In what appears to be a first of its kind, a new law was just enacted in Arizona that seems to have swept up some electric bicycles in an effort to outlaw kids operating off-road vehicles.

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has just signed into law Arizona Senate Bill 1567, which focuses on two key issues regarding off-highway vehicles (OHVs). The new law makes it a criminal offense for anyone to operate an OHV while consuming or possessing an open container of alcohol, and it also aims to prevent children from operating them by requiring a valid driver’s license and driver training. The former seems like a good idea, but it’s the latter that could pose a problem for kids riding recreational e-bikes.

The issue is the way Arizona defines OHVs. As stated in the new law, “An OHV is a motorized vehicle that is operated primarily off of highways and that is designed, modified or purpose-built primarily for recreational nonhighway all-terrain travel. An OHV includes a tracked or wheeled vehicle, utility vehicle, all-terrain vehicle, motorcycle, four-wheel drive vehicle, dune buggy, sand rail, amphibious vehicle, ground effects or air cushion vehicle and any other means of land transportation deriving motive power from a source other than muscle or wind.”

The legal definition of a “highway” is just a public road or street, not the colloquial highway we think of as high-speed roads. And while many e-bikes are designed for use on public roads, there are plenty of others, such as electric mountain bikes and trail bikes like Sur Ron-style light electric dirt bikes, that are obviously designed for non-road use. In Arizona’s broadly defined OHV category, technically these electric mountain bikes and other similar e-bikes could be swept up in the category of “transportation deriving motive power from a source other than muscle or wind,” i.e., a 250W to 750W e-bike motor.

In the US, electric bicycles are not regulated as motor vehicles at the federal level, but instead as consumer products just like all bicycles. However, Arizona’s state laws go further, painting with a broad enough brush to include some electric bicycles in the category of OHVs. While e-bikes designed for road use such as commuter, cargo, utility, and other road-going styles are likely safe as they are not considered “designed, modified, or purpose-built primarily for recreational nonhighway all-terrain travel”, there are several types of e-bikes, light electric trail bikes, electric mini-bikes and others that are certainly designed primarily for off-road all-terrain travel.

The new law, which was largely intended to prevent children from operating ATVs, side-by-side UTVs, and other similar off-road vehicles, lays out the penalties for underage violators operating an OHV in the state without a valid driver’s license.

For violators under 12 years old, the citation will be issued to the child’s parent or guardian. For violators between 12 and 15 years old, the citation can be issued to either the child or their parent/guardian.

Not only is electric mountain bike becoming a popular sport among teenagers, but there are even models such as the Specialized Levo SL Kids that are specifically designed for younger riders with smaller frames and reduced power.

Furthermore, even adult electric mountain bike riders could be impacted by this law if they don’t possess a valid driver’s license and haven’t completed Arizona’s upcoming OHV safety course.

Electrek’s Take

I’m not a lawyer here, but it seems like the law should have been crafted with a bit finer legalese to prevent this kind of bycatch from such a wide net. Unless Arizona’s goal was really to require a driver’s license to ride an electric mountain bike through a park, then someone screwed the pooch here. Sure, there have been sporadic e-bike bans before, but I don’t think the bill’s authors intended for this to apply to electric bicycles.

I’ve already heard from Arizona parents of kids who ride and who are working to get the law overturned or updated. With any luck, the state issues a clarification on the law to exclude off-road e-bikes or minibikes, many of which are popular with children as a common outdoor activity in the state. Without it, riding electric mountain bikes before getting a driver’s license is effectively illegal in the state of Arizona, at least unless you keep your fancy new eMTB on the pavement and tell the cop that it’s just a commuter with really good suspension.

via: ABC 12News

The Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb is in progress, and several EVs which set out to post new records have done so today, with the Rivian R1T and Ioniq 5N both claiming records, and the Ford SuperTruck being the fastest vehicle up the hill on the day.

The Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb is one of the longest-running races in the world, being held 102 times since 1916.

It’s a famously difficult race, starting at an already-high 9,390ft (2,862m) in elevation and finishing at 14,110ft (4,300m), with an average 7.2% vertical grade. Until 2011, the track was largely unpaved on dirt or gravel roads, and it is not uncommon for cars to leave the track and crash into the woods or, worse, end up tumbling down the mountain. The race is also commonly stopped by rain, snow, fog, or other inclement weather of the type you commonly get at the top of mountains.

In particular, the high altitude nature of the race (which earned it the nickname “Race to the Clouds”) has always been difficult, because at high altitudes there is less oxygen, which means less complete combustion of fuel. This means that gas-powered race vehicles need to have incredibly oversized engines to do well.

That difficulty does not apply to electric vehicles since EVs don’t need oxygen for combustion, so for years EVs have overperformed in the race. Currently the all-time record for the 12.42-mile (20km) hillclimb is 7:57.148, set by the Volkswagen ID.R in 2018. And this year, an EV (Acura ZDX) served as the pace car for the first time.

There were 3 notable electric entries this year: the new higher-powered Rivian R1T Ascend Quad Max in unmodified form, the Hyundai Ioniq 5N in both stock and modified specs, and the bonkers heavily-modified Ford F-150 Lightning SuperTruck. (All vehicles do have seats stripped from the interior and roll cages/fire extinguishers added for safety purposes, but this doesn’t change total vehicle performance much due to the weight of the roll cage).

Last year, Rivian set the record for production trucks, gas or electric, with a 11:23.983, also putting it ahead of past runs by the likes of Faraday Future and a Tesla P90D. But it wasn’t an electric production record, as that was held by a Model 3 Performance with an 11:02.802.

However, with the R1T’s 190hp power boost over last year’s model, Rivian was hoping to gain some time – and boy, did it.

Driver Gardner Nichols managed to set a time of 10:53.883, shattering last year’s time by half a minute, setting a new record for any production truck, gas or electric, and even beating the 2018 Model 3 Performance by about ten seconds (though the new Model 3 Performance hasn’t run up the hill yet).

In fact, the R1T’s time would have been an overall record for unmodified electric vehicles – and even was that record, for a few minutes – until the next car up the mountain, the Ioniq 5N, came in 4 seconds faster.

Hyundai ran the 5N in two classes, aiming for both modified and unmodified records (one of its four vehicles had a crash in practice). Immediately after the R1T finished, Ron Zaras set a 10:49.267 in an unmodified Ioniq 5N, setting the record for electric production vehicles.

Unfortunately the 5N just barely missed the record for production SUV – currently held by the 2018 Bentley Bentayga at 10:48.902, only 3 tenths ahead over the course of this 12.42-mile track. If only Zaras hadn’t had that second donut this morning…

And in the modified category, the Ioniq 5N TA (“Time Attack”) spec, which carries over the stock powertrain but has some software tweaks for more power and big wings on the front and back, was piloted by Dani Sordo to set a 9:30.852, which is now the fastest electric modified SUV up the mountain.

While the R1T was the fastest unmodified truck up the hill today, it wasn’t the fastest truck overall. That honor goes to the 1,400hp Ford F-150 Lightning “SuperTruck,” continuing the long tradition of silly Pike’s Peak vehicles with gigantic wings.

The SuperTruck set the fastest time of the day, with an 8:53.553, the only vehicle to go sub-9 and more than ten seconds faster than the next-best finisher. And that was after the vehicle had an unexpected shutdown in the first sector, coming to a complete stop and needing to be repowered, losing almost half a minute in the process.

As a result, it didn’t set a record, as last year’s Ford SuperVan, a similarly-modified Ford Transit Electric, set a time of 8:47.682. That vehicle still holds the “Pike’s Peak Open” class record, and both were piloted by Romain Dumas (who also holds the overall record in the VW I.D. R).

While we’re somewhat jumping the gun on this article since the race is still in progress (you can watch here), it’s unlikely that any other cars will beat any of these times set. The SuperTruck had the fastest qualifying time by a longshot, and there are no remaining electric or production truck-class vehicles still yet to run which have a chance of beating the 5N and R1T’s times.

So, another successful year for EVs at the mountain.

Electrek’s Take

Both of these records set this year are extremely impressive. I asked Rivian if they thought they could get sub-11 minutes, but all they committed to was trying to beat their record from last year.

But the fact that a 7,000+ pound truck managed to beat even the 2018 Model 3 Performance is quite exceptional. That’s a lot of weight to push up a mountain and around all those curves. I’m sure that the new Model 3 would be quicker, and there have been faster Teslas up the hill in modified form, but these vehicles aren’t even close to being in the same class – so the R1T has achieved a pretty incredible feat here.

It’s a shame that the Ioniq 5N couldn’t have been just a tiny bit quicker to beat the Bentayga – but it also costs less than 1/3 as much as the Bentayga. The fact that you can go right out and buy an Ioniq 5N, for a pretty reasonable price, and have an SUV that beats every other electric vehicle ever to go up the mountain and almost every other SUV/crossover, with a sub-11 minute time on this famously difficult race, is extremely impressive.

Hyundai has only just started pushing the electric performance envelope, but we’re pretty excited to see where this goes.

(And speaking of Rivian, and of electric crossovers in a rally competition, can you just imagine what the Rivian R3X is going to look like up this hill in a few years?! Stay tuned!)

Elon Musk haters have vandalized dozens of Tesla Cybertrucks being held ahead of delivery at a parking lot in Florida.

As we previously reported, Tesla has briefly halted Cybertruck deliveries due to a problem with its windshield wiper motor.

This has resulted in Tesla accumulating Cybertruck held before delivery at many locations around the US.

Over the last few days, I have been sent half a dozen videos of people dumbfounded about finding parking lots filed with Cybertrucks.

When I received this one from the OnlyinDade account, I thought this was just another one of these videos, but there was more to it: