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I’ve spent many years covering just about every awesome light electric vehicle that has come out of China, from e-bikes and e-scooters to more obscure rides like electric three-wheelers and more. After over a decade in the digital trenches, I’ve felt mighty overdue for a firsthand look at where these fun and functional personal electric vehicles come from. So I made the trip to China and snuck my way behind the scenes at a number of factories to check out some of the biggest and most important players in the industry.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be rolling out full, in-depth articles and videos covering each of the interesting factories I visited.

It’s going to take some time as I’m a bit of a one-man band (this is where I should get jealous of all those journalists and YouTubers who have their own teams to edit their articles and videos for them). But good things are worth the wait! And to whet your appetite in the meantime, below I’ve written up a preview of what’s to come, including which factories I visited and what sets them apart.

Yadea is a powerhouse at producing e-bikes, e-scooters, and more!

Yadea Factory Tour and Test Riding

Yadea is a titan of the electric two-wheeler industry. It’s headquartered in China but is truly a global company at this point, touting eight factories across three countries and major market share around the world. Yadea calls itself the largest electric two-wheeler company in the world. That’s true, but I’m going to actually say what they won’t say: Yadea is actually the largest electric vehicle company in the world, period.

Sure, Tesla is impressive with its 1.8 million EVs produced globally last year. But Yadea could pull a “hold my winter melon tea” and show off its 16 million EVs produced last year. And that’s even while its factories are still undergoing significant growth.

Sure, that’s an apples-and-oranges comparison because they’re very different vehicles. One is the most popular type of electric vehicle in the world, and the other is a Tesla. But still, it puts into perspective the magnitude of what Yadea is building, with an output of two-wheeled EVs that surpasses all major electric car manufacturers combined.

I toured the sprawling complex of Yadea’s Anhui factory, which covers a massive footprint and houses over a dozen giant factory buildings, some of which are around 10 acres in size. One has a legit football field inside of it for employees to use on breaks.

One major theme I kept seeing throughout the factory, though, was that it wasn’t all about pure output. At the same time as Yadea has focused on efficiency, the company has put a huge emphasis on creating comfortable and positive working conditions for employees.

From personal air conditioning units on the assembly line to on-site libraries available during shift breaks and even getting to choose their own music playing over the PA system in the factory buildings, it’s the polar opposite of what many people expect to find in a Chinese factory.

Though equally impressive was also how much of the manufacturing process has been automated with robotic tools and processes, meaning workers do less manual labor and more supervision roles.

I was able to witness firsthand just how much effort has gone into making their production as efficient as possible to produce so many millions of vehicles. Robotic welders and metal forming machines work together like a ballet of whirling components. Scooters dance among the rafters as they’re robotically hoisted through sky bridges that connect the massive buildings, shuttling them automatically from assembly to inspection to packaging. And all to supply the world’s growing appetite for electric scooters and e-bikes, quickly replacing combustion-powered motorbikes around the globe.

Without a doubt though, the most fun part of the day was when I had the opportunity to test a number of different Yadea EVs, several of which are either coming to the US soon or already available.

Stay tuned for this story, coming up in just a few days. Between the impressive factory tour and the vehicle testing on the company’s proving grounds, it’s quite a trip!

Ride1Up Factory Tour

Ride1Up is one of the most well-respected e-bike companies in the US, leveraging US-based service and support with overseas manufacturing to provide some of the highest value in North America. Many people compare their models to much higher-end electric bikes, but for half the price.

Ride1Up invited me to join their founder, Kevin Dugger, on a tour of the company’s factory, where I was able to see several of their new models in production, including their carbon fiber road/gravel CF Racer1 e-bike and their value-priced Portola folding electric bike.

It was also impressive to see how much Kevin had his own eye for detail and quality control. They pay their factory and outside firms for multiple levels of quality checks, but the OG founder himself still does the rounds on the factory floor, too. Respect.

Throughout the factory, I was impressed at the level of detail they go through to ensure the quality of the production, including the way every major component gets scanned and cataloged as it goes onto each e-bike. That means that in the future, if there’s ever an issue with a specific component, for example, a concern with a dozen controllers in a batch or a single battery, they will know exactly which bike could be affected.

As e-bikes work their way down the assembly line, multiple quality checks occur at various stages. Specific verifications occur at many intervals, such as how robotically-laced wheels are automatically shunted off to a separate inspection line if a computer-controlled machine deems them imperfect. Then, at the more macro level, they even precisely weigh each box after it has been packaged, which would immediately reveal if any component or piece of packaging had been omitted.

I’ll have a lot more detail to go into in my deep-dive article and video on my Ride1Up factory visit, so make sure you stay tuned for that!

Ananda’s electric vehicle motors and drivetrains

You might not have heard of Ananda before, but if you’ve ridden e-bikes or e-scooters, there’s a good chance you’ve used Ananda’s products without even realizing it. Many of the largest e-bike companies in the US rely on Ananda for motors, controllers, displays, and other parts of their complete e-bike drive systems. In fact, just about the only e-bike or e-scooter component they don’t make themselves is the battery.

The company has a diverse range of products, serving everything from high-end, premium vehicles to entry-level, cost-effective models.

Ananda has also diversified its lineup to expand beyond just the lower power 250W motors for European companies, now offering higher power 750W motors for US-based e-bike makers that can take advantage of more relaxed regulations allowing for higher power and speeds.

Ananda has been a powerhouse for years, having gotten its start over 20 years ago as a component maker. But now the company has grown and turned itself into more than just a parts supplier, but rather a true system integrator, developing its own complete e-bike drive systems in-house to ensure the highest quality and reliability. That’s something you can only get when you design all the pieces to work together and communicate with each other properly.

Ananda designs and builds its own torque sensors, its own displays, its own motors, its own circuit boards, etc. It’s all done in-house, which explains why they have such a large team of over 1,000 employees.

One of the most exciting things that I learned was currently in development at Ananda was a hub motor with its own internal 3-speed gearing, essentially combining an internally geared hub with an electric motor to provide the best of both worlds (and remove the need for front or mid-motors when using a rear geared hub).

But if you want to hear even more about what Ananda is up to, and to see inside of their factory, you’ll have to wait for my complete article on this epic visit!

Tromox’s MC10 electric trail bike

I’ve been following Tromox since the company’s early days, and have been excited to watch each new mini-electric motorcycle the company has rolled out. Despite getting its start with micro-sized e-motorcycles, Tromox has grown into a fully-fledged mid-size electric motorbike company.

Their newest offering, the MC10 trail bike, is essentially a Sur Ron competitor, set to take on major names like Talaria by offering the capabilities of a light electric dirt bike, yet in a package that is much more approachable.

To test it out, I met up with Tromox at a local dirt bike track. To be honest, a motocross course isn’t exactly the intended use for the MC10, as the company readily admitted, but it was a great chance to push it harder than it was ever intended. The MC10 is really designed for trail riding, such as on fire roads cut through forests or exploring across private land. That’s the MC10’s natural environment.

And so if it can handle a motocross track, it should be able to do any trail riding you can find.

I’m not really a dirt rider, especially not in a jump-park setting, and so I was actually amazed at how quickly I took to the MC10. That doesn’t say anything about me, but rather it speaks volumes about Tromox’s design and ease of use. The light electric dirt bike allowed me to take my years of commuting riding and instantly feel pretty darn comfortable on loose dirt, hitting bunny hops and table tops with more confidence than I deserved, considering my surely poor form. But with excellent suspension, I survived landing jumps after having taken the absolute wrong trajectory and living to tell about it.

And if anything, it just makes me want to spend more time on the MC10 in a real-world setting, such as off-road trails, to take advantage of its easy-riding characteristics. Unlike a big and intimidating dirt bike, it looks and feels more like an electric bicycle. At least until you put it in the highest power setting and fly right up a hill that no e-bike could have conquered.

One last interesting note to tease you with here: If the powerful climbing ability and the comfortable ride didn’t already win me over, then hearing the chainsaw-like cacophony of combustion engine dirt bikes that took over the track after me was a stark reminder of why off-roading on an electric bike is just so much nicer.

That’s just scratching the surface of what I experienced with the Tromox MC10. Make sure you return soon for my full article and video on the test riding experience!

Lishui controllers

Lishui is another one of these companies that you probably have never heard of by name, but you’ve almost certainly used their productions.

I visited the company’s factory to see how they design and build controllers, displays, and other e-bike components that are used by the largest e-bike companies in the world.

I’m serious – I saw hundreds of testing and verification bikes there from Lishui’s long list of customers, many of these models not yet having been released publicly – and it seems like just about everybody who is anybody uses Lishui’s controllers. The big names from the North American e-bike market were there, as were the big European companies and just about everyone else.

It’s quite surprising how such a quiet and unassuming company in a nondescript set of buildings (with their own on-site farm set up by the founder, mind you) is the major driving force behind the operation of so many of the leading players in the industry.

To learn more, you’ll have to return for my full article and video, which are coming soon!

Wuzheng’s electric three-wheelers

Electric three-wheelers, often called electric cargo tricycles or passenger e-trikes, are incredibly popular across Asia. They’re often used as something like a work truck in China, where they serve the purpose of pickup trucks in the US (or at least the few US that actually get used for utility, not the mall crawlers).

Wuzheng produces hundreds of thousands of electric trikes annually, and they’re a major part of the company’s larger portfolio of heavy-duty utility vehicles.

The factory completes nearly everything on site, starting with bare steel tubes and sheet metal, which are turned into ready-to-ride three-wheelers rolling out on the other end of the factory.

Wuzheng has a number of different models designed for different tasks, from open versions that are better for farms and agricultural work, to enclosed versions that are great for all-weather riding and carrying weather-protected cargo.

They even make vehicles for mail delivery and other official capacities.

I had the chance to not only check out the production floor but also do a little test riding on the vehicles. So make sure you check back for my full article and video on my Wuzheng experience!

Mivice e-bike drive systems

Mivice’s factory was a bit of a surprise visit for me, tacked on right at the end of my trip, but I’m glad I could make it work.

This is another one of the companies that you might have never heard of, but that actually makes some of the most sophisticated e-bike drive systems out there.

They design and produce not only their own motors, but also go to great lengths to develop their own higher performance components like torque sensors that actually make a huge impact on the ride and comfort of an e-bike.

The factory also places an extreme level of importance on precision manufacturing, which is part of how their motors can be so quiet and offer such performance in a small package. They aren’t the most powerful motors out there, largely because they’ve focused almost entirely on the European market, but they’re now looking to expand further into the US market and so I’m expecting to see interesting things coming from Mivice.

Their processes are so precise that even the drills assembling motors are mounted in jigs to keep them perfectly parallel

Over the next few weeks, you’ll hear about all of these companies and get a detailed look behind the curtain to see how they build these diverse types of micromobility vehicles.

So stay tuned, because the best is yet to come!

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Global energy giant RWE halts US offshore wind because of Trump

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Global energy giant RWE halts US offshore wind because of Trump

Global renewable developer and energy giant RWE has halted its US offshore wind operations “for the time being” because of the “political environment” the Trump administration has created.

RWE, Germany’s biggest electricity producer, said in March that it had dialed back its US offshore wind activities. But now, CEO Marcus Krebber said in a speech transcript, which he’ll deliver at the company’s Annual General Meeting in Essen on April 30, that its US offshore wind business is now closed (but it wasn’t all bad news): 

In the US, where we have stopped our offshore activities for the time being, our business in onshore wind, solar energy, and battery storage has so far been developing very dynamically. At the start of this year, we reached an important milestone when our US generation capacity hit the 10 gigawatt mark. The construction of a further 4 gigawatts is secured.

He went on to say that renewables have created regional value and jobs, but that the company remains “cautious given the political developments.” RWE has introduced more stringent requirements for future US investments:

All necessary federal permits must be in place. Tax credits must be safe harbored and all relevant tariff risks mitigated. In addition, onshore wind and solar projects must have secured offtake at the time of the investment decision. Only if these conditions are met will further investments be possible, given the political environment.

About half of RWE’s installed renewable capacity is in the US, where it’s the third-largest renewable energy company through its subsidiary, RWE Clean Energy. RWE holds the rights to develop US offshore wind projects in New York, Louisiana, and California.

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RWE paid $1.1 billion for the New York lease area in 2022, where it’s meant to develop the 3 gigawatt (GW) Community Offshore Wind with the UK’s National Grid. Community Offshore Wind was projected to come online in the early 2030s and expected to power more than a million homes.

The developer paid $5.6 billion for the Louisiana lease in the Gulf of Mexico in 2023 as the lone bidder for development rights, and the Canopy Offshore Wind project off Northern California was not expected to be completed for another decade.

Read more: Trump admin halts $5 billion NY offshore wind project mid-build


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Trump’s memecoin dinner contest earns insiders $900,000 in two days

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Trump's memecoin dinner contest earns insiders 0,000 in two days

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and his allies have raked in nearly $900,000 in trading fees over the past two days from the president’s $TRUMP cryptocurrency token, according to Chainalysis, a blockchain data company. 

The surge came after a Wednesday announcement in which the top 220 holders of the token were promised dinner with the president.

“Have Dinner in Washington, D.C. With President Trump,” reads a message on the front page of the Trump coin’s website. The event, which is black tie optional and hosted at the president’s private club in the Washington area, is scheduled for May 22, with a reception for the top 25 holders. A “VIP White House Tour” will take place the following day, the site says. The website also hosts an active leaderboard displaying the usernames of top buyers.

The $TRUMP memecoin jumped more than 50% on the dinner news, boosting its total market value to $2.7 billion. It was met with fierce criticism from some of Trump’s political opponents who said the move was further evidence that the president was using crypto to enrich himself. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a prominent Trump critic, wrote on X that the sale was “the most brazenly corrupt thing a President has ever done. Not close.”

Roughly 80% of the $TRUMP token supply is controlled by the Trump Organization and affiliates, according to the project’s website. Since its launch in January, trading activity has generated about $324.5 million in trading fees for insiders, Chainalysis found. These fees are generated through the token’s built-in mechanism that routes a percentage of each trade to wallets controlled by the project — wallets that, according to the website, are linked to the coin’s creators.

Memecoins, often referred to as meme tokens, are a subset of digital assets that use blockchain technology and derive their value largely from internet culture, memes and social media hype rather than from an underlying utility or asset. The originators of memecoins can make fees when their coins are bought and sold.

They have grown in popularity in recent years as speculative assets, with some coins including dogecoin and fartcoin amassing total market values in excess of $1 billion.

Most of the $TRUMP supply remains locked under a three-year vesting plan, with coins gradually becoming available over time. Lockups like these are meant to protect investors by preventing insiders from cashing out all at once — a scheme commonly known in the crypto world as a “rug pull.” Vesting schedules aim to give retail buyers confidence that early holders won’t overwhelm the market and tank the token’s value.

Still, the dinner contest is being viewed by critics as an unusually explicit attempt to monetize presidential access. 

As CNBC reported Friday, Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts are urging the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to investigate whether the promotion constitutes “pay to play” corruption.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The company behind the memecoin also did not respond to a request for comment.

Delaney Marsco, the director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit focused on campaign finance and government accountability, told NBC News the coin and dinner contest amounted to an unprecedented ethics breach — though it is unlikely to be illegal.

“Criminal conflicts of interest statutes don’t apply to the President,” she said. “That has allowed him to go against decades of of norms that every modern president since Carter has adhered to, which is to divest your financial interests, rid yourself of your businesses, and kind of go in to the presidency with a clean financial slate so that no one could accuse you of manipulating policy decisions or using your position in order to enrich yourself.” 

“The fact that he is not barred by the law from having these financial interests like this meme coin allows him to engage in a lot of seemingly corrupt activity. It has the appearance of a pay to play, so the President is apparently selling access to himself,” Marsco added.

Molly White, an independent crypto researcher, told NBC News that the leaderboard only shows top $TRUMP holders — and then only by their chosen screen name, making it difficult to identify who is paying to potentially join the dinner.

Schiff and Warren have cited public reports showing that some $TRUMP investors have ties to foreign exchanges or received funds from crypto platforms banned in the U.S., including Binance.

White also noted that at least one top $TRUMP owner has an account on Binance, a cryptocurrency company that doesn’t allow American users.

Trump was elected with significant help from the cryptocurrency industry, which poured tens of millions of dollars into the 2024 election, outpacing corporate donations from traditional sectors like banking and oil. After opposing digital assets during his first term, Trump pivoted in 2024 to campaign as a champion of cryptocurrency, casting Democrats as hostile to innovation and as advocating for tighter regulation. 

The $TRUMP token itself offers no product or service, according to the project’s website. It is part of a broader push by the Trump family into digital assets, despite the market’s volatility and regulatory risks.

In addition to the $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins, the family is backing World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance venture that has raised $550 million across two token sales since last October. Buyers are barred from reselling their tokens and receive no share of profits — but a Trump-affiliated entity is entitled to 75% of net revenue, including token sale proceeds.

Together, these projects have created new streams of revenue for Trump and his inner circle at a time when regulatory oversight of cryptocurrency has weakened sharply under his administration.

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Drive Electric Earth Month, continues this weekend, get your EV Qs answered

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Drive Electric Earth Month, continues this weekend, get your EV Qs answered

It’s that time of year again, time for events across the country to show off electric vehicles at Drive Electric Earth Month.

Drive Electric Earth Month is an offshoot of Drive Electric Week, a long-running annual tradition hosting meetups mostly in the US, but also occasionally in other countries. It started as Drive Electric Earth Day, but since not every event can happen on the same day, they went ahead and extended it to encompass “Earth Month” events that happen across the month of April. It’s all organized by Plug In America, the Sierra Club, the Electric Vehicle Association, EV Hybrid Noire, and Drive Electric USA.

Events consist of general Earth Day-style community celebrations, EV Ride & Drives where you can test drive several EVs in one place, and opportunities to talk to EV owners and ask them questions about what it’s like to live with an EV, away from the pressure of a dealership.

This month, there are 158 events registered across the US and 1 in Mexico (including one online webinar about things to consider when purchasing an EV).

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Events have been happening all month, but the biggest weekend is this upcoming one, APril 26-27.

One really neat event was the Asheville event, which showcased the resiliency of EVs in an area devastated by Hurricane Helene, which was made more severe by climate change. That event was attended by the Rivian R1T which famously got dragged 100 feet submerged in mud and came out running fine.

But the bulk of the events happened on the weekends surrounding Earth Day, April 22, so there were several last weekend and will be even more this upcoming weekend.

There are plenty of events in the big cities where you’d expect, but Plug In America wanted to highlight a few of the events in smaller places around the country. Here’s a sampling of upcoming events:

  • Big Island EV – Cruise and Picnic in Waimea, HI on April 26, 10am-1pm – EV drivers will congregate in various places around the Big Island (Kona, Waimea, Waikoloa and Hilo), then drive up Saddle Road to the Gil Kahele Recreation Area on Mauna Kea for a potluck and a chance to talk about the experience of owning EVs on the Big Island.
  • Santa Barbara Earth Day 2025 and Green Car Show in Santa Barbara, CA on April 26-27, 11am-8pm – This is part of Santa Barbara’s Earth Day celebration, which routinely attracts 30,000 participants and is one of the longest-running Earth Day celebrations on the planet. The Green Car Show includes ride & drives and an “Owners Corner” where owners can showcase their EVs and attendees can check them out and ask questions.
  • Earth Day’25 – EV’s role in a sustainable future in Queretaro City, Mexico on April 26, 9am-4pm – The sole Mexican event, this is a combined in-person/online seminar at the Querétaro Institute of Technology.
  • Norman Earth Day Festival in Norman, OK on April 27, 12-5pm – Another municipal Earth Day festival, with hands-on activities for kids to learn about the environment. A portion of the parking lot reserved for an EV car show for EV owners who pre-register to show off their vehicles.
  • Oregon Electric Vehicle Association Test Drive & Information Expo in Portland, OR on April 27, 10am-4pm – This one is at Daimler Truck’s North American HQ, and will have several EVs for test drives, owner displays (including DIY gas-to-EV conversions), and keynote presentations by EV experts. They’ll even have a 1914 Detroit Electric EV available for test rides!
  • And, we at Electrek want to give a shoutout to Rove’s EV Drive Days in Santa Ana 10am-3pm April 28 – ROVE is the company behind the “full-service” EV charging concept that we’ve talked about several times here on Electrek, and we like what they’re doing for EV charging. They’ve hosted a few community events, and this is their contribution to Earth Month.

Each event has a different assortment of activities (e.g. test drives won’t be available at every event, generally just the larger ones attended by local dealerships), so be sure to check the events page to see what the plan is for your local event.

These events have offered a great way to connect with owners and see the newest electric vehicle tech, and even get a chance to do test rides and drives in person. Attendees got to hear unfiltered information from actual owners about the benefits and trials of owning EVs, allowing for longer and more genuine (and often more knowledgeable) conversations than one might normally encounter at a dealership.

And if you’re an owner – you can show off your car and answer those questions for interested onlookers.

To view all the events and see what’s happening in your area, you can check out the list of events or the events map. You can also sign up to volunteer at your local events, and if you plan to show off your electric car, you can RSVP on each event page and list the vehicle that you plan to show (or see what other vehicles have already registered).


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