Äike T review: Testing the first electric scooter that can charge your laptop
To be fair, the Äike T electric scooter is an interesting and innovative ride by itself. But the fact that it’s the world’s first USB-C enabled electric scooter is icing on the cake.
But what makes the Äike T electric scooter stand out so much from the hundreds of other e-scooters on the market?
Pretty much every electric scooter in the world is built in China. I say pretty much, because there’s one model that isn’t, and you’re looking at it.
Meet the Äike T, a European-designed and built electric scooter that packs a number of surprises.
Right off the bat, I’ll tell you that most of the cool features surrounding this scooter relate to its design, not its performance.
The performance is good, don’t get me wrong. But there’s nothing majorly innovative on the performance side. In the US it gets a 20 mph (32 km/h) speed limit, which is nice but a far cry from the faster electric scooters we’ve tested.
The 1,000W motor is certainly peppy, but again, it’s similarly powerful to many other electric scooters out there.
The battery’s 583 Wh capacity is commendable, but 25 miles (40 km) of range is once again fairly average for the nicer electric scooters already available in the US.
What makes the Äike T scooter so different?
So what makes this scooter special then? If the raw performance figures put it in the middle of the pack, then it’s all the other features and design considerations that make it stand out.
The first of which is that impressive battery. Not only is it removable, which is a nice bonus for anyone that doesn’t want to carry a 42 lb (19 kg) scooter around to find a plug. But the battery is also rechargeable via a USB-C charger, just like the kind you likely already use to charge your laptop and other devices.
It can accept up to 100W of charging via USB-C, though there’s another charge port if you want to get the higher power dedicated charger for even faster charging.
That USB-C feature means even if you’ve forgotten your charger, you can still beg, borrow, or steal a commonly available USB-C laptop charger somewhere. If you’re in class, you’ve probably got a few friends around that have one within reach. Both the battery and the scooter have a USB-C port, so you don’t have to pull the battery out to charge it.
The battery can also serve as a portable power station, meaning if your laptop or phone is low on juice then it can charge up your devices straight from the scooter’s battery. That’s probably not something most people will use everyday, but it’s a cool feature to have in a pinch. Think about it: Many of us have a big e-bike or e-scooter battery laying around that is only good for one thing: powering that ride. If you can get a second use out of it for backup power, then why not?!
There’s even more impressive tech under the hood. The scooter includes GPS anti-theft protection, and there’s even keyless smart-lock that uses your phone to activate the scooter – no key or PIN code needed.
Next, consider the physical design features. The side-supported wheels don’t just look cool, they also make it easier to change a tire. You’re unlikely to need to do that often though, since those 10″ tires are tubeless pneumatics that are less likely to get flats.
Braking is accomplished with a combination of a mechanical drum brake (i.e. no maintenance) and regenerative electric braking (i.e. also no maintenance). The entire scooter is IPX5 rated for water resistance, though it’s safer to avoid riding in rain anyway. But if you do get caught in a sprinkle or have to ride through puddles, you can be confident that the scooter can take it.
The entire construction and assembly is designed to be much more rugged than cheap imported scooters, and having European-based manufacturing gives the company the highest level of quality control to ensure those high standards.
Even things that many would consider superfluous, such as the kickstand, are nicely thought out. The double kickstand is minimalistic yet creates an extremely stable parking platform to prevent the scooter from falling over, which is good, because you probably don’t want to be knocking over and scratching up an expensive scooter.
Though even on that front, the Äike T isn’t really that expensive, at least not compared to the rest of the market. It’s priced at around €1,150 in Europe (approximately US $1,250), and in the US its available as part of a subscription program for around US $75 per month.
Suspension – what about it?
If there’s any single major downside to the Äike T electric scooter, it’s the suspension. Or rather the lack of it.
There’s no suspension in the scooter and so you’re going to feel bumps like sidewalk cracks and cobblestones more than on a full-suspension scooter.
Personally, this didn’t really bother me because was riding on mostly good streets, bike lanes, and sidewalks. I didn’t have many pot holes to watch out for and the ones I did, well, I knew where they were and I just didn’t hit them. The large 10″ tires also help smooth out smaller imperfections like the cracks between concrete slabs.
So for many people like me, it’s not a deal breaker. But if you have a lot of rough roads or bumpy trails where you plan to ride, you should know about the lack of suspension going in.
There is an upside here, though, and that’s increased ruggedness. Since there’s no suspension, there’s also no suspension to wear out or break. That might be a poor tradeoff for some, but others may appreciate knowing that the scooter is just one solid piece that’s designed to last.
In conclusion
Like I said, the scooter itself works well. I can’t commend it too much on performance because other than being a really stable platform to ride, it’s not like it’s that much different than other high end scooters in areas like speed, power, and range. It’s sufficiently fast and has a long enough range for most city riders.
The real gem here is everything else! The slick looking design, the GPS anti-theft, removable USB-C compatible battery, the nicely designed app for customizing the scooter, the ultra-low maintenance design, the automotive style tires with large diameter wheels. Even the broad, easily visible lighting is a great feature to see.
While it certainly costs more than a budget scooter, it’s also a high end, European-made electric scooter that will last a lot longer. So you have to pay a bit more than many Americans are used to for cheap Asian scooters, but you get a lot more too.
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A new video surfacing from a Tesla demonstration in Miami this weekend shows the Optimus humanoid robot taking a nasty fall. But it’s not the fall itself that is raising eyebrows, it’s the specific hand movements the robot made on its way down, which strongly suggest it was mimicking a remote operator frantically removing a VR headset.
Humanoid robots are all the hype right now. Billions in investments are pouring in, and Elon Musk claims it will be a trillion-dollar product for Tesla, justifying its insane valuation.
The idea has been that with the advent of AI, robots in human form could use the new generalized artificial intelligence to replace humans in an increasingly larger number of tasks.
However, there are still many serious concerns about the effort, both at the ethical and technological levels.
Technologically, most humanoid robot demonstrations have relied on remote control by human operators – pointing to a remaining gap between the software and hardware.
We discussed how the robots at the “We, Robot” event were heavily teleoperated, despite Tesla not explicitly disclosing that fact to the public.
That was more than a year ago, and despite claims that Tesla has made “AI demos” of Optimus since, it appears the company still relies on teleoperation to control them during demonstrations.
The Tesla Optimus Miami Incident
This weekend, Tesla held an event called ‘Autonomy Visualized’ at its store in Miami. The goal was to showcase Tesla’s “Autopilot technology and Optimus.”
However, there was nothing “autonomous” at Tesla’s “autonomy” event.
Many Tesla fans were seen posting videos of a Tesla Optimus robot handing out bottles of water at the event. It was also seen posing for pictures and dancing.
On Reddit, someone posted a different video of the demonstration:
As you can see, Tesla Optimus moved its hands too quickly, causing some water bottles to drop to the ground. It then loses its balance and begins to fall backward.
But the most interesting part is that just before falling backward, both of its hands immediately shoot up to its “face” in a distinct grasping motion, as if pulling an object off its head.
The robot, of course, is not wearing anything on its head.
The motion is instantly recognizable to anyone who has used VR or watched teleoperation setups. It appears the human operator, likely located backstage or in a remote facility, removed their headset in the middle of operating the robot for unknown reasons.
Optimus faithfully replicated the motion of removing a non-existent headset as it crashed to the floor.
Here’s a look at how Tesla trained Pptimus with VR headsets in its lab:
Electrek’s Take
This is embarrassing, but not just because the robot fell. Robots fall; that’s part of the R&D process. Boston Dynamics blooper reels are legendary, and they never really eroded the company’s credibility.
The problem here is the “Wizard of Oz” moment.
The specific motion of removing the “phantom headset” destroys the illusion of autonomy Tesla tries so hard to curate.
Even recently, Musk fought back against the notion that Tesla relies on teleoperation for its Optimus demonstration. He specified that a new demo of Optimus doing kung-fu was “AI, not tele-operated”:
Musk said again during Tesla’s last earnings call in October:
“Optimus was at the Tron premiere doing kung fu, just up in the open, with Jared Leto. Nobody was controlling it. It was just doing kung fu with Jared Leto at the Tron Premier. You can see the videos online. The funny thing is, a lot of people walked past it thinking it was just a person.”
Musk keeps telling shareholders that Optimus will be the biggest product in history and that millions of units will be working in factories soon. But if they are still relying on 1:1 teleoperation to hand out water bottles right now, it feels like we are still far away from a useful generalized Optimus robot.
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After images of an the new mid-sized electric crossover were leaked by the Chinese MIIT, Nissan pulled the wraps off its all-new NX8 – and it looks so good, I’m wondering if it couldn’t spearhead the brand’s American turnaround.
Nissan has had a rough go of it in the US, if not, well – everywhere of late. And while we may all have our own ideas about what Nissan needs to do to turn its ship around and get back to its winning ways, one thing just about every auto industry analyst seems to understand is that, at its core, Nissan’s problem is a product problem.
It doesn’t have to be this way, though. Despite what the optics of cynically slapping a Nissan badge on a decade-old Mitsubishi platform and calling it a new Rogue might have you believe, Nissan happens to have fantastic, modern new products in its production pipeline – including the all-new NX8 BEV and EREV crossover shown here. There’s just one problem: Nissan’s comeback cars are all in China.
The “N” stands for Nice
Dongfeng Nissan, a Chinese-market automotive joint venture between Dongfeng Motor Group and Nissan, has been rolling out hit after hit in recent months, like the N6 (above), which sits between the Altima and Maxima, size-wise, and offers 112 miles on a full charge of its 21.1 kWh LFP battery before its 1.5L gas engine kicks on to keep the odometer rolling.
The N6’s stablemate, the all-electric Dongfeng Nissan N7 sedan, debuted a few months earlier to rave reviews and hot sales, too – moving more than 10,000 units in the model’s first three weeks on the market.
Like its sedan siblings, the all-electric version of Nissan NX8 crossover rolls on an 800V system architecture and features a CATL-sourced LFP battery pack with 5C ultra-fast charging technology (xC is how many you can charge in an hour, effectively, so 60 minutes divided by 5 = it can charge in as little as 12 minutes). That battery reportedly sends power to a single electric motor putting out either 215 kW (~290 hp) or 250 kW (~335 hp), depending on model.
EREV version of the NX8, meanwhile, features a similar setup to the N6, pairing a 1.5L ICE producing 109 kW (~145 hp) with a 195 kW (~260 hp) electric motor. Expect the NX8 EREV to get slightly less than the N6’s claimed 112 miles of electric-only range (Chinese cycle).
The NX8 is expected to reach its first customers in April 2026. Take a look at some of the firs official photos of the new Nissan crossover, below, then let us know how you think this would do in the US in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
Dongfeng Nissan NX8
SOURCE: Dongfeng Nissan, via CNEVPost.
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This week, BYD crossed a major manufacturing milestone as its battery production crossed 113 GWh in the first three quarters of 2025 – but instead of celebrating, the company is doubling down with a new “Zero Defects” initiative to bring battery quality to an even higher level.
CarNewsChina reports that the new “Zero Defects” plan at BYD was launched internally at the start of Q3, with a focus on minimizing manufacturing defects across all stages of the battery’s life, from the manufacturing line to the end user.
The initiative coincides with BYD’s growing role as a battery supplier to other automakers and its expanding battery energy storage system (BESS) business, which are giving BYD both an international footprint and global benchmarks.
In its ongoing bid to prove itself even further in the global battery market, BYD will reportedly emphasize operational efficiency, error reduction, and standardization across manufacturing, process control, and customer service, with the end goal believed to be, “management practices comparable to those of Toyota.”
BYD on a charge
The Chinese automaker seems to be going from strength to strength in 2025, having overtaken EV sales leader Tesla in China back in June and repeating the trick again by overtaking Tesla sales in Europe in August.
Combine those EV sales with the fact that its domestic traction battery production reached 113.42 GWh in just the first three quarters of the year (with 23.65 GWh, or ~20%, being supplied to outside customers – including Tesla), and you might agree that betting against BYD seems to be a bad idea.
Note that BYD has not released official details regarding performance metrics or milestones for its new Zero Defects goal, but the message is clear: BYD plans to keep getting better.
SOURCE: CarNewsChina; images via BYD.
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.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
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