Folding e-bikes come in all shapes, sizes, and questionable design choices, but every once in a while, one comes along that makes me take a second look. After so much time on heavier folding e-bikes, that was my experience with the Tezeus Swift, a carbon fiber folding e-bike I recently spent a couple of weeks riding.

On paper, it looks like a lightweight urban commuter with modest power. In practice, it turned out to be a surprisingly polished little machine that feels far more refined than most of the budget folders we tend to see.

Let’s dive into what makes the Swift interesting, where it excels, and a couple of areas where I think Tezeus could still tighten things up.

Carbon fiber and compact practicality

The obvious selling point here is the frame. Folding e-bikes are almost always aluminum and usually fairly chunky because they have to maintain stiffness around the folding mechanisms. Tezeus went with carbon fiber on the Swift, and the result is immediately noticeable.

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At around 36 pounds, this is one of the lightest full-featured folding e-bikes I’ve tested in quite a while. This is the kind of bike you can actually carry up a flight of stairs without questioning your life choices or icing your back.

The overall shape and hinge layout are fairly typical for a 20-inch folding bike, but the execution is cleaner and the mechanism looks less bulky.

Cable routing is internal, the frame is smooth, and the whole bike feels like it got a little extra attention at the design table. It folds down reasonably compact – not tiny in the way a Brompton does, but certainly in the “subway-friendly” category. If you live in a walk-up or take public transit regularly, this bike fits that lifestyle very well.

At just $1,199, you wouldn’t expect carbon at this price, but the bike delivers!

Ride quality: small wheels, good manners

The Swift runs on 20-inch wheels paired with a rear suspension setup. Let’s be real that this isn’t exactly downhill mountain biking suspension, though.

The ride is comfortable enough to smooth out expansion joints and patchy pavement without turning the bike into a pogo stick, but it’s not going to magically make every bump and pothole disappear, that’s for sure. It’s a short travel shock in a direct suspension setup, but at least it is an adjustable air shock.

Handling is quite predictable, though, and feels confidence-inspiring. Many small-wheel folders can feel twitchy, especially at speed, but the Swift strikes a nice balance. It’s still compact and quick-steering, but never unstable.

I found myself weaving through traffic and dodging parked-car doors with the same confidence I’d expect from a larger-framed commuter bike.

Motor and power: enough for city commuting

The Swift uses a 250 W hub motor with about 30 Nm of torque, which tells you right away this isn’t a hill-crusher or a moped-wannabe.

But Tezeus tuned the controller well, and real-world performance is better than the numbers suggest. Acceleration is smooth, quiet, and linear. It’s not going to rocket you forward, but it adds just enough assist to make starts and short climbs easy without overwhelming the bike’s lightweight personality.

The assist cuts off at around 20 mph, which keeps it squarely in Class 2 territory in the US. On flat ground, I cruised comfortably in the 16–20 mph range. The Shimano 7-speed setup helps here, and it’s refreshing to see a folder that still feels like a bike rather than a throttle-dependent mini-scooter. You can genuinely ride this thing without power if you need to.

Of course, there is still a throttle, as you might have guessed by the Class 2 designation. It’s also a bit of a strange feeling thumb throttle, which isn’t my favorite style but gets the job done. The bike feels so good to pedal that I rarely go only throttle on it, and use it more just when I want to get rolling as quickly as possible. The smaller capacity battery also means that using the pedal assist is a good idea. Plus, that torque sensor does a great job of making you feel more in tune with the bike when pedaling.

Battery and range

The 36 V, 7 Ah (252 Wh) battery is hidden inside the seat tube, which is a clean design choice and keeps the bike’s silhouette tidy. It’s also removable for charging indoors.

The tradeoff, of course, is size. With 252 Wh, you’re not getting long-range weekend adventures. In my testing, riding in the city with a mix of PAS levels, I saw realistic range in the 17–25 mile (30-40 km) window.

That’s perfectly fine for the short-to-medium urban commutes this bike is designed for, but it’s worth setting expectations accordingly. This isn’t a long distance touring bike, so don’t expect to ride it like one.

Cockpit and features

The bike includes a color display, decent-quality grips, and hydraulic disc brakes, which are a nice upgrade for more confident braking with less hand strength required. You can give a lighter pull and still get strong stopping power. The lever feel is crisp, and braking performance is solid, which matters when you’re darting between taxis and delivery vans in an urban environment.

Tezeus also kept the cockpit uncluttered. Many folding bikes get messy with clamps, triggers, and hinges everywhere, but the Swift keeps things simple. I appreciated that during folding and unfolding too – the process is quick and doesn’t require a three-handed origami routine.

A few downsides

As much as I enjoyed the Swift, there are a couple of areas where the bike shows tradeoffs.

First, the small battery will be limiting for riders who want to push longer distances or who live in particularly hilly areas. It’s clearly tuned for urban environments, but a slightly larger pack option would have broadened its appeal.

Second, the small-wheel geometry means this still isn’t the plushest bike on rough pavement. The rear suspension helps, but you’ll feel cracks and potholes more than you would on a full-size commuter.

Lastly, while the carbon frame is great for weight, it also means repairs or replacement in the event of damage could be more expensive than with a simple aluminum folder. Sure, aluminum repairs aren’t something most people are going to want to deal with either, but an aluminum frame can at least take a bit more of a beating.

Final thoughts

I went into this review expecting another generic folding e-bike with a quirky frame and middling performance. Instead, the Tezeus Swift feels like a thoughtfully executed lightweight commuter that prioritizes practicality, ride quality, and clean design. It’s not built for speed demons or range-hungry riders, but for people who want a portable, well-mannered e-bike for real urban use, it hits a sweet spot.

At $1,199, there are better watt-per-dollar deals out there, but bikes like this one don’t compete on performance. Instead, they do it for the lightweight and convenience.

If you value low weight, compact storage, and a bike-like ride over brute force or big battery numbers, the Tezeus Swift is absolutely worth a look.

It is a frankly a billion-dollar problem that affects trillion-dollar downstream industries. So, it is worth solving.

Ryan Castilloux

managing director of Adamas Intelligence

‘The guillotine still looms’

Russia’s doorstep

Newly published data from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), reviewed by the SUN DAY Campaign, reveal that solar accounted for over 75% of US electrical generating capacity added in the first nine months of 2025. In September alone, solar provided 98% of new capacity, marking 25 consecutive months in which solar has led among all energy sources.

Year-to-date (YTD), solar and wind have each added more new capacity than natural gas has. The mix of all renewables remains on track to exceed 40% of installed capacity within three years; solar alone may be 20%.

Solar was 75% of new generating capacity YTD

In its latest monthly “Energy Infrastructure Update” report (with data through September 30, 2025), FERC says 48 “units” of solar totaling 2,014 megawatts (MW) were placed into service in September, accounting for 98% of all new generating capacity added during the month. Oil provided the balance (40 MW).

The 567 units of utility-scale (>1 MW) solar added during the first nine months of 2025 total 21,257 MW and were 75.3% of the total new capacity placed into service by all sources. Solar capacity added YTD is 6.5% more than that added during the same period a year earlier.

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Solar has now been the largest source of new generating capacity added each month for 25 consecutive months, from September 2023 to September 2025. During that period, total utility-scale solar capacity grew from 91.82 gigawatts (GW) to 158.43 GW. No other energy source added anything close to that amount of new capacity. Wind, for example, expanded by 11.07 GW while natural gas’s net increase was just 4.60 GW.

Between January and September, new wind energy has provided 3,724 MW of capacity additions – an increase of 28.6% compared to the same period last year and more than the new capacity provided by natural gas (3,161 MW). Wind accounted for 13.2% of all new capacity added during the first nine months of 2025.

Renewables were 88% of new capacity added YTD

Wind and solar (plus 4 MW of hydropower and 6 MW of biomass) accounted for 88.5% of all new generating capacity while natural gas added just 11.2% YTD. The balance of net capacity additions came from oil (63 MW) and waste heat (17 MW).

Utility-scale solar’s share of total installed capacity (11.78%) is now virtually tied with that of wind (11.80%). If recent growth rates continue, utility-scale solar capacity should surpass that of wind in FERC’s next “Energy Infrastructure Update” report.

Taken together, wind and solar make up 23.58% of the US’s total available installed utility-scale generating capacity.

Moreover, more than 25% of US solar capacity is in the form of small-scale (e.g., rooftop) systems that are not reflected in FERC’s data. Including that additional solar capacity would bring the share provided by solar and wind to more than a quarter of the US total.

With the inclusion of hydropower (7.59%), biomass (1.05%) and geothermal (0.31%), renewables currently claim a 32.53% share of total US utility-scale generating capacity. If small-scale solar capacity is included, renewables now account for more than one-third of the total US generating capacity.

Solar soon to be No. 2 source of US generating capacity

FERC reports that net “high probability” net additions of solar between October 2025 and September 2028 total 90,614 MW – an amount almost four times the forecast net “high probability” additions for wind (23,093 MW), the second fastest growing resource.

FERC also foresees net growth for hydropower (566 MW) and geothermal (92 MW) but a decrease of 126 MW in biomass capacity.

Meanwhile, natural gas capacity is projected to expand by 6,667 MW, while nuclear power is expected to add just 335 MW. In contrast, coal and oil are projected to contract by 24,011 MW and 1,587 MW, respectively.

Taken together, the net new “high probability” net utility-scale capacity additions by all renewable energy sources over the next three years – the Trump administration’s remaining time in office – would total 114,239 MW. On the other hand, the installed capacity of fossil fuels and nuclear power combined would shrink by 18,596 MW.

Should FERC’s three-year forecast materialize, by mid-fall 2028, utility-scale solar would account for 17.3% of installed U.S. generating capacity, more than any other source besides natural gas (39.9%). Further, the capacity of the mix of all utility-scale renewable energy sources would exceed 38%. The inclusion of small-scale solar, assuming it retains its 25% share of all solar energy, could push solar’s share to over 20% and that of all renewables to over 41%, while the share of natural gas would drop to less than 38%.

In fact, the numbers for renewables could be significantly higher.

FERC notes that “all additions” (net) for utility-scale solar over the next three years could be as high as 232,487 MW, while those for wind could total 65,658 MW. Hydro’s net additions could reach 9,927 MW while geothermal and biomass could increase by 202 MW and 32 MW, respectively. Such growth by renewable sources would swamp that of natural gas (29,859 MW).

“In an effort to deny reality, the Trump Administration has just announced a renaming of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in which it has removed the word ‘renewable’,” noted the SUN DAY Campaign’s executive director Ken Bossong. “However, FERC’s latest data show that no amount of rhetorical manipulation can change the fact that solar, wind, and other renewables continue on the path to eventual domination of the energy market.” 

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