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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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1,500 new Colorado homes will come with geothermal heat pumps

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1,500 new Colorado homes will come with geothermal heat pumps

Over the next two years, homebuilder Lennar is outfitting more than 1,500 new Colorado homes with Dandelion Energy’s geothermal systems in one of the largest residential geothermal rollouts in the US.

The big draw for homeowners is lower energy bills and cleaner heating and cooling. Dandelion claims Lennar homeowners with geothermal systems will collectively save around $30 million over the next 20 years compared to using air-source heat pumps. Geothermal heat pumps don’t need outdoor AC units or conventional heating systems, either.

Geothermal systems use the sustained temperature of the ground to heat or cool a home. A ground loop system absorbs heat energy (BTUs) from the earth so that it can be transferred to a heat pump and efficiently converted into warmth for a home. Dandelion says its ground loop systems are built to last for over 50 years and should require no maintenance.

Dandelion’s geothermal system uses a vertical ground closed-loop system that is installed using well-boring equipment and trenched back into the house to connect to a heat pump. The pipes circulate a mixture of water and propylene glycol, a food-grade antifreeze, that absorbs the ground’s temperature. A ground source heat pump circulates the liquid through the ground loops and it exchanges its heat energy in the heat pump with liquid refrigerant. The refrigerant is converted to vapor, compressed to increase its temperature, then passed through a heat exchanger to transfer heat to the air, which is circulated through a home’s HVAC ductwork.

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Daniel Yates, Dandelion Energy’s CEO, called the partnership with Lennar a “new benchmark for affordable, energy-efficient, and high-quality home heating and cooling.” By streamlining its installation process, Dandelion is making geothermal systems simpler and cheaper for homebuilders and homeowners to adopt.

This collaboration is happening at a time when Colorado is pushing hard to meet its clean energy targets. Governor Jared Polis is excited about the move, calling it a win for Coloradans’ wallets, air quality, and the state’s leadership on geothermal energy. Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office, said that “ensuring affordable access to geothermal heating and cooling is essential to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, and we’re excited to be part of such a huge effort to bring this technology to so many new Colorado homes.”

And it’s not just about cutting emissions – geothermal heat pumps help reduce peak electric demand. Analysis from the Department of Energy found that widespread adoption of these systems could save the US from needing 24,500 miles of new transmission lines. That’s like crossing the continental US eight times.

Colorado is making this transition a lot more attractive through state tax credits and Xcel Energy’s rebate programs. These incentives slash upfront costs for builders like Lennar, making geothermal installations more financially viable. The utility’s Clean Heat Plan and electrification strategy are working to keep energy bills low while meeting climate goals.

Read more: This will be the first geothermal energy storage system on the Texas grid


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Polestar 2 removed from Polestar’s US website alongside tariff announcement

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Polestar 2 removed from Polestar's US website alongside tariff announcement

Polestar has removed the Polestar 2 from its US website header in an early sign of how new tariffs will restrict choice and competition for American consumers, thus increasing prices.

The Polestar 2 is Polestar’s first full EV – the original Polestar 1 was a limited-edition plug-in hybrid.

It started production in 2020 in Luqiao, Zhejiang, China, where Polestar and Volvo’s parent corporation, Geely, was founded.

And there’s the rub: while Polestar’s newer EV, the 3 (which we just drove the new single motor version of last week), is built in South Carolina, the 2 is not.

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Unfortunately, that interacts with some news that has been getting a lot of play lately: tariffs.

The US has been gradually getting stupider and stupider on the issue of tariffs, apparently determined to increase prices for Americans and decrease the competitiveness of American manufacturing in a time of change for the auto industry.

It is widely acknowledged (by anyone who has given it a few seconds of thought) that tariffs increase prices and that trade barriers tend to reduce competition, leading to less innovation.

It started with 25% tariffs on various products from China, implemented in the 2018-2020 timeframe. Then, in 2024, President Biden implemented a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs, effectively stopping their sale in the US. These tariffs included some exceptions and credits based on Volvo’s other US manufacturing, which Polestar had used to keep the most expensive versions of the 2 on sale in the US, while restricting the lower-priced versions from sale. Nevertheless, they were a bad idea.

Now, in yet another step to make America less competitive and inflate the prices of goods more for Americans, we got more tariff announcements today from a senile ex-reality TV host who wandered into the White House rose garden (which he does not belong in). These tariffs do not include the same exceptions as the previously-announced Biden tariffs.

Apparently this has all been enough for Polestar, as even in advance of today’s tariff announcements, the company suddenly removed its Polestar 2 from its website header today.

The change can be seen at polestar.com/us, where only the Polestar 3 and 4 are listed in the header area. On other sites, like the company’s Norwegian website or British website, the car is still there. The Polestar 2 page is still up on the US website, but it isn’t linked to elsewhere on the site (we’ll see how long it stays up).

We reached out to Polestar for comment, but didn’t hear anything back before publication. We’ll update if we do.

It makes sense that the Polestar 2 would still be for sale elsewhere, as it only started production in 2020. Most car models are available for at least 7 years, so this is an earlier exit than expected.

So it’s likely that all of the tariff news is what had an effect in killing the Polestar 2.

Then again, this is also just the second day of a new fiscal quarter. Perhaps the timing offers Polestar an opportunity to make a clean break – especially now that the lower-priced version of its Polestar 3 is available.

Despite the lower $67.5k base price of the new Polestar 3 variant, that represents a big increase in price for the brand, which had sold the base model Polestar 2 for around $50k originally, before all of these tariffs.

Update: Polestar got back to us with comment, but understandably, it doesn’t say much:

Polestar is a three-car company and Polestar 2 is available for customers now. There are a select number of Polestar 2s in stock at retailers that can be found on Polestar.com, but Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 will be the priority in the North American market.

Electrek’s Take

This isn’t the first car that America has been deprived of due to tariffs. The Volvo EX30, one of our most anticipated vehicles, and Electrek’s Vehicle of the Year for 2024, had its American availability pushed back due to tariffs.

Volvo decided to build the car in Belgium and export it to the US, but now that new tariffs apply to the EU as well, maybe that low-priced, awesome, fast, small EV will instead stay in Europe instead of being shipped overseas.

This shows how mercurial tariff fiats from an ignoramus are bad for manufacturing, as they mean that companies can’t make plans – and if they can’t make plans, eventually, they’ll probably just write the country making the random decisions out of their plans so they don’t have to deal with the nonsense.

And we’ve heard this from every businessperson or manufacturer representative we’ve talked to at any level of the automotive industry. Nobody thinks any of this is a good idea, because it objectively is not. All it does is make business harder, make the US less trustworthy, make things more expensive, and overall just harm America.

Yet another way that Americans are getting screwed by this stupid nonsense. 49% of you voted for inflation, and 100% of Americans are now getting it. Happy Inflation Day, everyone.


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Lucid (LCID) set another EV delivery record and the Gravity SUV is just getting started

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Lucid (LCID) set another EV delivery record and the Gravity SUV is just getting started

Lucid Motors (LCID) has now had six straight quarters with higher deliveries. The delivery record comes just as Lucid prepares to begin delivering its first electric SUV, the Gravity, to customers by the end of this month.

Lucid sets sixth straight delivery record in Q1 2025

Lucid delivered 3,109 vehicles in the first quarter, up 58% from last year and topping its previous record of 3,099 set in Q4 2024.

The company also produced 2,213 vehicles at its Casa Grande, Arizona, plant in the first three months of 2025, an increase of 28% from last year. Another 600 vehicles were in transit to Saudi Arabia, where they will be assembled at its new AMP-2 plant, Lucid’s first international manufacturing facility.

At this pace, Lucid will easily top the roughly 10,200 vehicles it delivered last year in 2025 at around 12,500. Lucid will likely see even more growth this year, with customer deliveries of its first electric SUV starting soon.

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During the Gravity SUV’s “celestial arrival” last week in NYC, Lucid’s interim CEO Marc Winterhoff said the EV maker is “nearly finished building all the vehicles that we wanted to build to put them into our studio and for test drives.”

Q4 2022 Q1 2023 Q2 2023 Q3 2023 Q4 2023 Full-year 2023 Q1 2024 Q2 2024 Q3 2024 Q4 2024 Full-year 2024 Q1 2025
Lucid EV deliveries by quarter 1,932 1,406 1,404 1,457 1,734 6,001 1,967 2,394 2,781 3,099 10,241 3,109
Lucid (LCID) EV deliveries by quarter 2023 to Q1 2025

Winterhoff added, “by the end of April, we will resume customer deliveries of the Gravity.” Lucid delivered the first models in December, but they were for employees, friends, and family.

Lucid calls the Gravity a “no compromise” SUV with a range of up to 450 miles, 120 cubic feet of interior space, advanced technology, and sports car-like performance. The Gravity Grand Touring starts at $94,900, while the Touring model will arrive later this year at $79,900.

Lucid-EV-delivery-record
Lucid Gravity Grand Touring in Aurora Green (Source: Lucid)

The new delivery record comes after Winterhoff told Fox Business last week that Lucid has seen a “dramatic uptick over the past two months” in orders from former Tesla drivers.

Currently, “50% of all the orders we have are from former Tesla owners,” Lucid’s CEO said. Winterhoff added that many are “looking for an option to not continue having a Tesla.”

Will we see the trend continue? Tesla announced earlier today that it delivered 336,681 vehicles in the first quarter, far less than the 390,000 Wall Street analysts expected.

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