How my love of weird electric vehicles landed me on 100 million Chinese TVs
A fascination with electric vehicles isn’t anything new. These days, everyone and their brother seems to have an EV. But I’m not one of the “normal” electric vehicle enthusiasts. I’m drawn to the more oddball designs. And that zeal has seen me end up in some weird places. Most recently, it had me end up on a hundred million TV screens across China.
In addition to my day job/passion of being one of the most prolific propagators of electric bike news and reviews on the internet, I moonlight as a broader lover of weird Chinese electric vehicles. You may have even seen my weekly column, the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week.
It mostly started as a lark, the inevitable result of my publisher and I trying to best each other at who could find the weirdest cars on China’s massive shopping website, Alibaba.
Inevitably, they’re almost all electric due to the simple fact that China has quietly led the world in the development and adoption of EVs. Their range of EVs, both the realistic and the fanciful, is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Norway may lead the world in adopting electric vehicles, but frankly, anyone can buy an EV. It’s China that leads the world in designing and producing them.
So there we were, my publisher and I chuckling at just how many fun and sometimes bizarre EVs we could find that were produced in China.
I’d toss him an electric replica of a horseless carriage that looked like it belonged in a live-action Cinderella movie. He’d follow up with an electric mini-truck with fold-out solar panel wings. I’d try to top it with a food truck built on the back of an electric bicycle.
After discovering just how deep the rabbit hole to China went, I was hooked. And I had a sneaky suspicion that the rest of the world just might be as interested in the madness as me.
It became a recurring theme each week in the column. And having our talented graphics guy Michael Bower magically transplant me into every vehicle each week certainly helped.
Over the last few years of hunting down the weirdest electric vehicles in the world, I’ve come across some real doozies. The three-wheeled electric RV was a top contender for a while, though who could pass up your own fully functional electric submarine for exploring the ocean’s depths? And where would we be as a society without the world’s tiniest electric police car?
But I also soon discovered something interesting. In addition to super-weird offerings on Alibaba, I was also finding electric vehicles that I actually wished I could own.
How could I resist a bare-bones electric snowmobile or a one-seater speedboat?
When I eventually came across a $2,000 electric mini-truck that looked like a knock-off Ford F-150 that took an unintended trip through the washing machine and dryer, that’s when things changed. It went from “Man, it’d be funny to buy one of these…” to “Uh oh, I think I need to buy this thing.”
I spent months working out the details with the Chinese factory, finding the right customs brokers, getting the paperwork done, and then eventually getting the mini-truck on a boat and headed to the US.
After what felt like an eternity, it finally arrived. And I was immediately in love. What was unobtainable in the US was suddenly driving around my parent’s ranch in Florida. I had an electric mini-truck, complete with air-conditioning and a hydraulic dump bed, that had traveled halfway around the world from China to my fingertips. I was giddy.
And as it would turn out, I wasn’t done. In fact, I was just getting started.
The more I found weird electric vehicles from China, the more I wanted to add to my collection.
Unfortunately, a little thing called economics (or more colloquially known as convincing one’s wife that purchasing something stupid is actually a great idea) made this endeavor more difficult. There was a lot of weird stuff out there, but I had to be picky. I couldn’t afford not to. So I focused on the stuff that seemed the most useful to me.
That’s how just a year later I wound up with a five-seater electric boat slowly puttering its way around the local lake. And more recently, I became the proud new owner of electric construction equipment, including an electric mini-excavator and an electric loader.
Along the way, people started to take notice. I made videos of my escapades, and they began going viral. That electric boat found over 3 million views on YouTube. And remember my electric mini-truck from above? Over 10 million views. I wasn’t the only one enjoying these things anymore.
In fact, the news had gone full circle, landing back in China. A maker of electric micro-cars in China (known locally as “happy grandpas” based on their typical users) wanted me to check out their newest model and sent one to me for an unboxing.
A few months later there was a massive wooden crate in my family’s driveway. It was wild.
The word continued to spread. One morning, I awoke to an email from someone saying they represented a news channel in China, something called “CCTV”, and asked if they could do a story on me. The name didn’t mean much to me, so I asked a Chinese friend of mine if they had heard of the news station. “That’s… the biggest channel in the country,” he said. “You should do it.”
As it turns out based on what Wikipedia told me, China Central Television, or CCTV, claims to have a regular viewership of over 500 million people. Those are the figures from their own survey, but I believe it. Why? Because all local news stations in China are required to run CCTV’s daily news broadcasts in addition to their own programming. That’s state media, for you.
Any potential issues with that aside (and there are many), I was curious to see what Chinese state media would think of me, a Westerner who has a weird fixation with procuring odd Chinese vehicles.
As someone who has once or twice been referred to as a journalist himself, I figured there’d soon be an interview. They’d ask me a few questions. Maybe I’d share some fun stories. We’d all crack a fortune cookie and laugh about my quirky antics.
Nope.
Apparently, they had all they needed from my YouTube videos. The exact story wasn’t important, not when they could read between the lines.
A week or so later, there was my goofy face smiling out to half a billion charmingly confused Chinese people.
The news show had basically just taken several of my YouTube videos, cut out a few select clips of me showing off the features of my electric boat, then added some voiceover.
With the help of a translator app and a friend who speaks Mandarin, I was able to piece the story together.
Basically, they made a cute little puff piece about Chinese products being bought by randos on the internet. Case-in-point was me and my electric boat, to which the adorable presenter directed the audience’s attention.
They showed me unboxing my boat, followed by demonstrating its features and testing it out along with my dad in the local lake.
It was a surreal experience, watching myself show off my electric boat and other electric mini-vehicles on Chinese state media. To be fair, they actually put me on CCTV2, a more business/economics-focused sub-channel. But it’s not like we’re talking ESPN8 “The Ocho” here – I still got some prime-time placement.
And while part of me feels like I was a bit useful for borderline propaganda, there’s no denying the fact that everything I said about these products, and especially that boat, was true. I’d never be able to find a $1,000 fiberglass electric boat like this in the US, and the one I received was quite well manufactured. So if Chinese state media is going to use me to show their own citizens that a local factory built a good boat, then… they’re basically correct.
I even had the chance to video chat with the nice guy who runs the factory and who showed me my boat during the production process. As much as the naysayers would like to imagine a child labor sweatshop, that just wasn’t the case. I was watching skilled boatbuilders building fiberglass and aluminum boats. In fact, on one day that I chatted with him, he explained that the factory was mostly empty because it was so hot that day that he sent the workers home. It was the literal antithesis of a sweatshop.
That’s not to ignore a long list of other problems in the country, but building electric boats isn’t one of them.
So in a nutshell, that’s how I ended up on Chinese state TV. I enjoy strange electric vehicles, and I’ve since followed several of them all the way to the source. That strange journey resulted in me ending up with a weird collection of EVs that eventually caught the attention of the national TV station in China.
Ever since, I take it day by day. I try not to let my newfound 1 minute and 46 seconds of fame and glory go to my head. But some days it’s difficult not to. I imagine by this time next year, I’ll surely be plastered all over kids’ lunch boxes in China, second in popularity only to the great panda. There are rumors that I’ll be included at the next five-year congress meeting. They may even make a national holiday for me.
And it’s true, they may not truly get me or my weird vehicles back here in the West. But I at least hope that somewhere, when someone worriedly asks “What’s the deal with that guy?”, the response will be something to the effect of “I don’t know. I guess he’s big in China?”
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The Tesla Solar Roof tiles are still alive, but the product is on the back burner at Tesla as it failed to achieve its promises.
When launching the solar roof in 2016, CEO Elon Musk presented it as a critical product to accelerate solar power deployment, as it opens up the market to people who want to go solar but also need to replace their roof soon.
He said that he aimed for Tesla to produce 1,000 new solar roofs per week by the end of 2019.
However, Tesla didn’t reach volume production of the solar roof tiles until 2020, and even then, it was at a fraction of the deployment it was aiming for.
In 2022, Electrek reported that Tesla installed solar roofs for the first time and confirmed that the Company deployed 2.5 MW of solar roofs during the second quarter of 2022, equivalent to approximately 23 roofs per week, which is far short of its goal.
Since then, Tesla has even further pulled back its solar effort – and even stopped reporting its solar deployment.
Many people are asking what it means for the solar roof, which Musk touted as a revolutionary product.
In 2023, we reported that Tesla began phasing out its solar business, particularly its in-house installations.
Tesla shifted its focus on deploying Powerwalls and solar inverters through third-party installers.
The same thing is happening with Tesla’s solar roof tiles. The company appears to be giving up on installing them itself, but some installations are still happening with third-party certified installers.
Tesla doesn’t even give online quotes on its solar roof anymore and has people submit requests for quotes through third-party installers:
“In order to receive pricing and product information, Tesla will share your contact information with a Tesla Certified Installer.”
We are hearing less about solar roof installations lately, as Tesla has gone virtually silent on the program; however, some ongoing installations are still being carried out by third-party installers.
Weddle and Sons Roofing just posted about a new 20 kW Tesla Solar Roof installation in Topeka, Kansas:
It’s challenging to determine the exact deployment rate of the solar roof, but based on our checks with a few installers, it doesn’t appear to have increased since 2022.
Tesla-certified installers are even convincing potential buyers to opt for a regular roof with solar panels instead of a solar roof. Potential buyer Jeff Betty shared this text from an unnamed installer:
This is not entirely surprising, as the primary issue with the Tesla Solar Roof tiles is their pricing. Tesla aimed for the solution to be competitive with higher-end roofing options, but it remains expensive and much less affordable than many durable roof options, plus solar panels.
Electrek’s Take
In short, the Tesla Solar Roof is still alive, but it’s nowhere near the revolutionary product Tesla claimed it would be.
Instead, it has become a very niche higher-end roofing product that Tesla deploys in very low volume through third-party installers.
It’s not in any way a significant part of Tesla’s energy business, which is now almost entirely Megapacks and Powerwalls.
While Tesla’s solar roof is not for everyone, now is a great time to go solar with rooftop solar panels.
If you want to make sure you’re finding a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage. EnergySage is a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar – whether you’re a homeowner or renter. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20 to 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 you 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.
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Environment
Retrospec Valen Rev+: A fat tire e-bike with the spirit of an all-terrain scrambler [Video]
![Retrospec Valen Rev+: A fat tire e-bike with the spirit of an all-terrain scrambler [Video]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/04/DSC08478.jpg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
For the Valen Rev+, Retrospec managed to get the best out of that iconic moto-style scrambler spirit and put it into a comfortably handling fat tire e-bike while also keeping the performance bits that make it fun, and the best part is it comes at a reasonable price of just under $1,800
Aside from the looks and price this bike has a unique fun factor that comes from a combination of a few key components here.
One is the 20 by 4.0 inch Fat MTB tires with puncture protection and reflective sidewalls. Aside from these tires offering an extra layer of protection and suspension, Retrospec’s decision to offer wide tires also gives way more stability than a typical bike tire, which makes going through ruts, mud, or sand pretty effortless.
The second key component is the front suspension, which is fully adjustable and has 100mm of travel. Combined with the extra suspension from the fat tires, as mentioned earlier, this makes otherwise challenging terrain turn into fun detours that you’ll likely go out of your way to use.
The third component is the 750w rear hub motor, which gives the bike a 28 mph assisted top speed. Combined with the secure handling and added front suspension, the Valen Rev+ is the kind of bike you want to plan an adventure with. Whether that’s a dirt road shortcut on your commute or a day to the beach, the comfortable long seat makes it hard to say no to a trip with the Valen Rev+
On the practical side, Retrospec put some significant thought into the design and build of this bike to ensure that riders are cared for with those often less thought of yet still essential features. Starting with the battery, the fully integrated 720Wh battery uses LG 21700 cells for a total of 68 miles of range when fully charged. In addition, the battery is lockable and easily removable for both on- and off-bike battery charging. It’s also seamlessly integrated into the bike’s frame, making for a clean look.
For safety, Retrospec added Tektro hydraulic disc brakes with e-bike-specific rotors, which is an important upgrade, considering an improved rotor typically allows for better heat dissipation and better overall performance. There are also Integrated front and rear lights with 100 Lux illumination for the front. Safety aside, the design here for the front light looks amazing.
For the less thought-of yet essential features, Retrospec included an easy-change rear wheel removal system that uses braze-ons located at the lower part of the bike, so there’s no need to remove zip ties. Unlike other e-bikes, the Valen Rev+ kept it simple with the same axel nut for both the front and rear which means fewer tools, but what makes the process itself a lot easier is not having to wrestle the chain when re-installing the wheel thanks to the chain hanger.
One of the great feelings of the Retrospec Valen Rev+ e-bike is how simple yet stylish it is; the display is a center-mounted color display with controls on the left-hand side of the handlebars. The control panel has only three buttons, so it’s as simple as it gets. With the up or down control, you can change through 6 levels of pedal assist, but if you’re looking for more control, you can also use the controls on the right side of the handlebars to cycle through the eight speeds on the Shimano Altus derailleur.
For how comfortable the moto-inspired Valen Rev+ is, it also feels great to pedal on in case you’re looking for more exercise and want to opt for the pedal assist rather than the throttle only. Unlike other e-bikes on the market, Retrospec’s Rev+ makes riding very approachable. For those who are newer to riding, that long seat and wide tires add a level of stability, making the overall learning experience much more enjoyable. With how comfortable the bike rides, it might make you think more about leaving the car at home more often and opting for the bike paths.
For those looking to get as much fun as possible out of an e-bike aside from the fat tires and front suspension, Retrospec’s BMX style handlebars offer excellent geometry and height that gives you much more control over the bike in case you wanna stand up and tackle some of the more challenging trails. In addition, if you’re looking to forget pedaling altogether, you could even choose to get the optional footpeg accessories, which, combined with the BMX-styled handlebars, will make the bike much more functional for off-road riding.
Overall, Retrospec seems to have put a lot of effort into bringing that scrambler moto spirit into a comfortable bike with loads of features that other manufacturers haven’t quite nailed down. From the easy rear wheel removal to the BMX-styled handlebars and comfortable long seat, it’s a very approachable and easy-to-maintain e-bike that can still rip on trails for those who want to tackle more of that tough off-road terrain.
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![This is it: Mazda EZ-60 crossover interior revealed ahead of global launch [video]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-19-at-6.35.22 AM.png?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
We got our first look at the new-for-2026 Mazda EZ-60 electric crossover just last week, but Mazda played coy with the interior, leading many in the media (including us) to believe that the interior would be pretty similar to the EZ-6 sedan‘s. We were wrong.
I’ll cut right to the chase. The new Model Y rival from Mazda is coming for the Y’s old sales crown with a starkly elegant 26.45-inch 5K ultra-wide display with dual screens and (get this) a massive 100″ (!) augmented reality heads-up display (AR-HUD) that projects key driving information onto the windshield, alerting the driver of pedestrians, speed limits, etc.
You can check it out for yourself, below.
Mazda EZ-60 interior revealed
As you can see, the interior largely eschews buttons, knobs, or physical interfaces of any kind in favor of touchscreens. Those screens enable EZ-60 drivers and passengers to control and adjust a 23-speaker, 7.1.4-channel Dolby Atmos audio system, while a separate touchscreen in the rear allows drivers passengers to adjust climate and entertainment settings for themselves.
Other interior features include super-slick digital wing mirror displays (the exterior “side mirrors” are aerodynamic cameras), and fully twenty kid- and family-friendly storage compartments sprinkled liberally throughout the vehicle. A relatively small 350-liter (12.3 cu ft) rear trunk expands to 2,036 liters (71.9 cu ft) with the seats folded flat. A 126-liter frunk (4.4 cu ft, or about the size of the mini fridge in your college dorm) adds extra practicality.
The electric Mazda SUV itself is built on the Changan EPA1 platform, and is believed to be powered by an 80 kWh battery good for 295 miles of WLTP range, and a 93 kW charging speed that can take the EZ-60 from 30 to 80% charge in a little over 30 mins.
Following the crossover’s Chinese launch – officially slated for April 23rd. Changan Mazda plans to release the EZ-60 in overseas markets under the Mazda CX-6e nameplate.
Electrek’s Take
Mazda is on a hot streak right now – and not just in China, but in the US as well. The brand’s near-premium positioning is perfect, targeting middle class buyers who are willing to pay a premium to drive a vehicle with better fit and finish than the Ford, Chevy, and Stellantis offerings – but not enough of a premium to justify a move into Acura/Volvo territory. And, frankly, no one in the industry is doing paint as well as Mazda right now. Not until you start doubling the Mazda’s MSRPs, anyway.
Here’s hoping this one comes to the US.
SOURCE | VIDEO: Changan Mazda, via China Auto Show, Planet Car News.
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