Why Burning Man may start banning electric bikes
Electric bikes have proven to be a massively popular form of transportation for millions of Americans, but their use at Burning Man may soon end.
Electric bike use has been on the rise in the US, and it seems no area has been left untouched. Even Burning Man’s Black Rock City (BRC), the temporary city formed each year in the desert around 120 miles (200 km) north of Reno, has seen a massive influx of e-bikes in the last few years.
The Burning Man event has always been a heavily cycle-friendly festival, but that has usually meant pedal bikes swarming around BRC. As electric bikes surged in popularity in 2021 and 2022, Burning Man’s share of e-bikes has grown quickly as well.
E-bikes are an effective way to get around the sprawling BRC, but many event goers have watched with dismay as their numbers grow. As explained by Charlie Dolman, director of event operations at Burning Man:
After the 2022 Black Rock City event, participants sent Burning Man Project an overwhelming volume of feedback about how their fellow Burners were operating e-bikes.
Most of the feedback was negative, usually relating to how fast e-bike riders were traveling. There’s a hard 5 mph (8 km/h) speed limit in BRC that applies to anything with wheels. Cars are banned outside of staff vehicles and other approved vehicles such as moving art installations and “mutant vehicles,” but bikes and scooters are limited to 5 mph speed limits. E-bike riders, it seems, have often disregarded those speed limits.
Currently, BRC only allows Class 1 e-bikes, which don’t have a throttle but can easily reach up to 20 mph (32 km/h) with pedal assist. However, Class 2 e-bikes with throttles and Class 3 e-bikes that can reach 28 mph (45 km/h) are frequently seen as well.
Burning Man officials, while not outrightly against e-bikes, haven’t been overtly supportive of their use due to the potential for high-speed abuse. They point out that not only is going faster than 5 mph not allowed, but it also causes riders to miss much of the beauty and uniqueness of BRC. As Dolman explained:
Black Rock City is best discovered at a pace that lets the best-kept secrets and unplanned surprises of the city (and there are oh-so-many!) reveal themselves. If you go too fast, you miss many of our ephemeral city’s hidden wonders and surprise encounters: whimsical treasures of the backstreets, understated art, spontaneous new friendships, popup events, and parties with secret entrances.
Many of the Burning Man attendees have complained about riders going too fast on e-bikes while under the influence of cognitively impairing substances, creating a dangerous situation to those around them. Dolman added that many e-bike riders as well as pedestrians and cyclists were injured at the 2022 event because of e-bike speeds.
Dolman explained that Burning Man officials don’t want to have to outright ban electric bikes or require a fee to register them at the gate, but that such actions may become necessary if e-bike riding behavior doesn’t improve at this year’s event.
A list of four rules for operating e-bikes at Burning Man was shared:
- Keep speeds at or below the 5 mph limit — everywhere!
- Watch out for pedestrians and other cyclists — everywhere!
- Remember to stop, get off, and explore — everywhere!
- Respect and listen to those who raise concerns — all the time!
And as much as Burning Man officials don’t want to hand out punishments, e-bike riders have been put on notice:
Be forewarned: if you don’t abide by these basic guidelines, you may be pulled over by law enforcement or Black Rock Rangers, and your e-bike may get impounded.
Image 1 credit, image 2 credit
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Solar panel giant Qcells announced today that it’s temporarily furloughing 1,000 US workers – 25% of its workforce – and reducing pay and shifts at its factories in northeast Georgia due to supply chain delays caused by US Customs.
Qcells furloughs 1,000 workers
The supply chain delays are hindering the company’s ability to import components to build its solar panels. This has resulted in Qcells’ two factories in Cartersville and Dalton being unable to operate at full capacity for several months.
Qcells spokeswoman Marta Stoepker shared the following statement in an exclusive with Channel 2 Action News in Atlanta:
The company says the furloughed workers, who were notified this afternoon, will retain full benefits and won’t be laid off. However, Qcells will no longer be using staffing agency employees in Georgia “at this time.”
As Qcells introduced new supply chains to support its growing solar panel manufacturing facilities in Georgia, the company was recently forced to scale back production while our shipments into the US were delayed in the customs clearance process.
Although our supply chain operations are beginning to normalize, today we shared with our employees that HR actions must be taken to improve operational efficiency until production capacity returns to normal levels.
Stoepker said it expects to bring the furloughed workers back “in the coming weeks and months.” She continued:
Our commitment to building the entire solar supply chain in the United States remains. We will soon be back on track with the full force of our Georgia team delivering American-made energy to communities around the country.
Electrek’s Take
In January 2023, the Seoul-headquartered Qcells announced it would invest more than $2.5 billion to build a solar supply chain in Georgia – the largest-ever investment in clean energy manufacturing in the US to date. That included expanding the Dalton solar factory and building a fully integrated solar supply chain factory in Cartersville, Georgia, that will manufacture solar ingots, wafers, cells, and finished panels.
It’s not quite there yet, because that takes time. In the meantime, it’s being penalized by Customs. The US government under Trump says it’s keen on boosting domestic manufacturing. Why would it work against a company that’s onshoring an entire solar supply chain, including recycling?
Dalton and Cartersville employ nearly 4,000 people. Its total output will reach 8.4 GW of solar production capacity per year, which is equivalent to nearly 46,000 panels per day – enough to power approximately 1.3 million homes annually.
It’s ludicrous that it has been forced to furlough a quarter of its workforce due to the ineptness of the Trump administration’s US Customs policies. This is right up there with the ICE arrests at Hyundai’s plant in Georgia. Bravo.
Read more: Georgia gives US solar panel manufacturing a big boost with a new factory
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The breakthrough EV batteries Toyota says will double driving range and cut charging times are facing another setback. The company is once again delaying plans for a new battery plant in Japan.
Why is Toyota delaying its EV battery plant this time?
Earlier this year, Toyota bought a 280,000-square-meter plot of land in Fukuoka, Japan, where it planned to build a plant to produce the more advanced EV batteries.
A location agreement was expected to be signed by April, but Toyota pushed back construction by several months, blaming slower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles.
The agreement was expected to be finalized this Fall, but that will no longer be the case. According to Nikkei, Toyota is delaying the EV battery plant for the second time. Toyota will review and adjust plans over the next year.
Fukuoka governor, Seitaro Hattori, confirmed the news with reporters on Friday following a meeting with Toyota’s president, Koji Sato. Hattori also shut down claims that Toyota was planning to scrap the battery plant altogether.
Toyota again blamed slowing EV demand for the delay. The decision comes despite Keiji Kaita, president of Toyota’s Carbon Neutral Advanced Engineering Development Center, confirming at the Japan Mobility Show just last week that it’s “sticking on the schedule” to introduce its first solid-state battery-powered EV by 2028.
Last month, Toyota said it aimed to “achieve the world’s first practical use of all-solid-state batteries in BEVs” after securing a partnership with Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. to mass-produce them. It’s also working with Japanese oil giant Idemitsu.
The company recently revealed a solid-state battery pack prototype that it claims can deliver 747 miles (1,200 km) range and 10-minute fast charging, but will we ever see it actually in production?
Electrek’s Take
Toyota has been making empty promises about EV batteries for almost a decade now. It initially planned to introduce solid-state EV batteries in 2020, then pushed it to 2023, then 2026, and now it’s saying it will be around 2028.
Mass production is likely closer to the end of the decade, if Toyota doesn’t delay it again. While it’s blaming the slowing demand, global EV sales are still on the rise. According to Rho Motion, global EV sales topped 2 million for the first time in a single month in September 2025. Through the first nine months of the year, EV sales are up 26% compared to the same period in 2024.
Even with the US ending the $7,500 federal tax credit and other policies designed to promote electric vehicles, global adoption will continue building momentum over the next few years.
Is it a demand issue, or is Toyota just looking for another excuse? With rivals like Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, BMW, and Honda advancing next-gen EV batteries, Toyota will only fall further behind if it continues delaying key projects.
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In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss how Tesla is now Elon’s after the shareholders’ meeting, Xpeng going all-in on AI, Rivian’s earnings, and more.
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