How I flew halfway around the world with an electric bike (legally)
Have you ever tried flying with an electric bike? It’s surprisingly hard since those big lithium-ion batteries are usually not allowed in your checked luggage or in your carry-on. But that just made me even more determined to figure out a way to do it.
Electric bikes are a fast growing and fun way to get to work, get exercise, or just get around and have fun. While often used for transportation or utility, electric bikes are also great for recreation. That means many people want to travel on vacation or for work with an e-bike. But those big lithium-ion batteries pose a problem since they are too large for air travel.
Or at least most of them are.
Nearly all airlines will allow batteries up to 100 Wh of capacity, and many allow batteries up to 160 Wh. That’s not very much, and is usually the size of a chunky portable cell phone charging battery. By comparison, a typical e-bike battery ranges from 300-700Wh.
And so to find an e-bike I could take on a plane, I had to cheat. I had to find an unusual e-bike that would actually fit the bill. And boy, did I!
The JackRabbit’s battery measures in at 36V and 4.2Ah, or around 151 Wh. It’s not much, only enough for around 10 miles (16 km) of range per charge. But it’s also just $199 to snag a second pocket-sized battery, which is what many people do to extend their range.
If you guys haven’t seen my review of the JackRabbit, you’ll want to check that out.
It may look oddly proportioned, and it is, but it’s also fun to ride and amazingly convenient for a city dweller thanks to its mere 11 kg (25 lb) weight.
It was originally designed for students to navigate college campuses, and so it favors a small, lightweight, relatively inexpensive ride that works well in an urban environment.
Plus it’s the perfect e-bike for traveling by plane since it slips just under the regulations to allow it to be legally transported on passenger aircraft.
So to travel halfway around the world on a recent trip, I loaded up my JackRabbit e-bike (technically a form of seated scooter, also known as micro e-bikes) and its battery for the trip.
JackRabbit knows that many people use their e-bikes for travel, and they’re also common on private aircraft or boats as a way to get around once you land at a small airstrip or port. For that reason, the company created a travel bag perfectly sized for the JackRabbit.
The bag is just $125, which is actually pretty good for a travel bike bag. My main bike bag that I use for larger bikes cost around 5x as much (though it also has wheels) and hard armor. The JackRabbit travel bag may be lightweight and small, but it is reinforced in the areas where the axles and other hard points touch the bag. That means it is still small enough to fold up into something the size of a lunchbox.
I loaded up my JackRabbit in the bag, though I found it was a very tight fit. It took some serious jiggling, but it finally worked its way in.
The trick seemed to be to get the bike most of the way in, then hold the bag up on end and do a bit of wiggling and bouncing.
I had to remove the battery to keep it in my carry-on, since the batteries aren’t allowed in checked bags. Just to be safe, I also ran the battery to empty before the flight and also put a piece of tape over the battery contact.
From there, I simply checked in the bag like any other piece of checked luggage. That’s basically what it looks like, and I even managed to stuff about a week’s worth of laundry into the bag too (once the bike gets squeezed in, there’s still lots of negative space around the frame where your laundry can go).
I tossed an Airtag into the bag just to follow it along through the airports, which was useful since I also brought it on a several-day trip that had me passing through 5 or 6 different airports.
Once I made it to my final destination, which was a solid 7,000 or so miles (12,000-ish km) away from where I started, I unpacked the bike and charged up the battery. A couple hours later I was ready to rock and roll, riding away on my e-bike halfway around the world!
If I tried this with larger e-bikes that have higher capacity batteries, I’d have to ship the battery separately and go through a hazardous goods process.
I’ve done it before but it’s super complicated, costly and more of a hassle than most people will ever want to put up with. For those cases in the past I had to become a certified hazmat shipper, believe it or not.
Being able to simply drop your e-bike off at the check-in counter and pick it up at baggage claim is a pretty awesome perk of a small battery e-bike. You may not be traveling very far on a charge, but if you’re using the bike as a way to get around the city, then a shorter range likely isn’t a big problem. And worst case scenario: you just bring a spare battery. The more, the merrier!
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Environment
Lucid (LCID) faced challenges in Q2, but here’s why the CEO is still confident about the future
Lucid Group’s (LCID) stock is dropping on Wednesday after the company missed Q2 expectations. CEO Marc Winterhoff admitted during a new interview that the auto tariffs and the end of the $7,500 EV tax credit “keeps us up at night,” but promises things are looking up from here.
Lucid (LCID) CEO explains Q2 hurdles and future plans
After missing top and bottom line expectations, Winterhoff told investors on the company’s earnings call that Lucid is “entering a pivotal new phase.”
Despite the reassurance, Lucid’s CEO admitted several things negatively impacted earnings. For one, its gross margin for the quarter was -105%, due to $54 million in extra costs from tariffs.
Lucid also lowered its production goal for the year from a firm 20,000 to between 18,000 and 20,000. The company stated that the updated range reflects the changing market.
During an interview on Wednesday morning, Winterhoff told CNBC’s Phil LeBeau that changes in trade, tariffs, and tax credits are “something that, you know, keeps us up at night.”
Lucid posted revenue of $259.4 million, missing Wall Street’s estimates of around $280 million. It also reported a wider-than-expected net loss of $790 million, or a loss of $ 0.34 per share.
Winterhoff told LeBeau that the biggest challenge Lucid faced in Q2 was tariffs, which had a bigger impact on gross margins than expected. However, it should work itself out throughout the remainder of the year, Lucid’s CEO added.
The other topic that many were wondering about was the availability of Earth magnets. Winterhoff explained that, unlike most of its competitors, Lucid was able to overcome the issue.
If it weren’t for Lucid’s quick actions, the company would have had to stop production in Q2. Instead, Winterhoff said that the company now has the raw materials, earth magnets, and licensing for the remainder of the year.
Lucid’s CEO added, “We are actually in a good place right now.” The company secured a partnership with Uber and Nuro to develop and deploy 20,000 robotaxis over the next six years. As part of the agreement, Uber is investing $300 million into Lucid.
Although it missed expectations, Lucid is still making progress. The EV maker is coming off its sixth straight quarter with record deliveries. It also produced a record number of vehicles in Q2.
After overcoming supply chain issues that limited Gravity output, Lucid said it’s on track to “significantly increase production” in the second half of the year.
Lucid ended the quarter with $4.86 billion in total liquidity, which it expects will provide funding through the second half of 2026, when it plans to launch its midsize platform.
The midsize platform will have at least three “top hots,” or vehicles, including an electric SUV and Sedan. With prices expected to start at around $50,000, Lucid’s midsize EVs are expected to go head-to-head with the Tesla Model Y and Model 3.
Lucid Group’s (LCID) stock is down about 10% on Wednesday following Q2 earnings. Despite share prices surging after the Uber partnership last month, Lucid’s stock is still down nearly 30% over the past 12 months.
The company is planning a reverse stock split, which will be voted on at an upcoming investor meeting, to boost the share price and attract larger investors.
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Elon Musk is teasing a new Tesla ‘Full Self-Driving Supervised’ (FSD) update with “10x improvements”, but historical performance compared to Musk’s announcements suggests that it’s safer to manage your expectations.
In a new X post last night, Musk is teasing an upcoming new FSD update that will include a “10x increase in parameters”:
Tesla is training a new FSD model with ~10X params and a big improvement to video compression loss. Probably ready for public release end of next month if testing goes well.
This is the second time that Musk is teasing an update to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving program this year.
The version of FSD in consumer vehicles hasn’t improved all year, as Tesla has focused its efforts on its ‘Robotaxi’ service in Austin.
After launching FSD v13 on HW4 vehicles late last year, the system has not shown meaningful improvement based on crowdsourced community data.
In fact, it appears to be deteriorating.
With 16,000 miles on the first 5 point updates on FSD v13, people were traveling on average 510 miles between critical disengagements (left), and now with the last 4 point updates, people are traveling 431 miles between critical disengagements (right):
Although the discrepancy could also be explained simply by the latest data being more accurate with more mileage.
Now, Tesla shareholders are hoping that the lag in improvement will be mitigated by Tesla using what it has learned through its deployment of its supervised robotaxi service in Austin to release a significantly improved FSD update.
In June, Musk first teased this update, and at the time, he said that it would include a “4x increase in parameters” and would come “in the next few months.”
Now, he seems to bonify the increase in parameters to “10x” and adjusts the timeline to the end of September.
However, before getting excited, it’s important to remember the last time Musk promised an increase in performance through an increase in parameters.
The CEO said that FSD v12.5 on HW4 was a “5x increase in parameters” and that was quite disappointing.
FSD v12.5 on HW4 (left) only brought a 22% increase in miles between critical disengagement compared to v12.3 (right):
In fact, the miles between critical disengagements plummeted with other v12.5 point updates, and it ultimately ended at 184 miles between critical disengagements, significantly below v12.3:
Therefore, it’s hard to get too excited about a new “10 increase in parameters” when that’s what happened the last time Musk called for it.
Electrek’s Take
Let’s be optimistic here and assume a 2x improvement in miles between critical disengagements from now on.
FSD on HW4 would still only be at about 900 miles between critical disengagements, which is nowhere near where you need to be for an unsupervised self-driving system.
At this improvement rate, Tesla would still need 5-10 years to get close to an unsupervised driving system and that’s while it is reaching the limits of its HW4 system. It’s becoming fairly clear that HW4 is going the way of HW3: obsolescence.
Tesla FSD would be impressive if it were sold as what it is: a level 3 driver assistance system. It’s best out there.
But it needs to be compared against what it is sold as: a self-driving system that will enable unsupervised autonomy.
In comparison to that, it’s terrible.
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Volkswagen is shaking things up with plans to trim its lineup. Volkswagen is killing off one of its oldest SUVs, but an electric vehicle is also in line to get the axe.
Volkswagen is retiring the Touareg and electric ID.5 SUVs
The Volkswagen Touareg has been on sale for over 24 years. First launched in 2022, the luxury SUV was developed in tandem with the Porsche Cayenne, sharing powertrain components and a similar design.
Next year, Volkswagen will retire it from its lineup. Company insiders confirmed to Autocar that Touareg production will end in 2026, leaving the Tayron as the largest Volkswagen SUV available in the UK.
Unlike several of its popular nameplates, including the Golf and Tiguan, the Touareg has no direct successor planned.
However, that’s not the only vehicle Volkswagen is cutting from its lineup. The ID.5, Volkswagen’s electric coupe-SUV, is also getting the axe.
The ID.5 was just launched in 2021 as a sportier, more coupe-like alternative to the ID.4, but it has failed to live up to the hype. With the ID.4 overshadowing the coupe version, Volkswagen will cut it from its lineup starting in 2027.
The move comes as VW doubles down on more affordable, mass-market EVs like the upcoming ID.2 and ID.1. Volkswagen will launch the ID.2 next year, which could arrive as the ID.Polo, followed by an SUV version. In 2027, the production version of the ID.1 is scheduled to launch.
Volkswagen is also reportedly developing a “mini Buzz,” an electric MPV that will replace the Touran. Although nothing is official, the idea has been brought up in boardroom meetings.
However, with Skoda considering a similar vehicle, sources close to the company’s CEO, Thomas Schäfer, say it’s not a priority right now. The source added, “We looked at it, but the market is demanding crossovers and SUV models.” That’s where Volkswagen is focusing next with a drastic overhaul to its ID series of electric vehicles, expected.
Although it had eight of the top ten best-selling EVs in Germany in the first half of 2025, VW has struggled to keep pace in global markets.
Will the new entry-level EV lineup help it turn things around? That’s what Volkswagen is betting on. We will see how it plays out over the next few months.
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