This new style of electric tuk-tuk makes me want to drive a taxi in India
This one style of vehicle is known by many names. In India, it’s an auto rickshaw. In Thailand, a tuk-tuk (a fun onomatopoeia that arose from the traditionally loud two-stroke engines powering them). But whatever it’s called, these three-wheeled taxis have used their half-bike, half-wagon design to shuttle folks around cities for decades. And now, a new era of rickshaws is seeing electric drives enabling interesting new designs.
Take for instance this yellow behemoth of a bike I found while perusing Alibaba. It may just be one of my favorite Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week entries in a while based on just how useful it looks!
Got some kids you need to shuttle down the neighborhood to a friend’s house? Throw ’em in!
Have some grocery shopping to do? Strap those eggs into the backseat!
Does Granny need a ride to the doctor? Toss that lady in back and drive Miss Daisy to the orthopedist!
With your own electric rickshaw, you can become the open-air, eco-friendly neighborhood cab driver you’ve always dreamed of!
Behold the features such as the “stylish and exquisite exterior styling,” the “fully-functional turn signals and headlights,” and the “spacious front and rear seats for up to six people at a time.”
I’m not quite sure how you cram six people into this little thing, unless you’ve got a clown car situation or part of the rear suspension becomes the lap of your riding companion. But hey, the more merrier!
For power, we’ve got a rear axle-mounted 1,000W motor supplied by a 48V battery. It’s not clear how big the battery is, but the vendor claims a range of 70-90 km (43-55 miles), which I think is larger than any neighborhood operator could need.
At a top speed of around 35 km/h (22 mph), you’re not going to be taking this on any major roads. And even if you could, I’m not sure you’d want to go much faster in a tricycle. Three-wheelers are fun, but they do have a nasty habit of turning into two-wheelers in the turns, if you catch my drift.
And if you get going too fast into a hairpin, you’d better have someone on hand to catch your own drift.
One of the things I Iike about this design, other than the fun and bubbly shell, is that the large-diameter bike-style wheels will likely help with rougher terrain. These vehicles sometimes skimp on the suspension, and so larger wheels can help reduce the impact of bumps and dips in the road surface. It’s not going to be an off-roader, but I think that sounds like a bad enough idea that no one was planning on hitting up their local ATV trails anyway.
My favorite part of this vehicle is just how cheap it is – a mere $592! Though there are a couple of catches. First, that’s likely the price without batteries. Second, and more importantly, that’s the price when buying 100 units, which is the minimum order quantity of the Chinese factory that makes this lovable little runabout. However, if you’re prepared to buy just over half a billion units, they’ll drop the price down to $400 per unit. I’m not kidding.
I guess I won’t be riding around in my own silly yellow e-bike tuk-tuk anytime soon, at least not unless I can find 99 friends who also want to join in on the fun. I’ve got my hands full with a few containers of Chinese EVs as it is. But just imagine the sight of pulling into your neighborhood one day and seeing a parade of 100 bubble trikes rolling past in all of their bright yellow glory. Now that’s a world I want to live in!
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The US solar industry just delivered another huge quarter, installing 11.7 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity in Q3 2025. That makes it the third-largest quarter on record and pushes total solar additions this year past 30 GW – despite the Trump administration’s efforts to kneecap clean energy.
According to the new “US Solar Market Insight Q4 2025” report from Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, 85% of all new power added to the grid during the first nine months of the Trump administration came from solar and storage. And here’s the twist: Most of that growth – 73% – happened in red states.
Eight of the top 10 states for new installations fall into that category, including Texas, Indiana, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, Utah, Kentucky, and Arkansas. Utah jumped into the top 10 this quarter thanks to two big utility-scale projects totaling more than 1 GW.
But the report also flags major uncertainty ahead. Federal actions, including a July memo from the Department of the Interior (DOI), have slowed or stalled the approvals pipeline for utility-scale solar and storage. Without clarity on permitting timelines, Wood Mackenzie’s long-term utility-scale forecast through 2030 remains basically unchanged from last quarter.
“This record-setting quarter for solar deployment shows that the market is continuing to turn to solar to meet rising demand,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA’s president and CEO. She added that strong growth in red states underscores how decisively the market is shifting toward clean energy. “But unless this administration reverses course, the future of clean, affordable, and reliable solar and storage will be frozen by uncertainty, and Americans will continue to see their energy bills go up.”
Two new solar module factories opened this year in Louisiana and South Carolina, adding a combined 4.7 GW of capacity. That brings the total new US module manufacturing capacity added in 2025 to 17.7 GW. With a new wafer facility coming online in Michigan in Q3, the US can now produce every major component of the solar module supply chain.
“We expect 250 GW of solar to be installed from 2025 to 2030,” said Michelle Davis, head of solar research at Wood Mackenzie and lead author of the report. “But the US solar industry has more potential. With rising power demand across the country, solar could do even more if current constraints were eased.”
SEIA also noted that, following an analysis of EIA data, it found that more than 73 GW of solar projects across the US are stuck in permitting limbo and at risk of politically motivated delays or cancellations.
Read more: EIA: Solar + storage soar as fossil fuels stall through September 2025
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The spiritual successor to the beloved Chevy Geo Tracker, production of the new-for-2026 electric Spark EUV has officially begun in Brazil with more than 200 miles of range.
That’s right, kids. To know the Chevy Tracker is to love the Chevy Tracker. The tiny, top-heavy Suzuki-based SUV combined bold colors, fun styling, (relatively) good fuel economy, and real off-road chops (especially in ZR2 trim) with an affordable price tag to make the Tracker an early favorite among the serious rock-crawling crowds.
Like, really
While it’s still too early to tell whether or not the all-new Chevy Spark EUV will come even close to that little proto-SUV, it seems we won’t have to wait much longer to find out – GM Authority reports that production of the 2026 Chevy Spark EUV has officially begun at Comexport’s Planta Automotiva do Ceará (PACE) plant, in the state of Ceará, Brazil.
GM Brazil invested the equivalent of $73 million to get the PACE factory ready to assemble GM’s modern, zero-emissions Chevy crossover for the South American and Middle Eastern markets – an investment big enough to earn a visit from Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was on-hand for the December 3rd kickoff event.
“It’s not a car factory,” said Comexport Vice President and PACE shareholder, Rodrigo Teixeir. “(The) goal is to develop technology there, not simply assemble a vehicle.”
Production of the new Spark EUV began last week, with production of the equally new Chevy Captiva EV set to begin as early as Q1 of 2026.
2026 Chevy Spark EUV
The Made in Brazil Chevrolet Spark EUV is heavily based on the Chinese Baojun, and is powered by that vehicle’s single 75 kW (101 hp), 180 Nm (130 lb-ft) motor driving the front wheels. Power comes from the Baojun’s 42 kWh LFP battery that, with regenerative braking, is good for up to 360 km (220 miles) on the NEDC driving cycle.
Weirdly, the new Spark is also equipped with a 10.1″ infotainment screen and 8.8″ digital instrument cluster (above) that supports both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto standard – technology that GM claims lead to “unsafe” driver behaviors in North America.
Let us know what you think of the little electric SUV, and whether or not you think it would be a hit in the US (it would) in the comments.
SOURCE: GM Authority; images by GM, Harry Situations.
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