Lectric XP Trike review: This is the electric trike you’ll probably buy
Let’s face it: If you live in the US and you want an electric trike, there’s one e-trike that you’re most likely to buy – the Lectric XP Trike. Everyone’s talking about it and rightly so. It simply comes in with the best bang for your buck, hands down. It’s not the prettiest. It’s not the highest end. It’s not the fastest. But it likely has the best value of all the e-trikes out there.
So let’s take a deep dive into this awesome trike and see if it would be right for you.
The Lectric XP Trike follows Lectric eBike’s strategy of offering e-bikes that can do 90% of what the more expensive models can do (and in some cases, even more than what the expensive models can do), yet at a fraction of the cost.
Case in point: The Lectric XP Trike is priced at an extremely fair $1,499 and yet offers nearly as much in terms of features and performance as the competition (plus some upgrades compared to many others, like hydraulic brakes and a folding mechanism).
Check out my testing of the Lectric XP Trike in the video below, then read on for my complete thoughts on whether or not this is the right electric three-wheeler for you.
Lectric XP Trike video review
Lectric XP Trike tech specs
- Motor: 500 W (1,092 W peak) geared mid-mounted motor
- Top speed: 22.5 km/h (14 mph)
- Range: Up to 96 km (55 mi)
- Battery: 48V 14 Ah (672 Wh)
- Weight: 31.5 kg (69.5 lb)
- Max load: 188 kg (415 lb) with max rider weight of 150 kg (330 lb)
- Brakes: Hydraulic disc brake calipers with parking brakes on levers
- Extras: Large LCD display with speedometer, wattmeter, battery meter, PAS level indicator, odometer and tripmeter, dual rear wheel drive, front and rear LED lights, 5 pedal assist speed settings, half-twist throttle, removable and lockable battery, fenders and more
- Price: $1,499
What I like about it
If I’m being honest, the XP Trike’s first big advantage that already gets my ears perked up is the price. At $1,499, it’s just so much more affordable than basically every other big name e-trike out there. But there’s much more to the story than just the price. Because they don’t simply cut quality to cut price. They still offer a lot of features.
The low step-through design is easy to mount. I had my mom (who is in her late 60s) on the Lectric XP Trike after her knee surgery, and she took to it quite well. Anyone with mobility issues will find the trike easy to mount. And with a half twist throttle, you can even ride it like a mobility scooter if you don’t want to pedal.
But pedaling… that’s a joy, too. The Lectric XP Trike uses a new type of pedal assist programming that makes it much more comfortable to ride. It still uses a more cost-friendly cadence sensor, so it’s not as nice as a torque sensor-based pedal assist, but it goes part of the way there thanks to the programming. Instead of the different pedal assist levels working like increasingly higher speed limits, the levels actually limit power by providing a current limit. The result is that each progressively higher pedal assist level actually offers you more power, not just more speed. It makes it easy to modulate the power for either a relaxing low power ride or a faster and more thrilling zip around the community.
I’m also a fan of the 20″ wheels that Lectric chose. They aren’t fat tires, but instead more like a hybrid between street tires and mountain bike tires. They have a moderately aggressive tread that allows you to ride on grass or dirt without losing traction.
Most people will stick to the streets and paved bike paths, but nature trails are definitely on the table with these types of tires.
Many electric trikes have opted for fat tires, which I think are probably not necessary for most riders. If you’re looking into a trike, you’re probably not the type of rider who also opts for super aggressive terrain where fat tires excel.
So these modest tires are a nice compromise, offering enough tread and width for dirt roads while still being efficient and effective on the asphalt.
Next, the battery capacity is a nice bump up over some other models. With a 48V 14Ah battery, you’ve got 672 Wh of capacity. The trike only goes up to 14 mph (22 km/h), so you’re not going to burn through that battery very quickly. At full throttle in highest power mode under less than ideal conditions, you’ll likely get at least 20 miles (32 km) of range. But if you back it off to modest power, you can easily double that.
With several hours of riding on a single charge, very few people will ever be worried about running out of battery in the middle of a ride.
Lastly, I’m a big fan of the rear wheel drive setup. I often like to ride on grass or other loose terrain, and a front hub motor (which is the most common way to power an e-trike) can mean that the front wheel loses traction. Even on asphalt, a powerful front motor can spin the tire, which catches many riders off guard.
But with Lectric’s rear wheel drive setup, not only do you get two wheel drive, but the rear wheels will never lose traction because that’s where most of the rider’s weight is supported.
What I don’t like about it
I’ll be honest, it’s hard to find areas to complain about this trike, at least at this price. I always try to keep the price in mind when evaluating bikes, since its hard to compare a $1,499 trike to something twice its price and expect to get the same thing.
In this case though, there are some areas that aren’t top notch.
First of all, I love that the trike folds in the rare event that you need to fit it into a car, but the folding isn’t the smoothest. You have to carefully wiggle the front wheel back inside of the rear wheel. If you’ve got a basket on the front, that’s even trickier and you have to gingerly slide the handlebars under the basket while trying not to scrape anything. It works, and I’ve done it many times. But each time it’s like you’re solving one of those block puzzles and trying to force the pieces together too hard when you know that if you have the puzzle solved correctly, then it wouldn’t require this much pushing.
In practice, I found that I rarely folded the middle section of the bike. Instead, I could fit the trike in my parent’s minivan simply by folding down the handlebars and lifting off the seat. That made the bike short enough to roll right in the back (though the rear seats in a van or SUV will need to be folded down).
Next, the trike is still stable, but it’s not the most stable on the market. The RadTrike has been the most stable e-trike I’ve ever tested, largely because the rear end is slightly wider and the 18″ wheels keep it slightly lower.
But even so, the Lectric XP Trike still feels pretty darn solid. Yes, I can get a wheel up in the turns, but I have to try pretty hard to do it. As long as you’re on flat ground, I don’t think you’ll accidentally get into a tipping situation on the XP Trike. Riding sideways on an incline though, that can be a bit hairy, but the same is true in any three-wheeler.
Should you buy the Lectric XP Trike?
At the end of the day, it’s pretty simple. If you want a decent electric trike at a great price, this is it. There’s no reason to even look any further. I’m rarely this positive about an e-bike, but I’ve rarely seen this much value at this low of a price tag.
E-trikes are simply expensive. Not only is there physically more bike to produce, which increases costs to manufacturers, but they’re niche bikes and come in bigger boxes, meaning they have higher import costs and higher shipping costs to your door (which manufacturers have to eat in order to offer “free shipping”). All of that goes into the higher price found on these types of e-bikes.
But Lectric eBikes has managed to keep the price in check, which is critical for older riders on fixed budgets that can’t afford to drop $2,000- $3,000 on a bike.
It’s not the most elegant design for an e-trike, but it IS the most bang-for-your-buck. And so in that way, it seems like a clear winner for me.
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Rivian has posted a job listing for a steering engineer, specifically mentioning work on a future steer-by-wire system for the company.
Update, Aug 11: Rivian has now specifically mentioned rear-wheel steering in a job posting.
Steer-by-wire is an automotive concept that has been around for a long time, but hasn’t yet reached mass adoption. The idea is to replace (or supplement) mechanical linkages between the steering wheel and the wheels with electronic actuators instead.
There are a number of potential benefits to this, like allowing more customizability or adaptability to a steering system, reducing mechanical complexity, or adding speed-sensitive variable steering ratios.
Although there are also disadvantages, like a reduction in steering feel (although, since most cars are moving to electronic power steering, that was already gone anyway).
But few cars have implemented steer-by-wire systems, or at least not fully committed to them, given that mechanical steering racks are a relatively solved problem and the general inertia of the car industry which would rather stick with a solution they know than switch to something better (haven’t we here, at this EV publication, heard *that* one before…). There’s also the matter of regulations, which have often been written to require mechanical steering systems, and may need updating to allow for steer by wire.
But, steer by wire made it into mass production with the release of the Tesla Cybertruck. This was big news when Tesla committed to this – at the time, it was the only thing on the road to exclusively use a steer by wire system, though there are other cars with partial steer by wire (for example, mechanical front wheel steering, and steer by wire rear-wheel steering).
But it seems to have opened the floodgates, as a number of other companies are working on or have since released steer by wire systems (Lexus, for example).
And now, it looks like Rivian is one of those companies – though we don’t know if it’s for the front or rear. (Update: Well, now we know, it looks like they are at the very least developing a rear-wheel steering system, according to another job listing. Though the company might still be working on steer-by-wire for the whole vehicle, too)
The company posted a job listing for “Sr. Staff Technical Program Manager, Steering Actuator System,” based at its Irvine, CA headquarters (spotted by Rivianforums). This wouldn’t be so exceptional, except that the job posting also specifically points out that “you’ll have full cradle-to-grave ownership of the SBW subsystem.”
So – we know they’re working on steer by wire, to some extent.
But a few other EVs, particularly large EVs like the Rivian R1 platform is, use steer by wire just for the rear wheels – for example the Hummer EV and Rolls-Royce Spectre. These systems are particularly helpful for giant vehicles, because it allows them to be more nimble and make turns that otherwise would require a lot more… negotiation in a giant land yacht.
So it’s possible that Rivian is only working on rear wheel steer by wire here, but we’d like to think there’s a chance it’s working on steer by wire for the full vehicle.
We also don’t know if this would show up on all of Rivian’s vehicles, or only on certain models – the R2 and R3 are in development, with R2 in pretty late stages, and the R1 just got a big refresh. But, perhaps even more interestingly (and very speculatively), VW has invested heavily in Rivian for technology help, so we wonder if we might end up seeing this in VW group vehicles, or Scout vehicles eventually…
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Automakers are scrambling to push their EVs out the door before the $7,500 Federal tax incentive for EVs disappears — and BMW is no different, offering aggressive cash back, owner loyalty, and special financing rates on its just-released 2026 model year EVs.
BMW has a history of offering solid loyalty incentive programs on its EVs in early summer to clear the tail-end of the model year and make room for the incoming builds, but CarsDirect is reporting some unusual loyalty deals from the brand that seem to suggest BMW is keen to capitalize on a spike in EV sales ahead of the Federal tax incentive’s looming cancellation in September.
BMW dealers now have the choice of adding an additional $1,000 loyalty contribution on select 2026 EVs. The i5 and i7 are offered with $1,000 and $4,000 loyalty bonuses, respectively, meaning if you drive a BMW and your dealer opts to tack on the extra bonus, you could save $5,000 on a 2026 i7. These loyalty programs are good when buying or leasing.
There’s also a $1,000 conquest bonus available for drivers of eligible EVs and PHEVs from other brands. This program is stackable with other offers.
Like other EV brands offering huge lease incentives, BMW customers will see the largest rebates on new BMWs when leasing. Now through September 30th, 2026 BMW i5, i7, and iX models are available with a stout $9,900 lease credit, while the bigger BMW XM comes in with a slightly lower, but still substantial $7,500 lease incentive.
Big deals on big BMW i7 sedan
People who prefer to own their vehicles once the payments are up can still score a great deal on an objectively excellent 2026 BMW i7 luxo-cruiser, thanks to the previously mentioned loyalty bonus if they’re previous customers plus a $7,500 Loan Credit that anyone can get when financing their new i7 with the brand’s captive financing company. BMW Bank offers financing rates as low a 3.99% for up to 60 months on the 2026 i5 and i7 sedans, as well as the iX crossover, as well as 4.99% APR 60-month rate on the high-performance XM plug-in hybrid.
The BMW iX, of course, snatched the top spot in J.D. Power’s EV Satisfaction Survey last year, having taken the crown from its BMW i4 stablemate. You can find out what’s behind that score here, or experience it for yourself at a local BMW dealer near you. Click the link(s) below to get a uniquely tailored offer on the exact BMW you want (trusted affiliate links).
SOURCES: CarsDirect, J.D. Power; images via BMW.
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This week, industrial real estate giant Prologis flipped the switch on a rooftop solar project at one of its Franklin Park, Illinois warehouses — the first of 45 such rooftop installations the company plans to deploy in the next two years. Once finished, Prologis’ community solar project will generate up to 82 MW of clean energy!
Co-developed with Illinois utility ComEd and SunVest Solar, the independent power producer, the new rooftop community solar installation in Franklin Park sits atop a 195,000 sq. ft. Prologis logistics center serving a number of local and regional businesses.
Prologis will own and operate the 1.56 MW community solar project, and the energy it generates will serve mostly residential customers, with the minority of the community solar credits created benefiting local businesses.
“We’re proud to join ComEd to officially launch this project, the first of many community solar projects that our energy team is deploying across our Illinois rooftops,” explains Carter Andrus, Prologis’ Chief Operating Officer. “Illinois is one of the fastest-growing solar markets in the country, and we’re excited to help lead its momentum. For us, this is about more than solar panels … it’s about using our scale to make a real difference in the communities where we operate and bring the benefits of clean energy to more people across Illinois.”
Collaborative effort
Prologis is deeply invested in a number of distributer energy resources (DER), including rooftop solar, battery energy storage, and OnDemand Power, a scalable, portable microgrid and power management solution (read: software) designed to provide resilient, backup, and dispatchable energy where and when it is needed across the company’s global portfolio.
“As we continue to support the expansion of solar across northern Illinois, new and planned Prologis rooftop solar sites promise to provide northern Illinois customers additional options for lowering their energy costs via renewable energy connected to the grid,” offers Gil Quiniones, President and CEO of ComEd. “With dozens of additional projects in the pipeline, we are seeing the effect of the pro-solar incentives put in place by Governor JB Pritzker’s administration and how they support a cleaner, more equitable energy future in our state.”
With nearly 800 MWs of rooftop solar and energy storage already deployed and 82 more coming from Northern Illinois alone, Prologis is on track to reach its goal of 1 gigawatt by end of 2025. (!)
SOURCE | IMAGES: ComEd, Sunvest.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
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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