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I recently took a trip to China, where I had the opportunity to visit one of Yadea’s several global factories used to produce a wide range of light electric vehicle models and styles. As the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer, it was a chance to see how the most popular forms of EVs – namely e-bikes, e-scooters, and electric three-wheelers, are built in sophisticated factories featuring high-level quality control processes. The experience was thoroughly eye-opening, and blew my expectations away!

In fact, one of the biggest surprises of my time at the factory was just how much effort is put into quality control along the way. It was a magnitude that, frankly, I was surprised to see.

I don’t mean that as a slight. It’s just that, like most people, I was probably a bit misinformed before this trip. The term “Chinese manufacturing” makes most of us in the West think of cost reductions and competitive pricing – not heavily automated manufacturing and multi-tier quality assurances. But with Yadea’s massive size has come the opportunity to deeply invest in the hallmarks we previously associated with a bygone era of Western manufacturing.

The factory is already huge, but there’s more expansion planned in the next few years

And I’m not exaggerating when I refer to Yadea as “massive.” This was just one of eight global factories, and this one spanned over 1,000 acres (that’s around 750 American football fields). And this is just Phase I of the factory, which was only built a few years ago. Phases II and III are going to be even bigger, adding much more manufacturing capacity.

Yadea is already a household name all over Asia, where it dominates the markets for scooters, bikes, and other micromobility devices. Last year, over 16 million two-wheeled EVs rolled off the company’s production lines. Yadea refers to itself as the world’s largest electric motorbike manufacturer, but it is also the second-largest motorbike maker, period. With 16M annual production volume, that puts the company within striking distance of overtaking Honda’s 18M annual units. And that’s even more impressive considering Yadea exclusively produces electric vehicles, unlike Honda which nearly exclusively produces combustion engine motorbikes.

Yadea now has a growing presence in Europe and has recently set its sights on a major expansion into North America. That means that Americans are set soon to get access to some of Yadea’s impressively designed and built light electric vehicles (though mostly starting with lighter electric bicycles and scooters).

Check out my video below to see inside Yadea’s factory yourself and to join me for my test drives on several of Yadea’s e-bikes, e-scooters, e-mopeds, and e-trikes. You’re not going to want to miss it!

My tour started in just one corner of the sprawling Jinzhai factory, where I watched as rows of plastic injection molding machines worked in rhythm to pump out various scooter-shaped bits and pieces. This is where many of the body panels, shrouds, and other molded components of Yadea’s electric scooters and e-mopeds are produced. Many smaller companies outsource the production of these types of components, but Yadea does it all in-house to maintain better control over the processes and thus the quality of the parts.

The machines run largely autonomously, though a few workers monitor the machines and can respond to any area, if necessary. I poked my head into a few of the lines and saw some machines churning out recognizable parts like shrouds around the handlebar displays and cargo areas under moped seats, with each completed component moseying down a conveyor belt towards a finished parts pile.

The building was massive and already housed 24 injection molding machines, each the size of my college dorm room. However the area of the building that was currently storing stacks of just-produced parts was already taped off with sections where more injection molding machines would soon be installed. They told me that there are plans to operate 60 of these massive machines here. Yadea continues to roll out new EV models and increase its sales around the world, and that means it is always ramping up its own internal component production capacity to match.

From there we hopped aboard a cute little electric shuttle bus and moved to another building in the complex where welding takes place.

This particular welding building was set up for Yadea’s three-wheelers, which are basically the lightweight farm trucks of China. In the same way you see a bunch of clapped-out F-150 pickup trucks all over rural America, you see these electric three-wheelers all over rural China. That’s why, despite Yadea’s scooters and mopeds being built largely for both the domestic and international markets, their three-wheelers are pretty much only sold in China.

I think they could be incredibly powerful utility vehicles in the US, but that’s another issue for another article. For now, I got the chance to see how these local versions of a pickup truck are made. And I was surprised by just how automated the production is.

Robotic welding seems to take care of most of the fabrication, with the vehicles going from steel tubes and sheet metal to mostly formed trikes without ever touching the ground. Laser cutting ensures each raw sub-component is cut to the exact right size and has smooth finished edges. The pieces are passed from machine to machine, sometimes by robots and sometimes by human hands, until full frames come out the other side.

Robots juggle components as they handle various cutting and welding tasks

When the frames are finished being welded, multiple steps of electrophoresis for corrosion resistance and then robotic painting await the finished pieces.

I wasn’t able to go through the actual painting area because it’s closed off to ensure a clean environment for the robotic painting machines, but I did get to see the massive environmental protection equipment that filters the air leaving the painting section of the factory, ensuring that any harmful emissions from the aerosolized paint and treatment chemicals are scrubbed and don’t just get pumped out into the atmosphere.

Again, I definitely went into this tour with some preconceptions that turned out to be false. That doesn’t mean there isn’t polluting heavy industry in some areas, but modern factories like Yadea’s take great pains to reduce emissions. The air around the factory was perfectly clean, the grass was greener than my grass back home, and the courtyards around the building were so nice I would have sat and had a picnic in them if there was time. The effort made to create a clean and comfortable work environment pays dividends now and into the future.

Robotic welding arms operate in tandem with factory supervisors

Next, we moved on to yet another massive building in the factory complex, this time where assembly of several different electric scooter and e-moped models takes place. It’s a bit hard to gauge scale inside these huge buildings, but I’m told the building was around 450,000 square feet, or roughly 10 acres. It had a legit football field inside of it, but more on that in a moment.

There were 18 assembly lines in the building, each producing a different model of e-bike, e-scooter, or e-moped. Racks of frames that have been welded in another part of the factory roll in at one end of each production line, where they are scanned and loaded onto the line. The bare frames move along the line as workers install all of the components.

In a matter of minutes, the empty frames receive their motors, controllers, batteries, wiring, lights, body panels, seats, and more. A ballet of suspended racks of components automatically lower themselves from the ceiling at precisely the right location for workers to pluck the parts from the air and install them on the scooters. Everything is designed to be as efficient and comfortable as possible, with very little need to bend over or strain.

From what I could tell, a new electric bike rolled off the line around once every 25-30 seconds or so, while an electric moped rolled off the line every 40 seconds.

It looked like it took around 20 minutes for a bare moped frame to work its way down the assembly line and roll off the ramp at the end as a fully functional electric scooter.

The three-wheelers seem to take longer, with one e-trike rolling off the line around every five minutes.

From there, still, more workers receive the scooters and begin going through a several dozen-point inspection to ensure that everything has been assembled correctly and all of the scooter’s functions are working properly. Things like wheel alignment, torque spec, electrical connections, lighting/sound levels, and many other important areas are all examined as part of the end-of-line quality inspections.

Once the vehicles get the seal of approval, they’re walked over to yet another aerial lift that slowly plucks them from the ground and soars them through the air to another part of the factory.

Each of the buildings is connected by a series of catwalk-style sky bridges. There, the tracks suspending the finished vehicles can pass from building to building without actually going outside. In this way, parts and vehicles can move between different areas of the sprawling complex even while it is raining or snowing.

I mentioned a football field in the middle of this factory building, and I wasn’t kidding. There’s an entire turf field in there. In fact, it used to be real grass, but that required opening the skylights for good sun exposure, which the workers said made the building quite hot in the summer. So instead, they turned it into a turf field.

It gets used for a number of different events, from playing sports on breaks to hosting company events and unveiling. When I passed through, there were several models of electric scooters still set up on the field from a recent event. You can see the field in my video at the top of this article.

There’s also a library at the end of the field, featuring around a dozen shelves of books set up in a rectangle to create a little reading room complete with tables and chairs. Workers can read the books there or they can take any books they like (there’s no charge and the books are regularly replaced by the company).

Robotically laser-cut frame members are smooth and perfect, every time

The last area I had the chance to see in the factory was a staging zone for finished three-wheelers that were ready to be trucked away to local stores (Yadea counts over 40,000 brand stores around the world). There was also a display set up showing raw materials from various stages of production, from bare steel tubes to coated frame members and painted panels. They highlighted the quality of each step, such as how the bare frame tubes are laser cut so precisely that the edges are smooth and feel like a factory edge.

Despite wearing my journalist/YouTuber hat most of the time these days, I do in fact have a mechanical engineering degree on my desk that I occasionally get a chance to dust off. As a younger man, I also spent years working as a machinist in a machine shop and I previously ran my own manufacturing operations, so I have at least a cursory knowledge of what I was looking at for each production step around the factory.

I can tell you that of all the light electric vehicle factories I’ve visited in several countries around the world, I’ve never seen an operation run more professionally than what I saw at Yadea. The attention to detail, the level of automation, and even the consideration of workers’ needs, it was all simply above and beyond anything I’ve seen before.

And that was all before lunch!

With the first part of the tour finished, we headed to the employee cafeteria where I got to choose whatever I wanted from a wide a la carte menu. This also surprised me.

While I didn’t expect the workers to be eating gruel, I was caught off-guard at just how good the food was! And this wasn’t some visiting guest cafeteria (many factories have VIP cafeterias off to the side, and I’ve eaten in those before). I was eating where all the factory workers eat, the people’s cafeteria, the great equalizer. And I know that because my entire lunch was spent with hundreds of people staring at me as the only white guy in the room. I definitely caught a few folks taking pictures of me. It’s cool though, I just told them I’m Keanu Reeves.

After lunch, and having already seen how and where Yadea’s vehicles are produced, I had a blast spending the rest of the afternoon test-driving most of them!

The factory tour was impressive, but it’s on the company’s vehicle testing area and proving grounds that I had the most fun! To hear how that went, you’ll have to stay tuned in for Part Two of this story, coming in another couple days (or you can just watch the video at the top of this article, which includes both parts together for a major sneak peak!).

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Honda Prologue sales drop 86% in November even with deep discounts

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December 2, 2025

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Honda Prologue sales drop 86% in November even with deep discounts

Honda-Prologue-EV-sales-November

The Honda Prologue was a top-selling EV, thanks in part to discounts that climbed over $20,000 at times. But after losing the $7,500 tax credit, sales of the electric SUV fell 86% in November.

Honda Prologue sales fall in November despite discounts

After launching the Prologue last March, the electric SUV quickly became one of the most popular EVs in the US, thanks to its competitive range, affordable price, and Honda’s trusted name.

By the second half of 2024, the Honda Prologue was the second-best-selling electric SUV, trailing only the Tesla Model Y.

The momentum carried into this year, with the Prologue consistently ranking among the most popular EVs alongside the Tesla Model Y, Model 3, Chevy Equinox EV, Hyundai IONIQ 5, and Ford Mustang Mach-E.

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Thanks to policy changes under the Trump administration, including the elimination of the $7,500 tax credit at the end of September, nearly every automaker reported significantly fewer EV sales in November. Ford, Hyundai, Kia, and Toyota all reported significant EV sales declines last month, and Honda was no exception.

Honda-Prologue-EV-sales-November
Honda Prologue Elite (Source: Honda)

Honda sold just 903 Prologues in November, 86% fewer than the over 6,800 it sold the year prior. Through November, Honda sold 38,262 Prologues, which is still more than the roughly 33,000 it sold in all of 2024.

Despite the lower EV sales, Honda said “electrified” vehicles, which are mainly gas-powered hybrids, reached 30.9% of brand sales. With another 28,258 units sold last month, Honda’s electrified vehicle sales reached 385,453 through November, a new annual sales record.

Honda-Prologue-$20,000-off
The interior of the Honda Prologue (Source: Honda)

Although Honda confirmed the Acura ZDX will not return for a 2026 model year, the Prologue will remain on sale for at least another year.

The Prologue is built on GM’s Ultium platform, the same one that underpins all electric Chevy, GMC, and Cadillac vehicles.

Honda-Prologue-EV-sales-November
Honda Prologue at a Tesla Supercharger (Source: Honda)

Honda has been offering some of the most significant discounts on the Prologue, with combined savings exceeding $20,000 in some months. Even after the tax credit expired, Honda is still offering nearly $17,000 off select Prologue models.

Next year, Honda will introduce its new 0 Series electric vehicles, based on a dedicated EV platform. The first vehicle based on the platform will be an SUV in 2026, followed shortly by a sedan.

Of the over 102,000 vehicles Honda sold in the US last month, only 925 were all-electric vehicles (including the Prologue and Acura ZDX), or less than 1%. Those 0-series EVs can’t come soon enough.

As most automakers agree, the policy changes under the Trump administration led to a rush of buyers ahead of the tax credit expiration at the end of September. Despite reports claiming the credit created false demand for EVs, the market is expected to reset over the next few months.

With nearly $17,000 in savings, the Prologue is still a great deal. If you’re looking to test drive one for yourself, we can help you get started. You can use our link to find the Honda Prologue in your area.


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EcoFlow Cyber Week Sale continues up to 80% power station discounts from $75 + exclusive DELTA 3 Ultra $879 low, Lectric, more

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December 2, 2025

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EcoFlow Cyber Week Sale continues up to 80% power station discounts from + exclusive DELTA 3 Ultra 9 low, Lectric, more


Cyber Monday may technically be over, but the savings aren’t slowing down, with today’s Green Deals being led by EcoFlow’s Cyber Week Sale that is continuing to take up to 80% off power stations, complete with extra savings and free gifts – all starting from $75. We also have Lectric’s Cyber Week e-bike sale with up to $893 savings starting from $999, which is donating $250 per order to foster children in need today, specifically, as well as an exclusive $1,620 savings on EcoFlow’s DELTA 3 Ultra Portable Power Station at a new $879 low, and a bunch of other extended/updated deals from Anker SOLIX, Autel, and more waiting for you below. And don’t forget about the hangover deals from the holiday event that are collected together in our Black Friday/Cyber Monday Green Deals hub, which we will continue to update through the rest of the week, like yesterday’s ongoing $13,289 exclusive savings across 20 different EcoFlow DELTA Pro Ultra X power station-centric offers, and more.

Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

The official dates for Black Friday and Cyber Monday may have passed, but that doesn’t mean the savings train has pulled out of the station, as EcoFlow has launched its Cyber Week Sale with up to 80% continued savings on power stations, alongside free gifts and bonus savings using the code 25EFBFAFF at checkout. Among the offers, you’ll find the brand’s latest DELTA 3 1000 Air Portable Power Station down at $309 shipped, which comes with a FREE waterproof bag ($99 value), but sadly isn’t eligible for the extra savings code. We saw this new model launch early last month during early Black Friday sales with $200 cut from its $499 full tag price. While it’s not returning to that launch rate, if you missed out, you’re still getting the next-best price that sits only $10 higher. Head below for more on this new backup power solution and browse the entire sale lineup while it lasts through the rest of the week.

We’re seeing some slightly changed promotions during EcoFlow’s Cyber Week Sale, starting with the continued 5% extra savings you can score on many units by using the code 25EFBFAFF at checkout. From there, you will get a FREE 45W portable solar panel after spending $500, which becomes 2x 160W Bifacial portable solar panels once your order reaches $2,500. The brand is also offering an additional 10% automatic savings when buying two eligible accessories in one order, as well as the continued chance at the Lucky Draw.

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As the name implies, EcoFlow’s new DELTA 3 1000 Air power station is a lighter and more compact solution for powering devices and small appliances. It houses a 960Wh LiFePO4 battery that EcoFlow boasts to “power 99% of home-essential appliances” with a 500W steady output that can climb to 1,000W at most. You’ll have a mix of AC, Type-C, and Type-A ports for connections, complete with indicator lights for grid status when tapped in and immediately switching over power supplies when any instability is detected.

It comes with four primary means to top its own battery off, starting with two hours of charging from an AC outlet. There’s also the option to utilize up to 500W of solar input or a gas generator, as well as the usual on-the-go solution from your car’s auxiliary port (with a 500W alternator charger ramping that rate up to much faster heights).

***Note: The prices below have not had the bonus 5% savings factored in, so be sure to use the promo code 25EFBFAFF at checkout to score the absolute best prices. Some offers may not be valid.

EcoFlow’s other Cyber Week DELTA 3 1000 Air offers:

EcoFlow Cyber Week website-only deals/bundles:

EcoFlow’s better Cyber Week Sale deals at Amazon:

EcoFlow’s best Cyber Week Sale picks:

EcoFlow’s 1-2kWh Black Friday deals:

EcoFlow’s 3-6kWh Black Friday deals:

EcoFlow’s outdoor adventure power deals:

EcoFlow solar panel deals:

EcoFlow’s other add-on accessory deals:

As I mentioned among the brackets, folks who want to pick up the DELTA Pro Ultra power station can do so much cheaper and with a FREE 400W solar panel at Wellbots for $3,449, while we’ve secured up to $13,289 in exclusive savings across 20 various DELTA Pro Ultra X power station offers to new low prices starting from $174.

Lectric Cyber Week e-bike Sale promotional banner

Lectric’s Cyber Week Sale continues with up to $893 holiday e-bike bundle savings from $999

Lectric is continuing its holiday savings event with a Cyber Week Sale that is taking up to $893 off its e-bike bundles, with today (Tuesday December 2, 2025) also being dubbed “Giving Tuesday,” where $250 from each purchase is donated to Arizona foster children. Among the lineup, the most children-focused (among other uses) is the Lectric XPedition 2.0 Cargo e-bikes that come in either a 13Ah single-battery configuration with $346 in FREE gear at $1,399 shipped, the 26Ah dual-battery configuration with $744 in FREE gear at $1,799 shipped, or the 35Ah dual-battery long-range configuration with $893 in FREE gear at $1,999 shipped. To get these e-bikes with these particular bundles would run you $1,745, $2,543, and $2,892 without the savings, which are continuing the largest bundle sizes to date for one week longer.

To check out the full lineup of Lectric’s Cyber Week e-bike deals, be sure to check out our original coverage of this sale here.

EcoFlow DELTA 3 Ultra power station sitting in grass in front of solar panels

Get $1,620 exclusive savings on EcoFlow’s DELTA 3 Ultra 3,072Wh power station at a new $879 low

Holiday savings are still running strong, as we have secured an exclusive deal from Wellbots on EcoFlow’s DELTA 3 Ultra Portable Power Station for $879 shipped, after using the exclusive code 9TO5ECOCM120 at checkout, beating the brand’s current Cyber Week sale pricing by $220. Coming down from its $2,499 price tag, we saw this new model drop as low as $999 between its launch in late September and today. That rate is getting beaten out by the combined $1,620 exclusive markdown here, which lands it lower than ever for the best price we have tracked. You can also find new continuing lows on the DELTA Pro Ultra 400W solar bundle, as well as 20 various offers on the latest DELTA Pro Ultra X power station and bundles.

If you want to learn more about this station’s capabilities, be sure to check out our original coverage of this exclusive deal here.

EcoFlow DELTA Pro Ultra power station outside next to solar panels

Best Fall EV deals!

Best new Green Deals landing this week

The savings this week are also continuing to a collection of other markdowns. To the same tune as the offers above, these all help you take a more energy-conscious approach to your routine. Winter means you can lock in even better off-season price cuts on electric tools for the lawn while saving on EVs and tons of other gear.


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National Grid taps AI to combat rising wildfire risk in the Northeast

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4 hours ago

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December 2, 2025

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National Grid taps AI to combat rising wildfire risk in the Northeast

National Grid Rhizome AI

Image: National Grid

National Grid is rolling out new AI tools to get ahead of increasing wildfire risk across the Northeast. The utility is partnering with Washington DC-based Rhizome, a grid resilience planning company, to identify and prevent potential ignition threats across its transmission and distribution networks in Massachusetts, New York, and the UK.

Rhizome’s gridFIRM (Fire Ignition Reduction and Mitigation) platform launched in July 2024. It uses AI to calculate the likelihood that utility equipment could spark a wildfire and highlights the most cost-effective ways to mitigate those risks. The system builds on Rhizome’s existing weather-driven grid-failure modeling tools that utilities are already using.

Casey Kirkpatrick, director of strategic engineering at National Grid, said, “This groundbreaking new tool will allow us to pinpoint and address risks within our transmission and distribution systems while minimizing costs for customers.”

“As we’ve seen in both the data and the destruction in recent years, wildfire risk is not a regional problem but an increasingly global one,” said Mishal Thadani, cofounder and CEO of Rhizome. “Today’s partnership with National Grid is a significant step forward in our mission to shield society from the effects of climate change through intelligent planning.”

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National Grid says using the gridFIRM platform will help it identify high-risk areas where utility assets could spark wildfires, quantify and prioritize wildfire risks across its networks, develop cost-effective prevention and response strategies, and improve overall grid-resilience planning.

While wildfires have long been associated with the West Coast, the Northeast is increasingly feeling the heat. In 2024, New York and Massachusetts saw a combined 2,626 wildfires — more than double the number from the previous year. As both the human and financial tolls rise, National Grid says that comprehensive wildfire planning is becoming a necessity for utilities and the communities they serve.

Read more: A new AI-powered platform that helps utilities reduce wildfires just got a $1M injection

If you’re looking to replace your old HVAC equipment, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you’re finding a trusted, reliable HVAC installer near you that offers competitive pricing on heat pumps, check out EnergySage. EnergySage is a free service that makes it easy for you to get a heat pump. They have pre-vetted heat pump installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high quality solutions. Plus, it’s free to use!

Your personalized heat pump 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. – *ad


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