires supervision at all times?
For context, Tesla currently only operates in a little over half of Austin, Texas. Here’s the list of all the metro areas Tesla would need to launch Robotaxi by the end of the year to cover half of the US population:
Rank
Metro Area
Population
Cumulative Total
1
New York
19.15 M
19.15 M
2
Los Angeles
12.68 M
31.83 M
3
Chicago
9.04 M
40.87 M
4
Houston
6.89 M
47.76 M
5
Dallas–Fort Worth
6.73 M
54.49 M
6
Miami
6.37 M
60.86 M
7
Atlanta
6.27 M
67.13 M
8
Philadelphia
5.86 M
72.99 M
9
Washington, DC
5.60 M
78.59 M
10
Phoenix
4.83 M
83.42 M
11
Boston
4.40 M
87.82 M
12
Seattle
3.58 M
91.40 M
13
Detroit
3.54 M
94.94 M
14
San Diego
3.37 M
98.31 M
15
San Francisco
3.36 M
101.67 M
16
Tampa
3.04 M
104.71 M
17
Minneapolis–St. Paul
2.62 M
107.33 M
18
St. Louis
2.80 M
110.13 M
19
Denver
2.99 M
113.12 M
20
Baltimore
2.83 M
115.95 M
21
Orlando
2.76 M
118.71 M
22
Charlotte
2.75 M
121.46 M
23
San Antonio
2.60 M
124.06 M
24
Austin
2.42 M
126.48 M
25
Pittsburgh
2.43 M
128.91 M
26
Sacramento
2.42 M
131.33 M
27
Las Vegas
2.32 M
133.65 M
28
Cincinnati
2.26 M
135.91 M
29
Kansas City
2.19 M
138.10 M
30
Columbus
2.14 M
140.24 M
31
Cleveland
2.16 M
142.40 M
32
Indianapolis
2.12 M
144.52 M
33
San José
1.99 M
146.51 M
34
Virginia Beach–Norfolk
1.76 M
148.27 M
35
Providence
1.68 M
149.95 M
36
Milwaukee
1.57 M
151.52 M
37
Jacksonville
1.60 M
153.12 M
38
Raleigh–Durham
1.45 M
154.57 M
39
Nashville
1.43 M
156.00 M
40
Oklahoma City
1.42 M
157.42 M
41
Richmond
1.30 M
158.72 M
42
Louisville
1.28 M
160.00 M
43
Salt Lake City
1.26 M
161.26 M
44
New Orleans
1.23 M
162.49 M
45
Hartford
1.20 M
163.69 M
46
Buffalo
1.11 M
164.80 M
47
Birmingham
1.10 M
165.90 M
This is ridiculous. The lies are becoming increasingly larger and more brazen. We know what that means.
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