Climate change made Helene 200x more likely – but just 3% of TV news said so
Hurricane Helene has made its way through the southeast US as the strongest storm of the 2024 season and potentially the costliest storm ever recorded. But if you watch US media, you’d barely know that the true culprit behind Helene’s record-breaking strength is us – the climate change that we humans caused by burning fossil fuels.
Hurricane Helene spent the last week traveling through the Gulf of Mexico, eventually making landfall in Florida and leaving a swath of devastation as far north as Tennessee and North Carolina.
The storm was exceptional for its strength, but also for the high speed at which it traveled, reaching much farther inland than most storms.
In particular, one does not expect Asheville, North Carolina, over 400 miles from where Helene made landfall and nestled high in the Blue Ridge Mountains, to be vulnerable to hurricanes – and yet the “biblical devastation” seen there is readily apparent in photographs of the area, or in this story of a 7,000lb Rivian which was swept away (and yet, it still works).
And East Tennessee experienced a “1-in-5000 years rain event” according to a TVA spokesperson. (Thankfully, some people in the area have an electric car in the house to help keep the lights on by powering the house from their car.)
Images from CSU/CIRA & NOAA.
As of now, with 180 deaths (and counting) attributed to it, Helene is the second-deadliest hurricane to hit the US in 50 years (after Katrina), and early estimates of the amount of damage done range from ~$30 billion to ~$160 billion – the upper end of which would make it the most expensive hurricane to hit the US, ahead of Katrina and Harvey.
Much of these record costs will likely be paid by taxpayers, as FEMA funds are used for storm recovery in these areas. Congress may come back for a special session to address a shortfall in FEMA funds – and more outlays like this can be expected as climate change continues to make storms stronger. (Though if the republican Project 2025 had any say about it, hurricane-affected areas might get no help at all)
How climate change and storms are connected
As one might expect out of massive, species-wide global efforts to spew enormous amounts of heat-trapping pollution into the atmosphere, human-caused climate change tends to have a lot of varied effects on the environment.
Some of these effects are better understood than others, with scientists working every day to figure out exactly the magnitude of the effects that rising temperatures have on myriad aspects of the environment. Scientists tend to be precise in their language, so even if certain climate effects are plausible and supported by early data, scientists may still speak in a couched manner which can lead to a perception of uncertainty.
But one thing that is well-understood is that a warmer atmosphere, and warmer water, means stronger storms.
The reason behind this is fairly simple. Heat is energy, so more heat means more energy. When a hurricane crosses over warm ocean water, that warmth helps to feed the storm and make it stronger.
Currently, the world is about 1.3 degrees Celsius warmer on average than it was before humans started affecting the climate by burning fossil fuels. While that doesn’t sound like a lot, averaged over the entire ocean we have added the energy equivalent of several billion nuclear bombs in just the last couple decades. That’s a lot of extra energy to feed storms, meaning a lot more destruction when they roll through town.
That extra energy hasn’t been evenly distributed, either. Some of the places that have seen the most warming are the Gulf of Mexico and the Eastern Seaboard of the US, the most densely populated part of the world’s largest historical emitter. Around this time last year, Gulf waters might have set a world record for the hottest seawater ever recorded at 101ºF/38ºC.
Warmer water also means higher sea levels, which means more flooding due to storm surge. Much has been said about how sea level rise is caused by melting ice sheets, but a less often mentioned feature is the thermal expansion of water. As water (or any substance) gets warmer, it expands. Averaged over the entire ocean, this makes the ocean bigger and therefore contributes to rising sea levels.
Warmer air also contributes. Warmer air is able to hold more moisture than colder air, which means more precipitation.
So, combining the effects of warmer and wetter air, we have more significant storm surge and more rainfall, meaning more dangerous hurricanes. After all, in a hurricane, it’s not the wind that’s the most dangerous, it’s the water.
More warmth, more damage
All of this warmth also means a longer hurricane season, with storm season starting earlier and ending later.
The reason hurricane season comes in the warmer months is because that’s when ocean and air temperatures are higher, contributing to all the above effects. But if the atmosphere and ocean are warmer, then the period of time in the year where conditions are right for hurricanes will be wider, which means hurricane season is longer and harder to contend with.
This will also tend to mean that storms develop more rapidly. Storms typically gain energy while traveling over the ocean (due to warm water, as mentioned above), and having more energy available means they can develop faster. Faster-developing storms mean less notice to make preparations, less time to evacuate populations from danger zones, and more stress on infrastructure in making those rapid preparations and evacuations.
And most of all, stronger storms means more damage. The US has had increasingly-more “billion-dollar disasters” in recent years. Since 1980, the US averaged 8.5 natural disaster events with more than a billion dollars worth of damage per year (adjusted for inflation). But in the last 5 years, that average has ballooned to 20.4 events, with 2023 setting the record at 28 billion-dollar disasters.
It’s gotten bad enough that Florida is going through an insurance crisis, with rates skyrocketing and many homes becoming uninsurable. It’s happening in other states too.
These numbers are often ignored when it comes to the “cost” of carbon reduction. Environmental opponents say it’s too expensive to clean up humanity’s act, but in fact it’s much more expensive if we don’t take action (by sixfold, according to research).
So we now know how storms are influenced by climate change, how Helene has been historic, how its records were contributed to by climate change, and how devastating an impact these climate-affected storms have in aggregate.
High ocean temps fueling Helene were made 200-500x more likely by climate change
So this storm is more damaging than expected, and is damaging areas that were thought to be safe from storms. But was it truly “caused” by climate change? How do we account for this?
It turns out, something called climate attribution science can answer our questions.
Climate attribution science is a relatively new branch of climate science which seeks to answer the question of how much more likely extreme weather events are made by climate change.
It does this by looking at the natural variability of temperatures, then seeing how much that variability has shifted as a result of the additional heat that human fossil fuel emissions have trapped in the atmosphere and oceans.
Climate Central has packaged the information from these measurements into an online tool which can show just how much hotter ocean surface temperatures are in any given location, and how much more likely those hot ocean temperatures were made by climate change.
And, since the Gulf of Mexico has warmed faster than much of the rest of the world’s oceans, we can see that the 1.7ºC/3.1ºF warming in the area where Helene started its rapid intensification from a category 1 to category 4 storm was made 400x more likely by climate change. Other high ocean temps in the area were made 200-500x more likely by climate change, all of which helped to fuel the storm.
Notably, there is an asterisk on this data, which as you can see at the top of the screenshot is not the most current possible data. The reason for this is because the National Center of Environmental Information is headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, a place that was previously considered relatively safe from storms. But as we learned earlier in this article, Asheville is no longer quite so safe, and the NCEI is currently underwater due to flooding from Helene.
Attribution science does not make the argument, however, that we would not have hurricanes without climate change. Clearly we would still have them, but climate change creates the conditions that make hurricanes stronger and more historic.
Dr. Friederike Otto, one of the founders of the field of attribution science, puts it this way:
“It’s not like without climate change we wouldn’t have hurricanes. But it’s the same kind of causation that we use when we talk about smoking. You would still have lung cancer in the world if people wouldn’t smoke, but if you do smoke, you have a much much higher likelihood [of getting lung cancer]. And so there is a causal relationship between that and lung cancer.”
The increased chance of storms like these happening, and higher intensity of storms when they do happen, are important to keep in mind when planning infrastructure. If infrastructure is built to withstand a 1,000-year storm, and that storm becomes not only more common but stronger and hits a wider area, then your infrastructure will be overwhelmed. Even if a storm is only 10 or 20 percent stronger, if that suddenly goes past the threshold that your infrastructure can handle, it turns a storm that would have been relatively “fine” into a big problem.
Despite these interactions being fairly well understood, and it being clear that hurricanes are getting stronger due to climate change, climate change still didn’t manage to make it into almost any TV news coverage about the storm.
According to Media Matters’ analysis, out of 1,355 minutes and 468 segments about Hurricane Helene, only 15 segments, or 3%, mentioned climate change at all. Cable news networks mentioned it 11 times, and broadcast TV networks mentioned it 4 times.
Among the cable news stations, MSNBC fared best, mentioning climate change 6 times out of 73 segments. CNN trailed with 5 mentions in 235 segments. And, as you might expect, Fox News, which is owned by climate denier Rupert Murdoch who has been a major driving force in spreading propaganda to support environmental destruction worldwide, aired 87 segments and did not mention climate change once.
Broadcast news did similarly poorly, with ABC mentioning climate 2 times in 31 segments, NBC mentioning it twice in 19, and CBS zero times in 23.
Media matters selected a few standout segments from ABC, CNN and MSNBC.
In an ABC segment, weather anchor Sam Champion explained how warmer gulf waters lead to rapid intensification of storms, and rising sea levels make storm surge more dangerous:
In an MSNBC segment, meteorologist Angie Lassman put it succinctly, citing Climate Central’s analysis showing that high surface temps, which fuel stronger storms, are made hundreds of times more likely due to human-caused climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels:
And on a long CNN segment, meteorologist Chris Gloninger cited Climate Central’s analysis, mentioned the higher moisture content of warmer air, and said how deep ocean warming has resulted in a “new normal” where hurricanes are no longer slowed down by the churning of colder deep ocean waters to the surface:
And, as usual, climate scientist Michael Mann was involved with a standout segment when he dropped by CNN to explain what’s happening from a scientist’s perspective, and to make the important connection to the upcoming US election, where there is a stark difference between the candidates, with one wanting to solve this problem and the other denying it exists (or even trying to make it worse):
The overall lack of coverage highlights a significant issue with tackling climate change. Despite that it is the most important challenge that humanity has ever confronted – after all, nothing matters without clean air, clean water, and a livable environment – relatively few voters put the environment highest on their list of important issues.
That list is instead dominated by any number of other issues that are focused upon in media and which are less important than climate change. Or some of which are indeed related to climate change, such that approaching the climate problem could alleviate other pressures that people perceive as important.
But it’s hard for people to make these connections when media refuses to make them. If all of the media you watch tells you that something is a problem, you are likely to perceive that as a problem, whether it really is one or not. And if they never mention the problem, how are you supposed to learn about it?
This is where we get to the speculative portion of this article, wherein I try to analyze how we got where we are, and how we can solve it.
Make no mistake, the largest and richest industry in the world, the oil industry, is actively lying to you to shift your perceptions about real solutions to the problems they cause. That rich industry also happens to buy a lot of advertising, which makes it harder for ad-funded networks – especially those that are actively in favor of spreading fossil propaganda like the climate denier-run Fox – to speak up against the guys who pay the bills.
Even for algorithmically-based advertising, the same influence is there. Climate change is an issue that requires less, not more, consumption to combat. People who sell things generally like consumption. So any algorithmic news is incentivized to show you fewer climate stories, lest they get fewer sweet sweet consumer clickthroughs.
But there is a much more mundane, and less conspiratorial, explanation for why media doesn’t talk about climate change: because you, dear reader, don’t want to hear about it.
Climate change is an enormous and difficult problem that will require participation from basically everyone on Earth, and all of us will need to learn about what solutions work and how to implement them. These solutions need to be both personal and structural – everyone’s personal carbon emissions need to go down, primarily those of us in rich countries, and also new rules need to be enforced to ensure that companies and people are incentivized to pollute less and/or punished for polluting more.
Frankly, that’s hard, and thinking about it makes people feel bad. So they don’t want to hear about it, because it’s complicated and oftentimes feels impossible.
While people might want to act personally, they’ll think that it’s too expensive or difficult to do so, and they’ll see that not enough action is happening from major players and wonder whether it’s worth the time for them to do much work personally when it seems like nobody else is doing so.
Though we must understand that this attitude is also influenced by propaganda – polluters want you to feel like nothing can be done, because then they can continue the status quo. But we have to avoid this feeling.
I understand these feelings, and it is indeed hard. Trust me, my job is to talk about climate and climate solutions, which means I have to think and talk about this all the time. I see more data and reports than most about the problems with our climate and how we are not doing enough to solve these problems, even though some partial solutions can be remarkably simple.
Climate scientists also feel the call of the void when looking at how society has responded to their repeated attempts to wake the public up about this problem. For a sense of what it’s like, watch the movie Don’t Look Up, which parodizes how society responds to an imminent disaster by simply ignoring it. It’s eerily similar to real life, to the point where I often hated watching the movie because it felt too real. Which is, of course, the entire point of the movie.
So, I go and write about some climate story like this one, and spend a lot of time getting it right, and often enough, any story about climate goes over like a lead balloon (feel free to share this one far and wide to prove me wrong… pretty please, mister algorithm?). When instead, I could have spent 30 minutes writing about some dumb thing Elon did and gotten a much bigger response. As always, petty drama rules the day.
We climate reporters have bills to pay too, and writing about climate doesn’t pay them, because people don’t read them. No wonder people or newsrooms don’t cover it as much as they should when there’s less incentive to do so (as parodied in another scene in Don’t Look Up). I’m probably doing volunteer work today. You’re welcome, I guess.
How do we solve this?
But all of this doesn’t let anyone off the hook. We still need to write about it, to talk about it more, to recognize this problem, to do more to solve it, at all levels. Frankly, it’s like any problem of collective action – everyone has a reason not to act as long as they think nobody else is. Someone has to break the cycle.
Journalists need to do the right thing and connect the dots properly, especially when it’s as easy as adding one or two sentences to the hundreds of segments done about a major news event like Beryl. Say it with me: “human-caused climate change makes waters warmer, which causes stronger storms, which contributed to Beryl’s record-breaking nature.” You can have that sentence royalty-free. Have at it, networks. (You can also get more information from Covering Climate Now, a great resource for climate journalists, which tipped me to the Media Matters study to begin with, and also offered a free quote).
News consumers need to do the right thing and stay informed about this topic. I know it’s hard and annoying, but this problem gets solved better the more informed you are, and the more you talk about it with people you know and who trust you, and the more you act on lowering your personal emissions and demanding that your representatives do more on climate. Anyone reading this already took the first step by going through another one of my huge rants, and for that I thank you (but please, mister algorithm, may I have but a crumbof virality?)
Governments need to do the right thing and act more on climate change even if people don’t rank it as their most important issue. Given that climate change underlies so many other societal problems, acting to solve it can help to solve those other problems too. It’s a problem that changes are often too long-term to be captured in a single term of office, so doing these things won’t always help your re-election campaign but simply be done for the good of society – but that’s the job of a public servant anyway, so get on it.
And fossil fuel companies need to do the right thing and stop exis…. uh, stop the propaganda? I don’t know, let’s just stick with stop existing. But other companies can reduce their exposure to fossil fuels, which consumers say they want anyway (and that means you consumers need to follow up on that promise, by the way).
I understand that that’s a lot of direction I’ve just given to a lot of people, but at the very least, can we start off with acknowledging the reality of science and mentioning it when relevant, like in the case of Hurricane Beryl? Because none of the rest of this happens if we don’t at least recognize the problem and its effects in the first place.
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Faraday Future unveiled its upcoming FX Super One MPV on Thursday, which appears to be a rebadged Great Wall Motors Way Gaoshan.
Which brings us to the question: is this how we might see more Chinese EVs make their way to the US?
The EV market in China has grown rapidly in recent years, not just in terms of total sales and revenues for its largest companies, but also in terms of the hundreds of EV companies vying to survive the current highly competitive market there.
But despite massively rising EV sales in the country, EV production is still scaling even faster. This has led to a price war within China due to this glut of cars, and also to Chinese companies seeking more buyers overseas.
These affordable EVs have been shipped around the globe, leading to rapidly rising EV sales in Europe and in the “rest of the world” – though, as of yet, not really in the US. Due to excessive tariffs, the US has made itself into an island where few Chinese EVs are allowed.
The ones that have made their way into the US are those built by Western brands that were bought up by a Chinese conglomerate, like Volvo and Polestar under parent company Geely. Some of their models are assembled in Chinese factories, but most of the ones making their way to the US are built in European or US factories (largely due to the domestic sourcing efforts in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, creating millions of US jobs which republicans are currently doing their best to send back to China).
BYD has also put out feelers about building a factory in Mexico, but those plans are on pause, ironically because BYD doesn’t want its technology to be stolen by the US (put that one on for some perspective about how far we have fallen behind on EVs, fellow Americans).
But we haven’t yet seen the kind of Chinese EV that the rest of the world is getting – one of those many eye-openingly cheap numbers that could finally bring true affordability to the US market (or bring it back, that is).
That’s due to tariffs, and it’s intentional. There are various arguments given for tariffs’ existence, but they boil down to: the US can’t make cars as cheap as China, and wants to protect its auto industry, and therefore making Chinese EVs more expensive will forestall their entry into the US while we try to get better at making them. I personally find these explanations wanting and consider these tariffs unwise (and they have only gotten more unwise).
But in a world where these tariffs exist, and depending highly on what final form they take, companies will look for ways to minimize their exposure to them and to still bring cars into the US. Much of the EV industry is sourced through China (again, one of the issues the Inflation Reduction Act tried to remedy), so parts will have tariffs on them, in various amounts.
This is where I speculate that the Faraday Future FX Super One could come in. At last night’s unveiling event, it became quite clear that the car is strikingly similar to the Great Wall Motors Wey Gaoshan.
This similarity is not coincidental – Faraday told us that it is working with “a Tier 1 Chinese automotive supplier,” one that we have heard of, to build the FX Super One. That supplier will send stamped bodies to Faraday’s US factory in Hanford, CA, where Faraday will take care of the final assembly.
Faraday didn’t let us take pictures of the interior, even from the outside, but what we saw of the interior on a short ride around the parking lot looked quite similar to the interior of a Wey Gaoshan, just with different controls (for example, the the pull-out fridge in the bottom of this photo is identical to the one I saw in the FX Super One).
Faraday said the interior hasn’t been finalized yet, but also said that it thinks it can have 100-150 cars built by the end of the year. Which is less than half a year away, for a company that has to date built 16 cars (though those it built on its own). So there’s not a lot of time for further changes at this rate.
So, here we have a company that intends to sell a car in the US, much of which originated in China. This seems like it would run afoul of tariffs.
But, depending on how (or if…) these tariffs get edited or finalized, they might be much lower for parts and/or for vehicles that undergo final assembly in the US. So Faraday might be able to get away with importing something very similar to a GWM, doing enough to it here to qualify its way past tariffs, and getting it on the market at a price that doesn’t incorporate the however-many-hundred-percent the US has ridiculously decided to tack on this week.
Faraday also mentioned during its presentations about the FX Super One that it has a US-based software team, which has been at work for some time.
The software in Faraday’s previous vehicle, the FF91, is pretty good, despite being such a low volume vehicle. And it’s gotten much better between the first time I sat in it and when I had a short demo this month of Faraday’s newly-upgraded voice recognition system (now supporting 50+ languages) and swipe gestures for setting volume and HVAC.
We didn’t get to interact with the software on the FX Super One at all, but we would be cautiously optimistic about it based on prior showings.
But more importantly for the purposes of this article, Faraday’s software team is based in the US. And given current US threats to ban any and all Chinese software from vehicles, this too would allow Faraday to swap out some chips and memory cards and make a car perfectly legal from a US perspective.
So it’s possible that Faraday is on to something here, and has found a reasonable way to get Chinese EVs into America, while complying with US law, and while giving the company a much easier way to increase its scale than trying to get numbers up for the slow-growing FF91 project. Faraday does not have the resources to build out mass market manufacturing currently, so this is another option.
Now… this is no $11k Dolphin Seagull, the Wey Gaoshan starts in the mid-$40k range in China, and is considered a luxury model. And here in the US, Faraday is positioning the car as a premium model as well, though hasn’t yet announced pricing or really gotten its messaging straight on whether it’s a mass market vehicle or a VIP/Cadillac Escalade competitor.
But if this is Faraday’s plan, and if the plan works, it could give the US a taste of the EVs that the rest of the world is getting access to, and could show a potential way of getting those cars across the border. There are both pros (competition good, cheaper prices good) and cons (race to the bottom for manufacturing, loss of important American industry) for the US auto market here, so you’ll have to decide which side of that equation you land on, but this could be a harbinger of one way cars from the now-biggest auto exporting country in the world could make their way out into markets that have exhibited hostility to that idea.
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Environment
Review: The tech-forward Meepo Go electric skateboard is a smooth, speedy ride for all [Video]
![Review: The tech-forward Meepo Go electric skateboard is a smooth, speedy ride for all [Video]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Meepo-skateboard-hero.jpg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
Scooter here, back with another electric mobility review. This time, I tested out the Meepo Go electric skateboard. It is a sturdy, smooth deck designed for riders of all sizes, with some unique tech I had never encountered before. Be sure to check out my full video review below.
The Meepo Go is a versatile skateboard built for everyone
The Go electric skateboard from Meepo comes in one standard design. It usually has an MSRP of $699, but it is currently on sale for $569, so now is an excellent time to buy.
Features at a glance:
- Bamboo and fiberglass deck provides durability, flexibility, and stability, suitable for heavier riders over 200 lbs.
- Impact-resistant plates and a scratch-resistant underside.
- Dual belt drive 1500 watt stator 4230 motors
- 12s2p 345.6WH/8AH battery with flame-retardant and water-resistant protection
- JK-FOC24B Electronic Speed Controller (ESC)
- Offers smooth, jerk-free acceleration with customizable speed and braking settings
- Four-speed modes:
- L: 12 mph (20 km/h)
- E: 20 mph (32 km/h)
- S/S+: 28 mph (45 km/h) (S+ adds faster acceleration)
- Adjustable braking intensity
- Top Speed 28 mph (45 km/h)
- Range: Up to 20 miles (32 km)
- Incline capabilities: 30%
- 2-year warranty
Electrek‘s take
Meepo is an exciting electric skateboard manufacturer whose goal is to make this particular form of travel accessible to anyone and help reduce carbon emissions. You know we love that.
The company has built hundreds of thousands of electric boards, all of which are rigorously tested and constantly revamped for better quality and efficiency. For my first-ever encounter with Meepo, I was sent its Go electric skateboard – a sort of all-in-one deck designed to support heavier riders.
I didn’t realize this was a heavy rider board until I read its description on the website. I don’t think that was the reason Meepo recommended this one, but it’s nice to know I wouldn’t have to worry about breaking the Go for being too heavy (I’m only 200 pounds right now, okay?).
The unboxing was incredibly simple. You first unwrap your shiny new, assembled Meepo Go deck, complete with wheels, trucks, motors, and battery. Below that is some instructions, a charger with cables, a couple of adjustment tools, plus two extra motor belts.
Last but not least is Meepo’s J6S ergonomic remote. According to Meepo, the remote’s upgraded control logic allows riders to double-click to change speed modes, reducing accidental toggles, and can stay connected to the board at a max range of 46 meters.
My full haul is pictured above and in the video below. Zero assembly is required; simply plug and play. The Meepo Go electric skateboard can recharge when fully drained in four hours.
Aside from its sturdy design, thanks to a Bamboo and fiberglass deck, I found the Meepo Go quite aesthetically pleasing. I liked its unique grip tape design and carved-out handle for easier carrying (see below).
Once the Meepo skateboard was fully charged, it was time to power up and take it out for a first spin. My initial impression was just how smooth a ride the Go is, thanks in part to its wheels, which Meepo recently revamped to enable better wet-weather traction and anti-slip capabilities.
The trucks initially took some getting used to as they are 45-degree as opposed to 50-degree on traditional configurations, but once I got used to the difference, I felt much more stable at high speeds and making sharp turns. Meepo also provided a truck tool to tighten or loosen your configuration to your preferences.
The Meepo Go’s dual 4230 brushless motors combine for a total output of 3,000 watts, offering a top speed of up to 28 mph or 45 km/h. While that’s pretty damn fast for an electric skateboard, Meepo said “not so fast” to new riders for their own safety.
Go riders must travel 10 km (6.2 miles) in the lower two “L” and “E” speed modes to unlock the S and S+ modes, which allow the 28 mph top speed and higher acceleration. S mode was honestly too fast for my liking, but it was nice to know I had those speed capabilities whenever I’m feeling saucy. The truth is, at my age and skill level, I’m beyond satisfied cruising and carving around 20 mph.
Luckily, the Meepo Go electric skateboard delivers both speed options and then some.
The Meepo Go also allows you to customize its braking intensity from 0% to 100%. This is a feature I had never personally seen on an electric skateboard that genuinely impressed me. It just adds to the overall smoothness this deck provides on all levels.
As mentioned in the key features above, the Go’s dual motors are powered by an eight-amp-hour battery, which enables an all-electric range of up to 20 miles or 32 km.
Aside from speeds nearing 30 mph, you really feel the Meepo Go’s capability on hills. It was configured to tackle 15-degree (30%) inclines with ease, and having tested it, it’s true.
What may be most impressive about this particular Meepo skateboard is its advanced JKFOC-24B electronic skate controller (ESC), which is essentially the brain of the entire powertrain.
The ESC delivers smooth acceleration with no jerking or lag. It also enables full user customization of acceleration, top speed, and braking sensitivity, so once you get comfortable, you can tailor every aspect of your riding experience to your liking. This is another super cool feature that was new to me personally.
Overall, the Meepo Go is smooth, powerful, and very tech-forward. With more than enough speed, I truly enjoyed the lag-free cruising and carving of the 45-degree trucks and the ease of use of its ergonomic remote.
I was genuinely impressed by the tech used to customize this skateboard, enabling anyone to customize their ride. As such, I’d highly recommend the Meepo Go because of its feel, utility, and universal rideability for virtually everyone, not to mention its competitive pricing.
If you’d like to try out the Meepo Go electric skateboard for yourself, click here. Be sure to check out my full video review below.
Buy a Meepo Go Electric Skateboard
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The 2025 Can-Am Origin electric motorcycle is the pinnacle of fun, just as long as your good time can fit into 69 miles of riding between charges. What it lacks in long-distance range, it makes up for in versatility, rugged style, and instant torque that’s ready for the road and trail. Each twist of the throttle delivers immediate electric propulsion. Its futuristic design and stealthy motor hum make the Origin a dual-sport machine pulled from tomorrow that wonderfully celebrates Can-Am’s two-wheeled heritage of decades past. I also spent some time on the road with the more approachable Can-Am Pulse, a standard street bike with a slight range advantage.
Can-Am style and comfort through technology
The Can-Am Origin is unlike any electric motorbike that has entered my garage. Its tall stance, 21-inch front and 18-inch rear wheels, and high ground clearance practically beg to be taken off your routine street routes. Can-Am simultaneously delivers an infotainment system on a dual-sport bike that, respectfully, makes much more expensive electric motorcycles look like tech dinosaurs in comparison.
The Origin’s dashboard has specs that every electric motorcycle company should copy. Equipping this system to an electric dual-sport feels like a total luxury. The Origin features a giant 10.25-inch color touchscreen with BRP Connect and a clean user interface that automatically switches between light and dark mode and adjusts brightness. In addition to a digital speedometer, you can quickly switch between ride modes, view battery status, check estimated range, and more.
Ride modes include Normal, Sport, Rain, Eco, two different Off-Road modes. You can toggle traction control and fine-tune front and rear regenerative braking independently, each with Off, Mid, and Max settings. Controls are accessible via the touchscreen when parked or through handlebar-mounted thumb controls while riding.
The UI adapts to show either large gauges or a split between speedometer and infotainment applets. Bluetooth connects the bike and your phone, and Can-Am has included built-in wifi for over-the-air software updates. These are the kinds of features you’d expect on a premium electric motorcycle in 2025, but they’re not guaranteed.
For iPhone users, there’s Apple CarPlay integration. Two caveats: first, the system uses USB-A instead of USB-C, so newer iPhones will require an adapter or a USB-A to USB-C cable that supports data, not just charging. Second, it only supports wired CarPlay, not wireless, despite the bike having both wifi and Bluetooth radios onboard.
Those two complaints aside, the CarPlay integration is next-level. The touchscreen is responsive when parked, and everything remains fully controllable through the handlebar controls while riding. Access to apps like Maps, Music, Messages, and Phone while on the move is a real convenience. There are also motorcycle- and EV-specific apps with CarPlay are right at home on the Can-Am system.
There are no built-in speakers, so Can-Am relies on Bluetooth audio outputs. The setup is clever, supporting two output channels: one for the rider and one for the passenger helmet comms systems. I experimented by tossing a Bluetooth speaker onto the handlebars and was surprised to find it worked well in sub 50 mph environments as an open-air audio solution.
My only real hardware gripe on a bike that otherwise outshines much of its competition is the lack of self-canceling turn signals. Not every bike has them, but every bike that lacks them is missing out. There’s nothing less cool than riding around with your blinker still flashing. Fortunately, the dash clearly displays active signals. Still, I initially thought the right indicator light on the dash wasn’t working until I realized a single cable runs directly in front of it from my seated position. It’s a small, oddly specific problem that may be specific to my loaner bike, but I can’t quite position the cable differently.
Overall, I give the look and tech a 9.75 out of 10 for delivering both style and features that I actually want and use.
How the Origin feels to ride
At 5’10” with a 30-inch inseam, I find the Origin’s seat height tall yet correct for a dual-sport bike. Throwing a leg over feels a bit like saddling up on a horse, and once I’m on, it’s immediately comfortable. I can straddle the bike confidently, with my left foot planted on the ground and the other hovering around the rear brake. Any taller, and it might feel like a stretch; any shorter, and the ride position wouldn’t feel as commanding. The elevated stance provides a clear, confident view of the road or trail ahead, and the headlight system works adequately. It sets the Origin apart from the lower, more compact feel of traditional street bikes.
With this bike, Can-Am delivers an awesome mix of rugged reality and futuristic aesthetic. The Origin’s angular black-and-white bodywork and tall riding position regularly invokes the feeling of a stormtrooper hovering through the moon forest of Endor on a speeder bike. That particular vibe is especially strong at speed, where the elevated stance and electric torque make it feel like you’re gliding just above the terrain. At lower speeds, the illusion shifts. The stealthy motor hum fades behind the subtle roll of tires on pavement, creating a sensation much like quietly cruising up on a skateboard. It’s stealthy, smooth, and serene.
In terms of performance, the Origin tops out at 79 mph for me, providing plenty of speed for highway rides. Can-Am rates the 0-60 mph acceleration at 4.3 seconds, but frankly this bike feels like it might toss you overboard if you push it that quickly. Can-Am estimates range of up to 90 city miles and 71 mixed environment miles. On one test ride, I ran the battery from 100 percent to 1 percent over the course of 2.3 hours, covering 58.7 miles at an average speed of 24 mph, according to the bike stats.
According to my stats, it was many more hours of fun in the sun with a break for lunch at the park by the water in between riding sessions. That ride was done entirely in Sport mode with regenerative braking turned off, and it returned an average energy consumption of 9 miles per kilowatt-hour. It’s a solid showing for an electric dual-sport, especially considering the aggressive mode and lack of regen for the most reactive and relaxed ride.
Sometimes I love the feel of regenerative braking on electric cars and motorcycles. It can add to the feeling of responsiveness. I found regen on this bike to feel a bit more tight and underpowered for my liking, but it’s there as an option for extending range. With regen turned off entirely, the Origin felt significantly more loose and natural to ride. On the Origin I consistently opted to leave both front and rear regen off. We’ll see how the Pulse feels when I test that model next.
I must have logged over 500 miles across four weeks with the Origin. The lasting impression is that when you gain muscle memory for how the bike responds to throttle spin and body movement, riding the Can-Am Origin feels like playing an amplified electric guitar. Every incremental finger and palm positioning has a result, and when you find your rhythm, suddenly you’re creating music.
The other piece of the Can-Am Origin experience that I didn’t anticipate is the conversational aspect. Electric vehicles are still novel to many, and electric motorcycles are an absolute enigma to most. “Can it get wet?” is still the classic question that many ask. But from day one to day 28 of test riding the Can-Am Origin, it was the brand itself that got people asking me about the bike.
My takeaway is that people have a real affinity for the Can-Am brand as well as a nostalgia for the days of two-wheeled Can-Am motorbikes. When they learn that Can-Am is back on two wheels in the form of a bad-ass looking electric dual-sport motorcycle, people react like they just met a the much younger version of a celebrity in their home town. It’s a fun thing to experience.
Can-Am has earned its place as an electric motorcycle brand to consider
The Can-Am Origin is an incredibly thoughtful and fun take on what an electric dual-sport can be. It pairs rugged styling with a high-tech, feature-rich interface, offers plenty of real-world performance, and never stops turning heads while doing it without trying. From its futuristic design and surprisingly refined touchscreen to the tall, confident riding position and intuitive handling, the Origin is a complete package, so long as your expectations around electric motorcycle range are in check.
Priced starting at $14,999, the Origin slots in competitively against other premium electric motorcycles, though it leans more toward adventure and off-road versatility than urban street performance. It doesn’t quite reach the power or fast-charging capability of more premium priced machines, yet it undercuts in price and adds very useful touches like Apple CarPlay, OTA updates, and dual regen tuning.
If money were no object, I’d gladly keep one in the garage. It’s just flat-out fun to ride. From quick errands and joyrides to weekend backroad escapes, the Origin is a thrill machine that leaves you smiling between rides. Can-Am has a huge selection of first-party accessories to customize your bike as well. This configuration above makes me drool.
Range will be the limiter on machines like this for a while, and while around 70 miles between charges is enough for plenty of use cases, it still has to be a part of the conversation when talking recommendations. But here’s the thing: despite that limitation, electric motorcycles are a ton of fun right now. And if you’ve got either a high pain tolerance for early adoption or healthy access to good charging infrastructure, you can absolutely push them further.
The Origin is compatible with both Level 1 (standard wall outlet) and Level 2 (240V) charging, but not Level 3 DC fast charging. Can-Am rates Level 2 charging at 0 to 80% in 1.5 hours and 0 to 100% in 3.5 hours. In practice, that translates to plugging in and waiting a few hours between fun sessions. For some riders, that’s no big deal, especially if spending time at your destination is part of the trip.
I certainly don’t live along the great electric freeway of California, but my coastal stretch of highway in South Mississippi is populated with electric charging stops.
In my testing, I used the Can-Am Origin for a roundtrip airport commute from home in Ocean Springs, MS to Gulfport, MS, and back. The airport was outside of the travel-there-and-back-without-charging range, but free charging infrastructure at the airport parking garage made it no problem. I rode there, parked, charged during my trip, and returned from the other side of the country to a full battery. So yes, it’s capable of handling local duties. But if long range is central to your riding lifestyle, it’s something to plan around. I think lower speeds and paid charging solutions along the way would allow me to reach New Orleans and return home, but I haven’t set out on that path with this bike.
The Origin isn’t perfect, but it’s arguably best in its category, well-executed, and just damn cool to experience. Can-Am absolutely executed on creating a great electric motorcycle experience despite not being solely focused on EVs or two-wheeled machines.
Can-Am Pulse experience
After 600+ miles on the Can-Am Origin, I had the chance to put some miles on a 2025 Can-Am Pulse electric motorcycle. My key takeaways? Both are excellent electric motorcycles with equally great CarPlay integration. The Pulse is more approachable with a low riding position and slightly more range. The larger storage capacity is also appreciated compared to the somewhat tight space on the Origin.
If I were choosing which to purchase without extensive riding experience, the Can-Am Pulse is absolutely the bike I would gravitate toward. It’s just a great standard street bike with awesome technology at a competitive price.
Above is a look at the redesigned CarPlay experience coming in September 2025 to iPhone in iOS 26, as seen on the Can-Am Pulse display. The new design flexibility makes CarPlay look more at home next to Can-Am’s UI that always appears on a third of the display. Since Can-Am supports CarPlay, the infotainment system will receive free upgrades as Apple enhances the iPhone-powered feature.
Can-Am also supports free over-the-air software updates to the bike itself. Updates are downloaded over wifi and installed using the built-in system on the bike. No visits to the dealership or firmware updates over USB drives required.
Here’s how both bikes compare on paper:
| Feature | Can‑Am Origin | Can‑Am Pulse |
|---|---|---|
| Starting MSRP | $14,499 | $13,999 |
| 0–60 mph | 4.3 sec | 3.8 sec |
| City range | 90 miles | 100 miles |
| Combined range (WMTC) | 71 miles | 80 miles |
| Charging (20→80 %) | 50 min (Level 2) | 50 min (Level 2) |
| Peak power | 47 hp (35 kW) | 47 hp (35 kW) |
| Continuous power | 27 hp (20 kW) | 27 hp (20 kW) |
| Torque | 53 lb‑ft (72 Nm) | 53 lb‑ft (72 Nm) |
| Dry weight | 412 lb (187 kg) | 390 lb (177 kg) |
| Seat height | 34 in (865 mm) | 30.86 in (784 mm) |
| Suspension travel | Front/rear 10 in (255 mm) | Front/rear 5.5 in (140 mm) |
| Drive modes | 6 modes (Normal, ECO, Rain, Sport, Off‑Road, Off‑Road+) | 4 modes (Normal, ECO, Rain, Sport+) |
Find more about Can-Am Origin and Pulse electric motorcycles here.
Electrek’s Take
I still think the Can-Am Pulse is the easier recommendation for most people, and you can kit it out as much as the Origin. Yet after around a month with each bike, I can’t help but think more about the Pulse. Can-Am really built a fun machine with that bike, especially with its commanding riding position and rugged style.
I would love to see a version with Level 3 charging speeds and greater range to expand the road trip potential, but both machines are super if your commute or leisure route works with the specs.
For now, Can-Am has delivered more than any other electric motorcycle maker when it comes to a giant display with CarPlay integration, attention-grabbing style, and options for two different riding preferences.
Want to learn more about the world of electric motorcycles and other two-wheeled EVs? Catch up on expert Micah Toll’s constant coverage, and subscribe to Electrek’s Wheel-E podcast for weekly updates.
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