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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JackRabbit, the maker of pint-sized electric microbikes, is back with a new product designed to quickly recharge their batteries from pure, uncut photons mainlined into an e-bike directly from the sun. In true independent charging form, the Solar Charging Kit from JackRabbit keeps riders rolling even when there’s not a convenient AC outlet in sight.
Unveiled this week, the Solar Charging Kit consists of a single folding solar panel and a tiny voltage converter that is configured to output 42.0V, which is the exact voltage required by JackRabbit’s little e-bike batteries. There’s also an added USB-A and a USB-C charging port for powering other devices in addition to charging JackRabbit batteries.
“This Solar Charging Kit plugs directly into your bike,” explained the company, “letting you recharge without needing an outlet, but with a speed comparable to the charger that comes with the OG/OG2 (42V, 2A).”
That would mean the panel outputs around 80W of solar power, which the company says can recharge its batteries in just three hours. That fairly quick recharging speed is helped by the fact that JackRabbit’s batteries are a mere 151 Wh, or around a third of the size of most e-bike batteries.
If that sounds small, then you’re right – it is. But JackRabbit is all about going micro, offering barely 25 lb rideables that are easy to store and bring on adventures, even when they aren’t actually being ridden.
With small batteries that fit under the 160Wh limit for many airlines in the US, the batteries can be quickly charged and taken to the widest number of locations. And for riders that want to go further than a single 10-mile (16-km) battery will allow, extra batteries are small enough to fit a pants pocket. The company also offers much larger Rangebuster batteries, though they won’t pass by TSA and make it onto an airplane in your personal item.
It sounds like the Solar Chargking Kit should be able to charge up JackRabbit’s large RangeBuster batteries, though likely in more than three hours.
The $349 Solar Charging Kit is a bit pricier than building something similar yourself, but it’s also safer and more convenient than hacking together your own battery charger since it’s designed to work with JackRabbit’s batteries right out of the box.
Technically it’s only inteded for JackRabbit’s micro e-bikes (themselves technically seated scooters, even if they look and feel more like a typical bike), but it’d probably work for just about any 36V e-bike that requires 42.0V to charge.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen solar charging kits for electric bikes, and it’s a trend that is certainly appreciated by outdoors and camping enthusiasts, festival goers, or anyone who finds themself and their bike spending extended periods in the great, sunny outdoors.
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Solar generated 11% of EU electricity in 2024, overtaking coal which fell below 10% for the first time, according to the European Electricity Review published today by think tank Ember.
EU gas generation declined for the fifth year in a row, and total fossil generation fell to a historic low.
“Fossil fuels are losing their grip on EU energy,” said Dr Chris Rosslowe, senior analyst and lead author of the report. “At the start of the European Green Deal in 2019, few thought the EU’s energy transition could be where it is today; wind and solar are pushing coal to the margins and forcing gas into structural decline.”
The European Electricity Review published today by global energy think tank Ember provides the first comprehensive overview of the EU power system in 2024. It analyzes full-year electricity generation and demand data for 2024 in all EU-27 countries to understand the region’s progress in transitioning from fossil fuels to clean electricity.
Wind and solar continue their meteoric rise in the EU
The EU power sector is undergoing a deep transformation spurred on by the European Green Deal. Solar generation (11%) overtook coal (10%) for the first time in 2024, as wind (17%) generated more electricity than gas (16%) for the second year in a row.
Strong solar growth, combined with a recovery of hydropower, pushed the share of renewables to nearly half of EU power generation (47%). Fossil fuels generated 29% of the EU’s electricity in 2024. In 2019, before the Green Deal, fossil fuels provided 39% of EU electricity, while renewables provided 34%.
Solar is growing in every EU country and more than half now have either no coal power or a share below 5% in their power mix. Coal has fallen from being the EU’s third-largest power source in 2019 to the sixth-largest in 2024, bringing the end into sight for the dirtiest fossil fuel. EU gas generation also declined for the fifth year in a row (-6%) despite a very small rebound in power demand (+1%).
The EU is reaping the benefits of reduced fossil fuel dependency
The surge in wind and solar generation has reduced the EU’s reliance on imported fossil fuels and its exposure to volatile prices since the energy crisis. Ember’s analysis found that without new wind and solar capacity added over the last five years, the EU would have imported an additional 92 billion cubic meters of fossil gas and 55 million tonnes of coal, costing €59 billion.
“While the EU’s electricity transition has moved faster than anyone expected in the last five years, further progress cannot be taken for granted,” continued Rosslowe. “Delivery needs to be accelerated particularly in the wind sector, which has faced unique challenges and a widening delivery gap. Between now and 2030, annual wind additions need to more than double compared to 2024 levels. However, the achievements of the past five years should instil confidence that, with continued drive and commitment, challenges can be overcome and a more secure energy future be achieved.”
Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe said: “This milestone is about more than just climate action; it is a cornerstone of European energy security and industrial competitiveness. Renewables are steadily pushing fossil fuels to the margins, with solar leading the way. We now need more flexibility to kick-in, making sure the energy system is adapting to new realities: more storage and more smart electrification in heating, transport and industries.”
Read more: China installed a record capacity of solar and wind in 2024 – in numbers
If you live in an area that has frequent natural disaster events, and are interested in making your home more resilient to power outages, consider going solar and adding a battery storage system. 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. They have 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.
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