Lectric eBikes recalls 45,000 XP 3.0 e-bikes due to mechanical brake issue
Lectric eBikes, one of the largest suppliers of electric bicycles in the US, made a joint announcement today with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) of a voluntary recall for many of the Lectric XP 3.0 electric bikes produced and sold earlier this year.
The recall is related to a braking issue with the mechanical brake calipers on the bikes.
According to the announcement, “the mechanical disc brake calipers located on the front and rear of the e-bike can fail resulting in loss of control, posing crash and injury hazards to the rider.” The recall covers approximately 45,000 Lectric XP 3.0 electric bikes with mechanical brakes sold between November 2022 and May 2023.
Among those 45,000 e-bikes, there were four instances reported of brake failure due to a faulty part in the brakes produced by one of Lectric eBikes’ suppliers. Two of those instances resulted in injuries to the rider.
That model hasn’t been sold since May of this year when Lectric eBikes switched the XP 3.0 over to hydraulic disc brakes.
Recalled e-bikes to get at-home upgrade kits
Lectric eBikes has prepared a remedy for the affected bikes that includes a hydraulic disc brake upgrade kit. The kit is designed to be simple enough for most riders to install on the bikes themselves in 10 to 15 minutes, but Lectric will pay for a bike shop to professionally install the hydraulic disc brakes for anyone who doesn’t want to install the new brake kit alone.
The hydraulic disc brake upgrade kits are already available, and Lectric eBikes is contacting owners of all affected bikes to get their hydraulic brake kits sent out immediately.
I spoke with Lectric eBikes cofounder and CEO Levi Conlow about the recall, and he explained that “once we learned of the issue, we immediately stopped selling those e-bikes with mechanical disc brakes.”
They then reached out to the CPSC to begin the process of a voluntary recall.
The four instances of brake failure only occurred under a certain scenario when the brake cable was not properly adjusted, and so the company also sent out a service bulletin to its riders explaining how to check and adjust their brakes to ensure that any potentially affected brake calipers would be properly adjusted to prevent any future failures. The company also began offering its hydraulic brake upgrade kit for free to any XP 3.0 e-bike owners back in May, and around half of its customers have already taken the company up on the offer to receive a free hydraulic brake replacement in advance of the recall announcement today.
Despite Lectric eBikes electing to enroll in the Fast Track Recall program, it is common for companies engaging in recalls with the CPSC to be barred from officially announcing the recall until the CPSC makes a joint statement. In this case, it looks like Lectric stopped selling the models in May when it announced its hydraulic brake upgrades, but the CPSC’s announcement only came in September.
Lectric eBikes had already been in the process of moving the Lectric XP 3.0 e-bike line to hydraulic disc brakes, but expedited those plans when it discovered the mechanical brake issue. “We moved up our hydraulic brake timeline by around six months,” Conlow explained. “It was supposed to be our big November launch.”
But for the company, it was important to make those changes quickly despite the small number of brake failures. “We knew we were going to do the right thing. We weren’t going to cheap out or wait until 200 incidents were reported.”
For Conlow, the most important thing in the days following the discovery was to act quickly as they could and make the process as easy and safe for riders as possible. “For us, it was important to spare no expense. We’re paying for shop installations. We have the replacement kits in stock already, right now. In fact, I probably bought way too many of them, but we knew we had to have enough to have everyone covered right away.”
Anyone seeking more information on the recall can reach out to Lectric eBikes at 879-479-5422 or find more information online at https://www.lectricbikesrecall.expertinquiry.com or at www.lectricbikes.com under the recalls tab for more information.
E-bike industry recalls
The last few years have seen several large recalls in the e-bike industry. One of the freshest on the minds of many riders involved the RadWagon 4, a cargo e-bike that was recalled due to a wheel issue. Over 29,000 of those models were recalled after 137 reports of tire failures, and riders were left waiting several months for upgrade kits to arrive.
Trek recently issued a recall for over 96,000 bikes that had a separate braking issue related to the brake cables and housing. In that case, the bikes continued to be sold over a nearly two-year period from June 2021 to March 2023 until the recall was issued in June of 2023. A total of 195 cases of brake failure were reported.
Electrek’s Take
This is certainly an unfortunate turn of events, and anyone who owns a Lectric XP 3.0 with mechanical disc brakes should absolutely reach out to Lectric to get their free hydraulic upgrade kit. Even if your brakes appear to be fine, you never know if there’s a defect inside your brake caliper. Plus, higher quality hydraulic disc brakes are a great upgrade – and there’s no price better than free!
Unfortunately recalls do happen from time to time in any consumer product industry, but I’m glad to see that Lectric appears to be handling it quite well. The problem seems to have been related to a small number of improperly produced brake calipers (with only four reported failures), but since Lectric couldn’t know exactly how many or which bikes were affected, they immediately reached out to all XP 3.0 customers to help them adjust their brakes properly to prevent the issue from occurring even if the brakes contained the manufacturing defect. Then it seems to me like they’ve worked to officially recall the bikes as fast as they were allowed to by the CPSC, and they already have the solution in stock and shipping out. As far as recalls go, this is about as good as it gets, in my opinion.
Obviously it would be better if the brake defect had been found before it ever made it out, but this also highlights a unique advantage of the direct-to-consumer business model. For example, in the case of Trek, their brake recall included nearly 100,000 bikes across over a dozen models. And since they sell through dealers, Trek was somewhat hamstrung in contacting customers since it simply didn’t know where all of its bikes were. With D2C sales like Lectric’s and many other value-priced electric bike manufacturers, direct sales mean the company knows who all of its customers are and can contact them directly. D2C isn’t better for everything, but in this case it appears to have been an advantage.
Lastly, the recall gives us interesting insight into Lectric’s sales figures. In a six-month period from November 2022 to May 2023, Lectric seems to have sold 45,000 of its XP 3.0 models. Extrapolated to 90,000 bikes annually (though that may not be entirely accurate due to seasonal sales impacts) in just one of the company’s several model lines, those are some impressive sales numbers.
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In the US in 2024, wind and solar accounted for 17% of total electricity generation, surpassing coal, which fell to a record low of 15%, according to a new report from global energy think tank Ember.
Since US coal power peaked in 2007, wind and solar have overtaken coal in 24 states, with Illinois the latest to join the ranks in 2024, following Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and Maryland in 2023, the report finds. It’s the first analysis of full-year US electricity data, which was published by the EIA on February 26.
After being stagnant for 14 years, electricity demand started rising in recent years and saw a 3% increase in 2024, marking the fifth-highest level of rise this century. The increase in demand and fall in coal was met with higher solar, wind, and gas generation. Natural gas grew three times more than the decline in coal, increasing power sector CO2 emissions slightly (0.7%). Coal fell by the second smallest amount since 2014, as gas and clean energy growth met rising electricity demand, whereas historically, they have replaced coal.
Despite growing emissions, the carbon intensity of electricity continued to decline. The rise in power demand was much faster than the rise in power sector CO2 emissions, making each unit of electricity likely the cleanest it has ever been.
Solar grew faster than natural gas
Solar generation rose by 64 TWh in 2024, compared to natural gas, which rose 59 TWh. It remained the fastest-growing source of electricity, with its generation rising by 27% in 2024, surpassing hydropower generation for the time. It made up 81% of all new annual power capacity additions in the US. Gas added no net capacity, as new plants were offset with closures.
California and Nevada both surpassed 30% annual share of solar in their electricity mix for the first time (32% and 30%, respectively). California’s battery growth was key to its solar success. It installed 20% more battery capacity than it did solar capacity, which helped it transfer a significant share of its daytime solar to the evening. Texas installed more solar (7.4 GW) and battery capacity (3.9 GW) than even California. Yet the growth of solar was uneven – 28 states generated less than 5% of their electricity from solar in 2024, highlighting significant untapped potential – even before adding battery storage.
As solar grew massively, wind saw a modest 7% increase in generation, adding the least capacity in 10 years. However, it still generated 50% more power than solar in 2024, making 10% of the US electricity mix.
Solar and wind can meet rising demand
With the adoption of EVs, air conditioning, heat pumps, and rapid expansion of data centers, demand for electricity is guaranteed to grow in the coming years.
To meet the rise in demand, clean generation needs to grow faster. Unlike solar, wind’s growth has been slow. Clean energy is able to meet rising electricity demand alone – without raising bills, sacrificing security of supply, or further relying on gas.
“As the demand remained unchanged for years, solar, wind, and gas together worked to replace coal, transforming the US electricity system,” Dave Jones, chief analyst at Ember, said. “But now that electricity demand is rising fast, the battle is between solar and gas to meet this. And solar is winning – it added more generation than gas in 2024, and batteries will ensure that solar can grow more cheaply and quickly than gas.”
Daan Walter, principal at Ember, said, “Electricity demand is rising as new uses emerge across the US economy, from data centers to transportation and heating. This makes the case for solar and wind today even stronger – they are not only fast to deploy and cheap but also help stabilize energy costs in the long run.”
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Elon Musk said today that Tesla will double its electric vehicle production in the US in the next two years.
What would that look like? Let’s do the math.
Today, during a press conference to promote Tesla at the White House, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the following:
“As a function of the great policies of President Trump and his administration, and as an act of faith in America, Tesla is going to double vehicle output in the United States within the next two years.”
This raises many questions, as Musk’s phrasing of the statement suggests that Tesla is planning to add previously unannounced production capacity in response to Trump’s policies.
However, the reality could be different.
What is Tesla’s current production capacity in the US?
We only know Tesla’s installed capacity, which is much different than its actual production rate.
This is Tesla’s latest disclosed global production capacity at the end of 2024:
| Region | Model | Capacity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | Model S / Model X | 100,000 | Production |
| Model 3 / Model Y | >550,000 | Production | |
| Shanghai | Model 3 / Model Y | >950,000 | Production |
| Berlin | Model Y | >375,000 | Production |
| Texas | Model Y | >250,000 | Production |
| Cybertruck | >125,000 | Production | |
| Cybercab | — | In development | |
| Nevada | Tesla Semi | — | Pilot production |
| TBD | Roadster | — | In development |
In the US, it adds up to 1,025,000 vehicles per year.
In reality, Tesla’s factories are operating at a much lower capacity.
Based on sales and inventory from 2024, Tesla is currently building fewer than 50,000 Model S/X vehicles per year compared to an installed capacity of 100,000 units.
As for Model 3 and Model Y, Tesla is currently building them in the US at a rate of about 600,000 units per year compared to claimed installed capacity of over 800,000 units.
Finally, the Cybertruck is being produced at a rate of less than 50,000 units per year compared to an installed capacity of over 125,000 units.
This adds up to Tesla producing 700,000 units per year in the US in 2024.
What will be Tesla’s new capacity?
Considering Musk mentioned that it will happen “within the next two years”, it is unlikely that he is referring to installed capacity.
The CEO is most likely talking about Tesla’s actual production, which would also make sense, especially considering he mentioned “output.”
Tesla currently outputs roughly 700,000 vehicles per year in the US.
Doubling that would mean bringing the total to 1.4 million units per year, which would be an incredible feat, but it’s not entirely a new plan for Tesla.
First off, Tesla has already announced plans to unveil two new, more affordable models this year. These models are going to be built on the same production lines as Model 3/Y, which would potentially enable Tesla to fully utilize its installed capacity for those vehicles.
That’s another 200,000 units already.
As already mentioned in Tesla’s installed capacity table, the company is currently developing its production facility for the Tesla Semi electric truck in Nevada.
Production is expected to start later this year and ramp up next year. Tesla has previously mentioned a goal of 50,000 units per year. It would leave Tesla roughly a year and half to ramp up to this capacity, which is ambitious, but not impossible.
Then there’s the “Cybercab”, which was unveiled last year.
The Cybercab is going to use Tesla’s next-gen vehicle platform and new manufacturing system, which is already being deployed at Gigafactory Texas.
Production is expected to start in 2026, and Musk has mentioned a production capacity of “at least 2 million units per year”. However, he said that this would likely come from more than one factory and it’s unclear if the other factory would be in the US.
Either way, Tesla would need to ramp up Cybercab production in the US to 450,000 units to make Musk’s announcement correct.
It’s fair to note that all of this was part of Tesla’s plans before the US elections, Trump’s coming into power, or the implementation of any policies whatsoever.
Electrek’s Take
Based on my analysis, this announcement is nothing new. It’s just a reiteration of Elon’s plans for Tesla in the US, which were established long before Trump came to power or even before Elon officially backed Trump.
It’s just more “corporate puffery” as Elon’s lawyers would say.
Also, if I wasn’t clear, we are only talking about production here. I doubt Tesla will have the demand for that, especially if Elon remains involved with the company.
The Cybercab doesn’t even have a steering wheel, and if Tesla doesn’t solve self-driving, it will be hard to justify producing 450,000 units per year.
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The average incentive package for a new EV was 14.8% of the average transaction price (ATP), or approximately $8,162, the highest level in more than five years, according to the latest monthly new-vehicle ATP report from Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book.
Incentives for EVs are more than twice the overall market. A year ago, EV incentives were 10.2%. EV incentives, as a percentage of ATP, have increased by 44% in the past year.
In February, at $55,273, new EV prices were lower by 1.2% from January – generally aligned with the industry – and higher by 3.7% year-over-year. The January EV ATP was revised higher by 0.06% to $55,929.
Compared to the overall industry ATP of $48,039, EV ATPs in February were higher by 15.1%, an increase from the 14.9% gap recorded in January.
EV market leader Tesla increased ATPs by 1.8% year-over-year in February to $53,248 but decreased by 3.7% month-over-month from $55,315. Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck posted price declines in February compared to January; Model S and Model X saw month-over-month increases.
As sales cooled, the Cybertruck ATP in February dropped by more than 10% from January to an estimated $87,554.
Read more: You can lease a 2025 Polestar 3 for the same price as a Polestar 2 right now
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