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Happy Labor Day y’all! We’ve got some big savings on Green Deals for you today, led by Lectric’s surprise $100 price cut on two of its popular e-bike models, including the best-selling XP 3.0 Long-Range e-bike that’s down at $1,199 for the rest of the day – with $355 in free gear too. You’ll also find up to 46% off discounts across a bunch of Anker’s camping and home backup essentials, with the SOLIX C800 Plus Portable Power Station falling back to a $449 low and plenty more great setup options too. Samsung is also getting in on the big deals for the holiday, as you can save over $1,500 on the brand’s Bespoke AI-supported All-in-One Electric Washer and Ventless Dryer at $1,999 with a bunch of bonus saving options thrown in too. There’s also Segway’s Labor Day sale that began today, as well as a whole lineup of Greenworks holiday discounts that will be ending tonight – plus, all the other hangover Green Deals that are still alive and well, like last week’s Velotric update taking up to $1,100 off e-bikes until tonight and the new Blix Vika X Folding e-bike launch discount.

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.

Rare price cut takes $100 off Lectric’s XP 3.0 e-bikes and XPeak e-bikes starting from $1,199 (today only)

Lectric has made a big short-term change to its ongoing Labor Day sale, with the brand making some surprise and rare price cuts on a selection of e-bikes that already start at affordable rates. Among these marked down models is Lectric’s best-selling XP 3.0 Long-Range e-bikes that are now priced at $1,199 shipped for the rest of the day, along with the included $355 in free gear. Usually priced at $1,299, we normally see the discounts from this brand being on the bundle packages that come with your purchase, but we’re getting a rare price cut here back to its pre-tariff all-time low price. You’ll also be getting the add-ons of a larger-than-normal giant cushioned saddle that is better supported by the coiled spring suspension, an accordion-style folding bike lock, a front mounting rack, and two cargo baskets (one for the front, one for the rear).

Lectric’s XP 3.0 Long-Range e-bikes come with three color/model options – a standard black, a black step-thru model, or a white step-thru model – all of them sporting the same 500W hub motor (peaking at 1,000W) that works in tandem with the long-range internal 48V battery to hit top speeds of 20 MPH, or higher at 28 MPH, depending on your state’s regulations.

Your travel range will vary based on whether you’re utilizing its pedal assistance functionality (now powered by the brand’s Pedal Assist Wattage Regulation (PWR) Programming that you can learn more about here) up to 65 miles, or using the throttle alone for up to 30 miles. There’s even more built-in features to enjoy here too, like the integrated rear cargo rack, puncture-resistant tires, 180mm hydraulic disc brakes, a headlight and a taillight, as well as the LCD display and its foldable body for easier storage/transport when you’re not on the saddle.

More Lectric Labor Day price cuts ($100 off tag):

  • XPeak White Step-Thru e-bike with $327 in free gear: $1,299 (Reg. $1,626)
    • 20 to 28 MPH for 55-mile range
  • XPeak Black High-Step e-bike with $327 in free gear: $1,299 (Reg. $1,626)
    • 20 to 28 MPH for 55-mile range

Be sure to also browse through all the other Lectric e-bikes within this soon-to-end sale – with the brand’s XPedition Cargo e-bike receiving the biggest bundle packages at $405 in free gear.

Lectric XP 3.0 e-bike

Anker offers 46% off SOLIX power stations, bundles, and accessories during ongoing Labor Day sale

Anker’s ongoing Labor Day sale that will be continuing through September 8 is taking up to 46% off a selection of power stations, solar generator bundles, and accessories as folks are gearing up to begin their fall camping plans. A notable mention is the new SOLIX C300 90,000mAh LiFePO4 DC/AC power stations that just released last week with launch discounts, but the best model among the group for most camping needs is the SOLIX C800 Plus Portable Power Station at $449 shipped. Normally priced at $649 most of the time, the inclusion in this sale marks the sixth official round of discounts we’ve seen on this model since it first hit the market back in March. You can grab it during this sale at a $200 markdown that gives you the all-time lowest price we have tracked, having only seen this deal once before three weeks ago during its Fan Fest Mega Sale.

Anker’s SOLIX C800 Plus has been tailored specifically for campsite needs – with the brand even installing two water-resistant LED camping lights to highlight the fact (more on them below). It provides a reliable 768Wh LiFePO4 capacity housed within a compact unit that can pump out an impressive 1,600W of power output to cover devices and appliances. There are 10 output ports here to handle your power needs – five AC ports, two USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, and a car port. Recharge rates are fairly quick too, with a standard outlet refilling the battery from empty in just 58 minutes (great for last-minute plans), or you can utilize 300W of solar input for a recharge in under three hours, with an option to connect it to your car as well, which takes 7.2 hours to reach full.

Back to the two camping lights – they provide three different modes to handle night-time lighting, with a candlelight mode for illuminating up to a 10m² area, a flood light that can increase the area to 20m², or you can gain this increased illumination in its flashlight mode as well. Anker has even thought ahead by making them recharge upon being returned to the top of the station’s casing and including a retractable pole arm to go along with them, giving you more versatility to be used as a hanger, tripod, or even a selfie stick.

Anker SOLIX Labor Day C800 Plus bundles

Other Anker SOLIX Labor Day camping power stations:

Anker SOLIX Labor Day camping bundles:

Anker SOLIX Labor Day home backup stations:

Anker SOLIX Labor Day home backup bundles:

You’ll also find an assortment of accessories – solar panels, EverFrost electric coolers, and more discounted as well at the bottom of the main landing page here.

Lectric XP 3.0 e-bike

Samsung Bespoke A.I. All-in-One Electric Washer and Ventless Dryer starts from $1,800

With Labor Day having officially arrived, Samsung is not only offering plenty of great opportunities to benefit from big savings right now, but its focusing some select deals on its popular Bespoke A.I. All-in-One Electric Washer & Ventless Dryer at $1,999 shipped. Normally fetching $3,339 most days, we saw it fall to a short-lived $1,600 low at Costco back in June, while Best Buy was offering the second-best rate we’ve seen at $2,000. Best Buy has undercut the price today, however, as the same washer/dryer is now priced at the lowest rate we’ve seen on the site so far for $1,800. Picking it up off Samsung’s website, though, has some added benefits, with the company offering a $100 credit on future purchases, as well as an extended two year Care+ plan at $148 off (costing just $1) – plus, there are even further bundle discounts when you buy multiple appliances together. Either way, this is a great chance to upgrade your laundry room at one of the most affordable rates while also possibly regaining some space if you currently have dual units.

This all-in-one washer/dryer unit from Samsung arrives with an ENERGY STAR certification and powered by AI capabilities that makes laundry duties far less time consuming. Thanks to this AI programming, the unit can detect the types of fabric that you throw inside and even adjust settings during its cycles based on how soiled they happen to be, tailoring every wash to the desirable levels your clothes need.

It sports a larger detergent tank than we typically see with these all-in-one models, which is able hold up to 47 loads of detergent at once before needing to be refilled – or, you can use the Flex One compartment for added convenience and versatility, giving you the option to instead hold 25 loads of detergent as well as 34 loads of softener too. We can not discuss the benefits to this washer/dryer without touching on one of its biggest design features: its ventless design. This feature not only allows you to place it virtually anywhere in your home, but its dual-inverter heat pump tech will also significantly increases its energy efficiency, especially when working alongside the AI to calculate and predict electricity costs in order to “reduce energy usage by up to 19%.” Head below to learn more.

Be sure to head over to Samsung’s Labor Day appliance page here to check out the full lineup of appliance offers and bundle deals, or you can head to this landing page here for the washer/dryer untis specifically.

Summer e-bike deals!

Lectric XP 3.0 e-bike

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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Volkswagen is cutting ID.4 and other EV output as fresh plant shutdowns loom

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September 26, 2025

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Volkswagen is cutting ID.4 and other EV output as fresh plant shutdowns loom

Volkswagen-ID.4-plant-shutdown

The ID.4 is one of several Volkswagen electric vehicles that will be impacted by the planned shutdowns at two German EV plants. VW is also planning to halt production of the ID.4 in the US.

Volkswagen plans shutdowns at ID.4, Audi EV plants

Europe’s largest automaker will temporarily halt production at two German plants where it builds some of its most popular electric cars.

Volkswagen will shut down its Zwickau plant, where it builds the Audi Q4 e-tron (including the Sportback), for a week, starting on October 8. A company spokesperson confirmed the news with Bloomberg, saying the luxury electric SUV took a hit from the new US tariffs and Germany’s push to slow the EU’s shift to EVs.

The Emden plant, where Volkswagen builds the ID.4 and ID.7, has already slashed worker hours and is expected to temporarily shut down for at least a few days, according to sources close to the matter.

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Although Volkswagen has had strong EV sales in Europe, even overtaking Tesla as the largest electric car brand in the region in the first half of the year, it’s struggling with overproduction. Like several automakers, VW is also bracing for slower sales as the market shifts.

Volkswagen-ID.4-plant-shutdown
Volkswagen ID.4 production at the Emden plant (Source: Volkswagen)

The Zwickau and Emden plants exclusively produce EVs and were part of Volkswagen’s major restructuring deal last year.

To avoid shutting down the facilities, VW agreed to reduce its workforce by 35,000 across Germany by 2030. Jobs in Emden and Zwickau were protected under the agreement.

Volkswagen-ID.4-plant-shutdowns
EV production at Volkswagen Zwickau plant (Source: Volkswagen)

Volkswagen builds other electric vehicles, including the ID.3 and Cupra Born, but these models are set to move to its Wolfsburg plant over the next few years. The Zwickau plant will continue building the Audi Q4 e-tron following the shutdown.

The planned shutdowns in Germany follow Volkswagen’s announcement to halt ID.4 production in the US earlier this month.

Volkswagen-ID.4-production
Volkswagen ID.4 production at Chattanooga, TN (Source: VW)

VW will pause ID.4 production at its Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant, starting in late October. The company said it was “a market-driven decision.”

Volkswagen has been offering some of the most significant discounts on electric vehicles in the US. The VW ID.4 has been the most affordable EV to lease, starting at just $129 per month. However, with the $7,500 federal EV tax credit expiring at the end of the month, VW, like many others, is expecting slower sales in the coming months.

Want to test Volkswagen’s electric SUV out for yourself? You can use our link to find Volkswagen ID.4 models in your area (trusted affiliate link).


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OpenAI’s historic week has redefined the AI arms race for investors: ‘I don’t see this as crazy’

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September 26, 2025

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OpenAI's historic week has redefined the AI arms race for investors: 'I don’t see this as crazy'

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman listens to questions at a Q&A following a tour of the OpenAI data center in Abilene, Texas, U.S., Sept. 23, 2025.

Shelby Tauber | Reuters

This week, OpenAI redefined what momentum — and risk — look like in the artificial intelligence arms race.

Now comes the hard part: Executing on CEO Sam Altman‘s multitrillion-dollar vision.

In a rapid-fire series of announcements, the company unveiled partnerships involving mind-bending sums of money and cemented its place at the center of the next wave of machine learning infrastructure.

It began Monday with news that Nvidia plans to invest up to $100 billion to help OpenAI build data center capacity with millions of graphics processing units (GPUs). A day later, OpenAI revealed an expanded deal with Oracle and SoftBank, scaling its “Stargate” project to a $400 billion commitment across multiple phases and sites. Then on Thursday, OpenAI deepened its enterprise reach with a formal integration into Databricks — signaling a new phase in its push for commercial adoption.

“In all, this is the biggest tale yet of Silicon Valley’s signature fake it ’til you make it, and so far it seems to be working,” said Gil Luria, managing director at D.A. Davidson.

The startup, known mostly for its ChatGPT chatbot and GPT family of large language models, is trying to become something much bigger: the next hyperscaler. Never mind that it’s burning billions of dollars in cash and is fully reliant on outside capital to grow, nor that its buildout plans require the amount of energy that would be needed to power more than 13 million U.S. homes.

Altman has long said that delivering the next era of AI will require exponentially more infrastructure.

“You should expect OpenAI to spend trillions of dollars on data center construction in the not very distant future,” he told CNBC and a small group of reporters over dinner in San Francisco last month. “And you should expect a bunch of economists wringing their hands, saying, ‘This is so crazy, it’s so reckless,’ and we’ll just be like, ‘You know what? Let us do our thing.'”

The story OpenAI is selling is that it’s responding to market demand, which shows no signs of stopping. And eventually, the thinking goes, this will all be profitable.

Current financial projections show OpenAI is on track to generate $125 billion in revenue by 2029, according to a source familiar with the company’s internal forecasts.

Tech giants ramp up AI spending

It’s a bold bet – and one full of execution risk.

Building out 17 gigawatts of capacity would require the equivalent of about 17 nuclear power plants, each of which takes at least a decade to build. The OpenAI team says talks are underway with hundreds of infrastructure providers across North America, but there are no firm answers yet.

The U.S. grid is already strained, gas turbines are sold out through 2028, nuclear is slow to deploy and renewables are tied up in political roadblocks.

“I am extremely bullish about nuclear, advanced fission, fusion,” Altman said. “We should build more … a lot more of the current generation of fission plants, given the needs for dense, dense energy.”

What did crystallize this week, however, was the scale of Altman’s ambition as the OpenAI CEO began to put hard numbers behind his vision – some of them staggering. 

“Unlike previous technological revolutions or previous versions of the internet, there’s so much infrastructure that’s required, and this is a small sample of it,” Altman said Tuesday at OpenAI’s first Stargate site in Abilene, Texas.

That mentality – blunt, ambitious, and dismissive of convention – has defined Altman’s leadership in this new phase.

Deedy Das, partner at Menlo Ventures, said the scale of OpenAI’s infrastructure partnerships with Oracle may seem extreme to some, but he views it differently.

“I don’t see this as crazy. I see it as existential for the race to superintelligence,” he said.

Das argued that data and compute are the two biggest levers for scaling AI, and praised Altman for recognizing early on just how steep the ramp in infrastructure would need to be.

“One of his gifts is reading the exponential and planning for it,” he added.

History shows that breakthroughs in AI aren’t driven by smarter algorithms, he added, but by access to massive computing power. That’s why companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are all chasing scale.

OpenAI’s $850 billion buildout contends with grid limits

Alibaba, OpenAI, and Anthropic have all pointed to insatiable demand for their models from consumers and businesses alike. As these companies push to embed AI into everyday workflows, the infrastructure stakes keep rising.

Ubiquitous, always-on intelligence requires more than just code — it takes power, land, chips, and years of planning.

“I think people who use ChatGPT every day have no idea that this is what it takes,” Altman said, gesturing to the site in Abilene. “This is 10% of what the site is going to be. We’re doing ten of these.”

He added, “This requires such an insane amount of physical infrastructure to deliver.”

The cost of staying ahead

Though the buildout is flashy, the funding behind it remains hazy.

Nvidia’s $100 billion investment will arrive in $10 billion tranches over the next several years. OpenAI’s buildout commitment with Oracle and SoftBank could eventually reach $400 billion.

Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest partner and shareholder that holds a right of first refusal for cloud deals, “is not willing to write them an unlimited check for compute,” Luria said. “So they’ve turned to Oracle with a commitment considerably bigger than they can live up to.” 

As a non-investment-grade startup without positive cash flow, OpenAI still faces a major financing challenge.

Executives have called equity “the most expensive” way to fund infrastructure, and the company is preparing to take on debt to cover the rest of its buildout. Nvidia’s long-term lease structure could help OpenAI secure better terms from banks, but it still needs to raise multiples of that capital in the private markets.

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said the company plans to build some of its own first-party infrastructure — not to replace partners like Oracle, but to become a savvier operator. Doing some of the work internally, she said, makes OpenAI “a better partner” by allowing it to challenge vendor assumptions and gain a clearer view into actual costs versus padded estimates.

That, in turn, strengthens its position in rate negotiations.

“The other tool at their disposal to reduce burn rate is to start selling ads within ChatGPT, which may also help with the fundraising,” Luria suggested as a way to ease its burn rate.

Altman said earlier this year in an interview with Ben Thompson’s Stratechery that he’d rather test affiliate-style fees than traditional ads, floating a 2% cut when users buy something they discovered through the tool. He stressed rankings wouldn’t be for sale, and while ads aren’t ruled out, other monetization models come first.

That question of how to monetize becomes even more urgent amid OpenAI’s breakneck growth.

“We are growing faster than any business I’ve ever heard of before,” Altman said, adding that demand is accelerating so quickly that even this buildout pace will “look slow” in hindsight. Usage of ChatGPT, he noted, has surged roughly tenfold over the past 18 months, particularly on the enterprise side.

And that demand isn’t slowing.

Accenture CEO Julie Sweet told CNBC’s Sara Eisen on “Money Movers” Thursday that she’s seeing an inflection point in enterprise adoption. 

“Every CEO board in the C-suite recognizes that advanced AI is critical to the future,” she said. “The challenge right now they’re facing is that they’re really excited about the technology, and they’re not yet AI-ready — for most companies.”

Her firm signed 37 clients this quarter with bookings over $100 million.

“We’re still in the thick of it,” she added. “There’s a ton of work to do.”

Databricks CEO on OpenAI partnership: Enterprises are excited to get AI agents working

Ali Ghodsi, CEO of Databricks, said Thursday that concerns about overbuilding miss the bigger picture.

“There’s going to be much more AI usage in the future than we have today. There’s no doubt about that,” he said. “Not every person on the planet is using at the fullest capacity these AI models. So more capacity will be needed.” 

That optimism is one reason Ghodsi struck a formal integration deal with OpenAI this week — a partnership that brings GPT-5 directly into Databricks’ data tooling and reflects growing enterprise demand for OpenAI’s models inside business software.

Still, Ghodsi said it’s important to maintain flexibility.

Databricks now hosts all three major foundation models — OpenAI, Anthropic, and Alphabet’s Gemini — so customers aren’t locked into a single provider.

But even as infrastructure ramps up, the scale and speed of OpenAI’s spending spree have raised questions about execution.

Nvidia is supplying capital and chips. Oracle is building the sites. OpenAI is anchoring the demand. It’s a circular economy that could come under pressure if any one player falters.

And while the headlines came fast this week, the physical buildout will take years to deliver — with much of it dependent on energy and grid upgrades that remain uncertain. 

Friar acknowledged that challenge.

“There’s not enough compute to do all the things that AI can do, and so we need to get it started,” she said. “And we need to do it as a full ecosystem.”

WATCH: Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank unveil $400 billion Stargate data center

Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank unveil $400 billion Stargate data center expansions

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Tesla complains about EPA’s new policy its CEO paid more than $200 million for

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4 hours ago

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September 26, 2025

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Tesla complains about EPA's new policy its CEO paid more than 0 million for

Trump does an ad for Tesla with Elon Musk
Trump does an ad for Tesla

Tesla is asking the Trump administration not to repeal EPA rules that allow automakers to sell more polluting vehicles despite the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, donating more than $200 million to Trump’s campaign, which clearly included repealing the EPA rules as part of its platform.

For years, Donald Trump has been spreading misinformation about electric vehicles.

Therefore, it wasn’t surprising when he made removing the federal EV tax credit and EPA rules that force automakers to produce more EVs a central part of his platform during the 2024 presidential campaign.

What was more surprising was to see Tesla CEO Elon Musk back Trump with more than $200 million in campaign financing and claiming that the then-former President was “right about everything.”

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Musk has even proudly stood behind Trump has he was calling for the end of the “EV mandate.”

While the CEO publicly sided with Trump on removing the tax credit for EVs, he hasn’t commented on the EPA emission rules.

Now, Tesla is commenting and the company is urging the Trump administration to keep them.

Tesla wrote in a filing to the EPA:

As the recent assessment from the National Academy of Sciences makes clear, the proposal does not sufficiently evaluate the voluminous and rigorously established science, as well as the additionally developed scientific record since the 2009 endangerment finding that further solidifies the level of concern from climate change and the level of confidence that the established scientific community has over these findings.

The American automaker stated that the EPA has not made a sufficient argument based on legal or factual basis for reversing the vehicle emissions standards.

Electrek’s Take

Of course they haven’t, because there’s none. Allowing automakers to slow down the transition to zero-emission vehicle is going to be harful to Americans and the world. Period.

Tesla knows that, as it wrote in the filing, and its CEO too, but he appears to beleive that “white people reclaiming their nations” is more important than curbing climate change and air polution.

As for Tesla as a business, in the mid to long term, yes, it’s true that the removal of the tax credit might benefit Tesla. It won’t benefit Tesla’s mission as it will undeoutbedly slow down EV adoption in the US, but it will knock off some of Tesla’s competition in the US.

However, the EPA emission rules are detrimental to both Tesla’s mission and its business.

Hence why the company is speaking up on that. On the other hand, Musk is silent and just today made posts to back Trump’s authoritharian tendendices of using the justice system to go against political enemies.


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