I visited Ride1Up’s e-bike factory to find the secret behind good quality, low-cost e-bikes
I’ve been riding Ride1Up e-bikes since just about their first model. Over the many years since I first threw a leg over that bike, I’ve watched the company roll out an ever-increasing lineup of diverse e-bikes that all shared one common trend: great bang for your buck.
So when I was recently touring Asia to visit micromobility factories for a peek behind the curtain, I knew Ride1Up’s factory would be high on my list. They invited me out to join the company’s founder, Kevin Dugger, on a tour of the factory so I could see just how Ride1Up goes about ensuring they can keep the quality high and the prices low.
Like nearly every other e-bike company in the US, their bikes are produced in China. But you can get a wide range of quality across such a large country with vast manufacturing facilities. If you cheap out, you get cheap products. But if you design a production system with triple and quadruple quality-assurance inspections, you get well-made products that treat their owners right for years to come.
That’s the calculation Ride1Up made, and it’s paying dividends for the company in reducing customer issues and thus, customer complaints. And when you have as generous of a return policy as Ride1Up, you darn well better make sure people get their bikes in good shape and that those bikes last as long as riders expect them to.
My tour of Ride1Up’s factory took me straight onto the factory floor where parallel production lines were busy cranking out Ride1Up’s ultra-affordable $995 Portola folding e-bike on one side of the factory, and the company’s budget-priced $2,295 CF Racer1 carbon fiber road/gravel e-bike. And yes, when it comes to carbon fiber road and gravel e-bikes, 2 g’s is crazy low-priced.
To see a tour of the factory and learn the secrets behind making high-quality e-bikes, check out my video below. And don’t forget to keep reading below for even more detail!
Before parts get to either of those lines though, they first go through pre-check. Wheels are built up around motors and front hubs using automated lacing machines that then feed into automated checking robots to ensure they’re properly laced and tensioned.
Any wheel that doesn’t come out exactly right is shunted off to a side chute where a human inspector can evaluate it and send it back for reworking until it’s perfect.
The process combines both manual and automated tasks, drawing from the best of both types of resources.
Frames are inspected at this point too, having been sent in from another off-site welding and painting building (as Ride1Up’s factory is located in a lower-emissions area).
The frames are inspected for any paint knicks or imperfections, and any frames with issues are marked for repair before being sent off for assembly.
The rest of the frames move on to the assembly line.
Those pre-inspected frames are hoisted off to the initial assembly area by an elevated conveyor, where initial assembly will begin.
On the other side of the conveyer, a worker receives the frame and sets it up at its first station so that lights can be installed on the rear rack and internally run cables can be passed through the frame tubes.
Controllers are then installed into the frames, but only after being scanned into an intelligent management system that digitally pairs each component with the bike frame. This is used for accountability in the future. If a component is ever found to be defective, such as if a controller manufacturer reports back that a certain batch of 20 controllers has an issue, Ride1Up can instantly know which bikes may be affected and can trace that exact bike and controller to its owner, even months or years later.
For the Portola folding e-bikes, the frames are then ready to be loaded on the assembly line’s conveyor system, which slowly moves down the line to each worker’s station.
The first step is to install the pedal drivetrain, which includes the bottom bracket, chainring, cranks, and pedals. Next the folding hardware is installed, followed by the kickstand and the rear wheel with the motor. Each component is held on using specially treated hardware designed for corrosion resistance, with bolts having thread locker compound applied to ensure they don’t shake loose.
The handlebars are then mounted to the frames along with the front fork. With the handlebars mounted, the wiring, shifter cable, and brake hoses can all be routed up to the bars. Wire wraps are applied to make the wiring hardness look neat and tidy, and then a battery is installed. Just like the controller, major parts like the motor and battery are also scanned and recorded so that documentation exists for each e-bike to maintain a record of its entire parts list.
The tools used in each step are also regularly calibrated using sophisticated electronic tools, ensuring that if a bolt requires 10 Nm of torque to be applied, the torque wrench is truly outputting 10 Nm of torque.
Reaching the end of the automated conveyor system, the e-bikes are flipped onto their wheels and rolled over to a finishing station, where another worker indexes the shifter, calibrating it so that all of the gears shift crisply and without jumping.
On this day, the parallel line was assembling the carbon fiber CF Racer1 e-bike. Only the most experienced workers are put on this assembly line due to the higher tolerances of carbon fiber bike work. There also aren’t any power tools used on this line; all of the assembly steps are performed using precision hand tools to avoid applying too much stress to the carbon fiber frame.
The general steps are similar to those seen on the first assembly line, but performed with an even higher level of sophistication. Frames are first visually inspected to weed out any imperfections before being hoisted along a hanging conveyor system to the assembly line. From there, workers install the controllers, batteries, wheels, handlebars, shifter, pedal drivetrain, and any other hardware.
After reaching the end of the assembly line, the bikes are rolled off to their own finishing area, where the brake lines are bled and the shifter is calibrated.
Once fully-assembled, both bike models are rolled off into their own corrals, where they await visual inspection. Quality testers go over the bike to inspect dozens of points and ensure they are assembled correctly.
Any issues are marked and the bikes are rolled off into a side corral for remediation. The intelligent tracking system also correlates the issue to the worker who performed that task, allowing the factory to root out systematic issues by immediately addressing any mistakes that a worker might make. Workers with few or no mistakes also get monetary bonuses to their salary, providing further incentive for the bikes to be assembled perfectly the first time.
The approved bikes are then passed onto the next stage of ride testing.
At this point, none of the e-bikes have any saddles. That’s because they’re all ride-tested to ensure all functions are working properly, and these workers use the same seats that are switched from bike to bike. The actual saddle that ships with the e-bike is added just before packaging, ensuring that when a customer eventually opens their e-bike, theirs are the first cheeks to grace that saddle.
Once the bikes pass their ride testing, they are considered complete, though they aren’t yet ready for packaging.
Before the e-bikes can be packed up, they first must go through a series of third-party inspections. These outside contracted inspectors aren’t Ride1Up’s factory employees, but actually work somewhat antagonistically with them. Their job is to redo all of the inspections and find anything that was missed in the several previous rounds of inspections.
Because they are technically not Ride1Up’s factory employees and instead come from an outside inspection agency, they approach the inspections differently and are better positioned to find any issues that could have slipped through the previous several rounds of in-house inspections.
Only once the e-bikes pass third-party inspections are they considered ready for boxing up. At that point, they head to the last conveyor belt of their journey, which sends them along a packaging routine that has been meticulously refined by Ride1Up over several years. The company has applied the experience of shipping tens of thousands of e-bikes to find ways to best protect the bikes while also minimizing the amount of plastic and foam used in the process.
As I looked through the packaging steps, I couldn’t find any foam traditionally used in bicycle packaging, and the only plastic I saw were the cable ties and a single piece of soft plastic used to protect the fork.
Interestingly, there was still one final inspection point applied even after boxing up the e-bikes. The entire box is precision weighed, which ensures it comes out to the exact right weight.
If a single component or piece of packaging was forgotten, the box would be too light and the factory would know there was an issue.
It’s just the cherry on top of an entire system full of redundant safety and quality inspections performed before, during, and after the assembly process.
I’ve seen a lot of e-bike factories in my years covering the industry, but it’s rare to see this many spot checks and quality assurances built into so many different areas of the production and assembly process.
The tour was a fascinating look behind the curtain of how Ride1Up builds its e-bikes, and helps answer the question of how they can offer so much value.
As a direct-to-consumer company, they have to offer e-bikes that work well right out of the box. These e-bikes are being shipped largely to private customers, not bike shops and professional assemblers. So they have to be ready to roll, without the need for repairs, right from day one. Anything else would result in a costly return process for Ride1Up.
Over the years, they have refined their system for building quality e-bikes that are built to last while still offering a reasonable price point for riders.
I’ve long touted the company’s quality and performance from my own testing of their various e-bike models. But that was always merely the end of the story – riding the finished product. Now, having seen the assembly and quality inspections firsthand, I can finally vouch for their professionalism from the very start of the process.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Chevy flew us down to Charlotte for some track and road time with the Chevy Blazer SS EV. The 600+ horsepower beast barely hidden beneath the skin of Chevy’s mid-sized SUV is also the quickest ‘SS’ monikered vehicle the company has ever produced. The Blazer SS also has a ton of extras like a standard, robust SuperCruise, which competes favorably with the Performance line from domestic competitors like Tesla’s Model Y and Ford’s Mustang Mach-e GT.
As one could imagine, a trip to Charlotte to test the Chevy Blazer SS should begin at the track. There, we got to experience a few laps at the raceway, along with some 3.4-second wide-open throttle 0-60 times, but not the 11.8-second quarter mile at 115mph that Chevy advertises. I have no doubt that the SS can handle that, especially with the right tires.
But the SS isn’t just a straight line monster, it also is a very respectable track car. The Blazer felt tied to the road with inefficient but huge 22-inch tires, a massive 102kWh Ultium battery and a long 10-foot wheelbase, all tops in the class:
Interior
The interior of the Blazer is definitely sporty and probably a bit polarizing with those jet engine looking vents. Also polarizing is GM’s decision to do away with Carplay and go with Google’s Android based center stack system. I don’t quite follow the logic of not letting people decide but here we are.
As with other companies utilizing this system like Volvo/Polstar, I think it works pretty great but you can see some of the lag in the video below. Note there have been significant updates since our Blazer first look at the end of last year and it was certainly passable and Google tends to update this stuff pretty frequently.
As for the seats and the cockpit, I’m giving the Blazer high marks. Our 4 hours of driving were easy even through back country roads where Supercruise was almost useless. The wrap around screens are very nice and wow, what a great heads up display. I wouldn’t change a thing here.
One nag coming from a Tesla FSD owner: I wish Supercruise could talk to Google maps better. As it stands, if Google tells you to exit, the highway, Supercruise doesn’t yet listen. GM is working on this.
The Blazer SS is a mid-sized SUV which is a step up size-wize from the Mustang Mach-E or Tesla Model S so there is some additional room there.
303 Miles of range from 102kWh battery
Probably the biggest standout feature on the Blazer SS is not only the speed but also the range over 300 miles. 303 EPA est. to be exact. How did GM do this? The same way they got the Silverado/Sierra to 440 Miles. They just threw a ton of battery at it. In this case 102kWh of batteries compared to 90kWh for the Mustang and 75kWh for the Tesla Model Y P. The Kia EV6 GT drops down to nearly 200 miles when you add the performance package so this is clearly the only vehicle in its class that goes hard on speed AND Range.
Note that you will be able to charge up at 190kWh but I didn’t get to check the charging curve on this one. That’s a respectable speed, but I wonder how nice an 800V architecture would have been for charging. Hyundai/Kia EGMP platform vehicles and Tesla do better here.
Electrek’s take
I liked the Chevy Blazer SS a lot more than I thought I would. The interior is comfortable yet exciting. The exterior is neat. The power and performance are riveting, and the price is respectable. I will definitely recommend the Blazer SS to folks coming off of Model Ys and who are looking for a similar and often better vehicle.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Lime, a global leader in shared electric micromobility, is significantly expanding its fleet this spring with the launch of two new vehicles – the LimeBike and LimeGlider.
After a successful series of pilot programs in 2024, Lime announced plans to roll out more than 10,000 of these new electric vehicles across multiple cities in Europe and North America in the coming months.
The introduction of the LimeBike and LimeGlider mark a key step forward for Lime as the company aims to attract a wider range of riders to shared micromobility. Both vehicles feature significant design innovations informed by extensive rider feedback, city partner consultations, and performance data gathered from Lime’s extensive operational experience.
The LimeBike marks the return of the Lime brand’s original name in a refreshed and modern form. Designed specifically to enhance rider accessibility and comfort, the LimeBike features an approachable step-through frame making it easier to mount and dismount.
Additionally, it has a unique ergonomic clamp design allowing riders to easily adjust seat height. This feature was developed directly from rider feedback, aiming to make the bike more inclusive for riders of different heights and abilities.
Smaller 20-inch wheels give the LimeBike improved handling and a compact feel, making it more maneuverable in dense urban settings.
Unlike European markets, the LimeBike is offered in US markets will also include a hand throttle, allowing riders the flexibility to choose between traditional pedal-assisted cycling and throttle-only operation. This flexibility caters to varying rider preferences and physical abilities, broadening the appeal of the bike in a market where most e-bike riders tend to prefer throttle operation.
The LimeGlider, meanwhile, introduces a completely new vehicle type to Lime’s fleet – a seated, pedal-less electric vehicle designed for effortless riding. Combining the comfort of a seated ride with the simplicity of a scooter, the LimeGlider aims to appeal especially to riders who prefer a less physically demanding ride experience or who may have limitations making traditional scooters challenging.
Designed with rider comfort as a priority, the LimeGlider includes footrests instead of pedals, a large padded moped-style seat positioned lower to the ground to lower the center of gravity, and intuitive ergonomic hand grips to reduce rider fatigue. The green and black colorway sets it apart somewhat from Lime’s usual green and white fleet, further underscoring its new role as a bridge between scooters and bicycles in terms of ride experience.
Both the LimeBike and LimeGlider incorporate several shared improvements aimed at boosting convenience and safety. Wider front baskets offer increased utility for everyday errands and ergonomic phone holders provide secure and accessible navigation for riders. Each vehicle is equipped with 2.5-inch tires optimized for reliable traction in varying conditions.
From the tech side, the LimeBike and LimeGlider represent Lime’s most advanced offerings yet. Lime says that improved location accuracy within the vehicles’ onboard systems ensures quicker identification and responsiveness in recognizing designated parking zones, restricted access areas, and low-speed zones, crucial for compliance with city regulations and enhancing rider safety.
Sustainability has also been central to the design philosophy behind Lime’s latest vehicles. Utilizing modular construction methods, the LimeBike and LimeGlider are among the most repairable vehicles Lime has produced to date. Modular components mean quicker, easier repairs, minimizing downtime and extending vehicle lifespan. Both vehicles share Lime’s proprietary swappable battery technology, common across the company’s Gen4 fleet, streamlining operations and reducing environmental impacts by prolonging battery life and optimizing energy usage.
The pilot tests conducted in 2024 underscored the strong market potential for both vehicles. Lime reported notably positive rider responses, with high rates of repeat usage and longer ride durations, particularly with the LimeGlider. For instance, during the pilot in Seattle and Zurich, riders frequently embarked on journeys exceeding 5 kilometers and averaging over 15 minutes per trip, surpassing the usage patterns of Lime’s existing Gen4 electric bikes.
Building upon these successful pilots, Lime’s spring launch targets several strategically selected cities. The LimeBike is set to roll out in Turin, Italy; Aarhus, Denmark; Nice, France; and Nyon, Switzerland, expanding into areas with established cycling cultures and infrastructure. The LimeGlider debuts in major U.S. cities including Denver, Austin, and San Francisco, markets that Lime identifies as primed for growth in seated, scooter-like micromobility solutions. Both vehicles will also see wider availability in cities like Atlanta, Seattle, and Zurich, where initial pilots indicated strong rider enthusiasm.
Lime’s President Joe Kraus expressed optimism about the new vehicles, highlighting their appeal during early trials: “During our initial pilots last year, it was clear that the LimeBike and LimeGlider earned the love of our riders, with people returning to them frequently for local travel,” Kraus explained. “We’re so excited to take our next step with these vehicles and bring them to more cities this spring.”
The introduction of these vehicles aligns closely with urban policy goals aimed at reducing car dependency and enhancing accessibility for a diverse range of city residents. Lime specifically designed the LimeBike and LimeGlider to meet the needs of traditionally underrepresented micromobility users, such as older riders and women. Enhanced vehicle stability, ease of use, and adjustable features aim to reduce common barriers to micromobility adoption among these groups.
Since its inception in 2017, Lime riders have collectively completed over 750 million rides, covering more than 900 million miles (over 1.5 billion kilometers). This significant uptake of micromobility solutions has translated into meaningful environmental benefits, replacing an estimated 180 million car trips, thereby preventing over 77 million kilograms of CO2 emissions and saving more than 33 million liters of gasoline.
With the launch of the LimeBike and LimeGlider, Lime is poised to significantly build upon these achievements, further shifting urban transportation patterns toward sustainable, inclusive, and efficient micromobility.
Electrek’s Take
I think that Lime’s new LimeBike and LimeGlider are smart additions that feel well-positioned for today’s micromobility market. It’s also great to see Lime include a throttle on the LimeBike for the North American market, where so many riders prefer to ride without pedaling. For casual users and tourists especially, a throttle can make all the difference between choosing to hop on a shared e-bike or not.
Lime clearly listened to rider feedback, and these new models could help pull even more people into using micromobility instead of cars. Let’s just hope they can keep it up.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Tesla (TSLA) will release its Q1 2025 financial results today, Tuesday, April. 22, after the markets close. As usual, a conference call and Q&A with Tesla’s management are scheduled after the results.
Here, we’ll look at what the street and retail investors expect for the quarterly results.
Tesla Q1 2025 deliveries and energy deployment
CEO Elon Musk and his loyal shareholders often claim that Tesla is now an AI/Robotics company, but the truth is that the company’s automotive business still drives the vast majority of its financial performance.
Tesla’s revenue remains tied mainly to the number of vehicles it delivers.
Earlier this month, Tesla disclosed its Q1 2025 vehicle production and deliveries:
| Production | Deliveries | Subject to operating lease accounting | |
| Model 3/Y | 345,454 | 323,800 | 4% |
| Other Models | 17,161 | 12,881 | 7% |
| Total | 362,615 | 336,681 | 4% |
It was significantly below expectations and approximately 50,000 units short of what Tesla delivered in Q1 2024.
Analysts have been adjusting their revenue and earnings expectations accordingly since the disclosure a few weeks ago.
Now, Tesla’s energy storage business is also starting to make a meaningful contribution to its financial performance. The company disclosed having deployed 10.4 GWh of energy storage products during Q1 2025.
Tesla no longer discloses solar deployment information.
Tesla Q1 2025 revenue
For revenue, analysts generally have a pretty good idea of what to expect, thanks to the delivery numbers and now the energy storage deployment data.
However, many were taken by surprise by how low Tesla’s deliveries were this quarter and the automaker offered a lot of discounts, which will affect the average sale price that analysts are now trying to figure out.
The Wall Street consensus for this quarter is $21.345 billion, and Estimize, the financial estimate crowdsourcing website, predicts a slightly lower revenue of $21.254 billion.
Here are the predictions for Tesla’s revenue over the past two years, with Estimize predictions in blue, Wall Street consensus in gray, and actual results are in green:
This would be about a $1 billion lower than the same period last year – meaning that analysts don’t expect Tesla’s increased energy storage deployment to compensate for the lower vehicle deliveries.
Tesla Q1 2025 earnings
Tesla claims to consistently strive for marginal profitability every quarter, as it invests the majority of its funds in growth, but its growth has disappeared from its automotive business over the last year, and its gross margin is going in the same direction.
Analysts are trying to estimate Tesla’s gross margin with the lower deliveries to figure out its actual earnings per share.
For Q1 2025, the Wall Street consensus is a gain of $0.41 per share and Estimize’s crowdsourced prediction is a little lower at $0.40.
Here are the earnings per share over the last two years, where Estimize predictions are in blue, Wall Street consensus is in gray, and actual results are in green:
If the estimates are accurate, Tesla’s earnings per share would be down from $0.45 during the same period last year.
There are several things that Tesla could do here that could surprise investors with a significant earnings beat. Tesla could have recognized revenue from the launch of FSD in China, even though the launch was brief and 95% of the value of the FSD package is unsupervised self-driving, which Tesla has yet to deliver.
Tesla could have also sold more emission credits. As of the end of last quarter, Tesla was still sitting on a good amount, and while it claims to sell them when the price makes the most sense, it is quite an opaque market and Tesla could at any time decide to sell them just to save itself from a bad quarter.
Other expectations for the TSLA shareholder’s letter, analyst call, and special ‘company update’
As we reported yesterday, this is likely going to be a messy earnings report. Musk has been on a propaganda spree lately after Tesla suffered immense brand damage and declining stock price due to his involvement in politics.
Now, he has called for a “live company update” at the same time as the release of Tesla’s financial results, which appears to be a desperate move at damage control amid a tough quarter for the company.
I expect that he will try to paint a rosy picture of Tesla’s self-driving and robot efforts to come save the company amid declining EV sales.
As I previously reported, I wouldn’t be surprised if he also pushes for Tesla to invest in his xAI startup or proposes a merger between the companies.
Tesla will also take questions from retail shareholders based on the most popular ones on Say. Here are the top 5 questions and my thoughts on them:
- Is Tesla still on track for releasing “more affordable models” this year? Or will you be focusing on simplified versions to enhance affordability, similar to the RWD Cybertruck?
- We have had the answer to that question for about a year now, but Tesla shareholders don’t believe it because Elon claimed that Reuters’ original report that Tesla canceled its more affordable EV was “wrong” when it fact it wasn’t. As we recently reported, Musk killed the “$25,000 Tesla” in favor of the Robotaxi and building new stripped-down versions of Model Y and Model 3.
- When will FSD unsupervised be available for personal use on personally-owned cars?
- Lol – we are just going to get Elon’s “best guess”, which has been wrong every time for the last decade.
- How is Tesla positioning itself to flexibly adapt to global economic risks in the form of tariffs, political biases, etc.?
- Musk is going to say “you go woke, you go broke” and that his pathetic quest to “kill the woke mind virus” will ultimately be good for Tesla because the world will be rid of this destructive virus. As for the global economic risks, I wouldn’t be surprised if Tesla announces more layoffs soon.
- Robotaxi still on track for this year?
- It could very well be. We have already reported in detail about how Tesla’s “robotaxi” launch in Austin, planned for June, is actually a “moving of the goal” and it has very little to do with Tesla’s long-stated promise of delivering unsupervised self-driving in a consumer vehicle, as asked in the second question.
- Did Tesla experience any meaningful changes in order inflow rate in Q1 relating to all of the rumors of “brand damage”?
- If they say no here, don’t believe them. Tesla is down 50,000 units in Q1, and yes, the Model Y changeover has something to do with it, but you can clearly see now, based on new Model Y delivery timelines, that Tesla has no order backlog for the vehicle. It will likely launch incentives to sell the brand-new vehicle that was supposed to save Tesla’s auto business in the coming weeks.
Tune in with Electrek after market close today to get all the latest news from Tesla’s earnings, conference call, and now also an apparent “company update.”
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway