Connect with us

Published

6 hours ago

on

Electric motorcycles may be the future, but most major Western companies still haven’t figured out how to make money from them. Not true for Barcelona-based Stark Future though, one of the only electric motorcycle makers outside of China to have reached profitability.

The company burst onto the scene in late 2021, unveiling an electric dirt bike that crushed combustion engine alternatives.

Claimed to be the fastest-growing company in Spain, Stark quickly made a name for itself with commencement of commercial sales of its Stark VARG MX. And with its success, Stark is doing something almost no other privately owned electric motorcycle company has done: it’s pulling back the veil and opening its books to show how it’s done something unique in the industry by reaching profitability.

According to the company, Stark just achieved a major milestone by recording its highest-ever monthly revenue of €18.3 million in April 2025 while delivering a positive EBITDA of €2.8 million. The news follows Stark first announcing the beginning of profitability in the middle of 2024.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

“This achievement comes barely two years after Stark Future’s first commercial sales, remarkably faster than incumbent EV leaders, and more resembling the growth rates of some of the world’s most successful technology firms in history,” explained Anton Wass, CEO of Stark Future. “We have been steadily approaching this profitability event, driven by the popularity of the off-road VARG MX, but the phenomenal reception of the newly available Stark VARG EX, the company’s groundbreaking street-legal Enduro model, has brought this landmark occasion.”

Priced at US $12,990, the street-legal Stark VARG EX has helped boost the company over the line to profitability, all the while offering performance that blows away pricier street-legal e-dirtbikes like those once offered by Cake.

And perhaps the Cake comparison is an apt one; another European electric motorcycle maker that unfortunately couldn’t find Stark’s path to profitability. The company’s pricy electric motorbikes designed for street and dirt failed to support Cake’s cash burn rate, leading to the company’s bankruptcy. Italian electric sportbike maker Energica met a similar fate last year. Other major electric motorcycle makers in the US, such as Zero and LiveWire, are treading water thanks to significant financial backing from their investors or parent companies, but neither appears close to profitability.

That makes Stark Future’s milestone even more impressive, coming at a time when the rest of the electric motorcycle industry finds itself bogged down in a steep uphill climb.

The motorcycle industry often lags behind the automotive industry, though in this case, comparisons to electric vehicle makers show breaking out to an early lead. For example, Tesla took over a decade to reach sustained profitability, and that was supported largely by the sale of regulatory credits to other automakers. Chinese electric giant NIO, on the other hand, uses a similar product-driven revenue model to Stark but still took eight years to reach profitability.

“Through deep technical vertical integration and focus on sourcing, we managed to develop game-changing technology at competitive costs, all while still manufacturing in Europe,” Wass continued. “This result validates our disciplined approach and marks an important step toward consistent profitability.”

According to the company, Stark is now looking beyond merely off-road and street-legal enduro-style electric motorcycles, with some speculating that the company could be setting its sights on the more elusive categories of street bikes and sport bikes.

“We will continue to innovate at the component level and in the greater model range so electric motorcycles in all categories can outperform traditional machines in every way,” said Paul Soucy, Stark Future CTO.

With a growing network of dealers at over 400 retail locations around the world, including expansions into over 50 countries, and recent developments for security and military applications, Stark certainly looks set to capitalize on its growth and apply its unique recipe for success to a growing lineup of electric motorcycles.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Environment

Lectric restocks e-bikes with up to $654 in free gear from $999, Anker 521 station $170, Greenworks battery discounts, Rachio, more

Published

20 mins ago

on

May 14, 2025

By

Lectric restocks e-bikes with up to 4 in free gear from 9, Anker 521 station 0, Greenworks battery discounts, Rachio, more

For today’s Green Deals, we’re starting with Lectric’s ongoing Mother’s Day Sale e-bike deals after the brand has restocked several models that sold out over the last few weeks, including the XPress 750 Commuter e-bikes that are coming along with $336 in free gear at $1,299. Next, we spotted the tried-and-true Anker 521 Portable Power Station dropping down to $170, which has been upgraded with LiFePO4 cells. There’s also a selection of Greenworks 40V and 80V batteries seeing up to 32% discounts, led by the G-MAX 40V 5.0Ah Battery that has dropped to its $126 low. Lastly, we have Rachio’s 3rd Gen 8-Zone Smart Sprinkler Controller falling to $170. Plus, all the other hangover Green Deals are in the links at the bottom of the page, like yesterday’s new DELTA 2 Max solar generator bundle low, and more.

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.

Lectric’s XPress 750 Commuter e-bikes are back in stock and coming with $336 in free gear at $1,299

Lectric has some ongoing bundle deals that are left over from the brand’s short-term Mother’s Day Sale, which are also running alongside the ongoing preorder bundles for its new XP4 and XP4 750 e-bikes that launched last week. Among the offers, one notable option is Lectric’s XPress 750 e-bikes for $1,299 shipped, which are now back in stock and coming with $336 in free gear – plus, it’s one of the few models getting the option for $200 off a spare long-range battery to double the mileage (found with the bundled items on the landing page). This bundle would normally cost you $1,635 in full, but the brand is known for its discounts, primarily being on the add-on packages rather than the bikes themselves. Along with your purchase, you’ll be scoring a steel-encased rear cargo rack, fenders to go over both tires, an Elite headlight upgrade, and a suspension seat post. Head below for more on this and the other models seeing savings.

Coming in both Step-Thru and Step-Over frames, the Lectric XPress 750 e-bikes are one of my favorite commuter models that I’ve had the experience riding, with more and more of them popping up across NYC since their release last year. The stock bike with the 14Ah battery weighs in at just under 60 pounds (so a little more with the added-on accessories), equipped with a 750W rear hub motor (1,310 peak) and providing up to 60 miles of travel while its five PAS levels are active, which are supported by a torque sensor for more effortless pick-up and hill climbing. In terms of speed, it all depends on your local laws, with the motor producing either 20 MPH or 28 MPH top speeds, and of course, there are throttles for pure electric cruises, but this will lessen its travel range.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

As with the case of most of the Lectric’s EVs, there’s a solid array of other features on the XPress 750 e-bikes for its $1,299 price tag, like the puncture-resistant tires, hydraulic mineral oil brakes, front suspension fork, a 7-geared freewheel paired with a Shimano derailleur, removable pedals, a thru-axle wheel attachment system for tool-free installations, kickstand, a hidden cable routing system, an integrated headlight and taillight, and a full-color LCD display with a USB-A port to charge your personal devices, especially if you use them as a GPS while riding.

Lectric’s XP4 e-bike preorders with up to $356 bundles (shipping June 2):

Lectric’s XP 3.0 Long-Range e-bike clearance offers (price cuts only):

XPedition 2.0 offers with up to $654 bundles:

XP Electric Trike with $420 bundle

XPeak 2.0 offers with up to $316 bundles:

XP Lite 2.0 Long-Range e-bike offers with up to $316 bundles:

ONE LR e-bike with $220 bundle

Anker 521 portable power station

Get compact personal backup power with Anker’s 521 portable LiFePO4 station at $170

Through its official Amazon storefront, Anker has dropped the price on its 521 Portable Power Station to $169.99 shipped. This unit normally carries a $200 price tag at full here, with the brand’s direct website pricing it higher with a $250 MSRP. Discounts on this model regularly bring the cost down to $170 or its $160 low, with many Lightning deals staggered between longer-lasting price cuts. Anker’s direct website is currently having a flash sale on it for $180, which is beaten out here at Amazon by $10 for a solid $30 off the going rate ($80 off its MSRP) at the second-best price we have tracked.

While this isn’t one of the latest models from the brand, the Anker 521 power station has been upgraded with LiFePO4 battery cells. It comes as a more compact personal backup power solution that provides a 256Wh capacity to keep your devices juiced up while out travelling or as an emergency means during blackouts. It comes surge protected, delivering up to 600W of output power through its six port options – two ACs, two USB-As, one USB-C, and one car port. There are multiple ways to recharge its battery: via a wall outlet, the USB-C port, with a 65W solar panel, or with your car’s auxiliary port.

greenworks G-MAX 40V 5.0Ah battery

Save up to 32% on Greenworks 40V and 80V batteries like the G-MAX 5.0Ah model down at its $126 low

Amazon is offering discounts across some Greenworks batteries, so you can stock up your arsenal for guaranteed power when you need it. Among the models we’re seeing, the most notable is the brand’s G-MAX 40V 5.0Ah Battery for $125.99 shipped, with the price also matching direct from Greenworks’ website. This upgraded model normally fetches $180 at full price, with two previous discounts in 2025 taking things lower than ever to this same rate. You’re getting another shot at the lowest price we have tracked on this model, helping you stock up while saving you $54 off the going rate.

Greenworks is one of the best beginner-friendly electric lawn care solutions to replace gas-guzzlers, especially considering that its batteries work across multiple tools and even EVs. For those with an arsenal of 40V tools and devices, this battery is the second-largest for that particular ecosystem, only beaten in capacity by its 8.0Ah counterpart. It comes designed with multiple protections against overheating, short circuiting, over voltage, over current, over discharging, over charging, and more – plus, there’s even an LED indicator that gives you at-a-glance battery levels.

Other Greenworks batteries seeing discounts:

Earlier, we saw Greenworks’ latest Pro-tier 2,300 PSI Electric Pressure Washer dropping back to its $280 low, with many other lawn care solutions rounded together in the same post.

rachio 8-zone smart sprinkler controller

Streamline your sprinklers while cutting water costs with Rachio’s 3rd-gen 8-zone smart controller at $170

Amazon is helping folks streamline their sprinkler setups with the Rachio 3rd Gen 8-Zone Smart Sprinkler Controller getting taken down to $169.99 shipped right now. While the device is listed with a $230 price tag, we’ve been seeing it post up at $200 when at full price these days, with discounts having been more sparse since March. While we have seen it go as low as $146 in the past, this is still a solid $30 markdown that lets you upgrade your sprinklers and irrigation system with “30-minute or less DIY installation.” You can also bundle this device with a weatherproof enclosure for $202, down from $270.

Everyone has different needs when it comes to their yards, and for those with more sizable gardens and lawns, you’ll be able to better streamline controls over watering by installing this popular Rachio device, shrinking water costs in the process too. After the “30-minute or less DIY installation,” which requires no special tools, you’ll gain this device’s weather recognition tech that comes programmed to automatically skip watering during or after inclement weather has moved in, with functions like rain skip, wind skip, freeze skip, and more. What’s great here, is that once installed, you won’t have to worry about extra charges or app subscriptions, with it giving you all the controls to manage things through its companion app on your phone.

Best Spring EV deals!

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.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Environment

Tesla’s Robyn Denholm made 5x more than next best-paid chair, a role Musk said was usefuless

Published

3 hours ago

on

May 14, 2025

By

Tesla's Robyn Denholm made 5x more than next best-paid chair, a role Musk said was usefuless

Robyn Denholm, Tesla’s chairwoman, made five times more money than the next best-paid board chair, a role Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk said was useless.

In 2018, Musk settled with the SEC for falsely claiming he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 a share, he was forced to resign as chair of Tesla’s board.

Musk basically handpicked Robyn Denholm to become the new chair, which he then called a useless “honorific” titled:

“Chairman’ is an honorific, not executive role, which means it’s not needed to run Tesla. Will retire that title at Tesla in 3 years.”

Denholm made a lot of money in this useless honorific role.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

She has made over $530 million, almost entirely through stock option compensation, since becoming Tesla’s chairperson.

Most of her stock sales happened over the last year:

The New York Times released a new report looking into Denholm’s compensation and found that she was paid about 5 times more than the next best-paid nonexecutive chair.

Tesla paid its chair about 5 times more than UnitedHealth’s:

The nonexecutive chair with the next-highest profit from selling shares in the company he oversees was Stephen Hemsley of UnitedHealth Group. Mr. Hemsley has earned more than $100 million from the sale of UnitedHealth shares since November 2018, though he received all of that stock while he was chief executive of the health care company.

To Musk’s point about the role being honorific, it’s not clear what Denholm accomplished during her time as chair.

She and the rest of Tesla’s board oversee Tesla’s executive management, led by Musk, but Musk has been allowed to do whatever he wants for years.

They have backed his every move, granted him a $55 billion CEO compensation package, and remained silent when he threatened Tesla shareholders that he would not develop AI products at Tesla unless given a larger, more controlling share of the company, or decided to fire Tesla’s entire charging team to make an example out of the head of the team.

Most recently, they have not addressed the protests at Tesla stores and product boycotts, which are attributed to Musk’s involvement in politics, angering a significant portion of the population and Tesla’s consumer base.

Only recently was there a report suggesting the board floated the idea of replacing Musk to gain leverage in forcing him to spend more time at Tesla. Even then, the board quickly denied the report, which only claimed that they were doing their jobs in planning the CEO succession.

Electrek’s Take

Based on Musk’s comment, Denholm was paid half a billion dollars to do nothing. That’s literally all that was required of her after replacing Musk as chair of the board: nothing.

Musk is in charge. She is just an “honorific” figurehead that is required to back his every move.

Just as Tesla’s then-third-largest individual shareholder, after Musk, Leo KoGuan, told Electrek last year, when he couldn’t get his concerns about Musk heard by the board, Tesla is “a family business masquerading as a public company.”

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Environment

UrbanLink nearly doubles order of REGENT electric seagliders to transport over 4M passengers a year

Published

4 hours ago

on

May 14, 2025

By

UrbanLink nearly doubles order of REGENT electric seagliders to transport over 4M passengers a year

UrbanLink

Less than a year after announcing an order for 27 electric seaglider planes from REGENT Craft, advanced air mobility (AAM) specialist UrbanLink has nearly doubled that order size to support plans for high-frequency commercial flights around the southeastern United States.

While advanced air mobility may be a nascent industry, companies around the globe are continuously gearing up to establish commercial networks that support air taxi travel and other sustainable commercial operations. In the US, particularly Southern Florida, UrbanLink has been making tons of moves to establish itself as a major player in that space when it happens.

UrbanLink has already been working for years to enable zero-emission, end-to-end travel within a 500-mile range by 2028 before expanding that range to 1,000 miles by 2030, beginning with its hub cities of Miami, Los Angeles, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The company believes its actions have adequately positioned it to become the first airline in the US to integrate electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft into its fleet. Fellow eVTOL network Archer Aviation is also in the race, so it’s exciting times for commercial air taxi development.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

UrbanLink has committed to purchasing from several eVTOL and electric plane developers, including Artemis Sea Crafts, Eviation Aircraft, and Lilium, as we reported back in June 2024. Last fall, the AAM operator announced it was adding more vessels to its growing fleet in South Florida, committing to purchase 27 electric seagliders from REGENT Craft.

Today, UrbanLink and REGENT announced an expansion of their existing partnership in which the former has upped its purchase order to 47 electric seagliders.

UrbanLink
Source: UrbanLink

REGENT Craft and UrbanLink shared details of the expanded partnership this morning, in hopes of establishing Florida as the bona fide leader in sustainable coastal aerial mobility.

Per the company, the nearly doubling of the existing order for REGENT’s Viceroy electric seagliders will support a more rapid rollout of UrbanLink’s aerial operations between the southern Florida and Puerto Rico regions. REGENT co-founder and CEO Billy Thalheimer spoke about the expanded seaglider order:

UrbanLink’s expanded order is a clear vote of confidence in REGENT’s seaglider technology and is testament to our continued timely execution certification and product development milestones. Together, we’re building a more convenient and connected future for coastal communities.

As the map above shows, electric sea glider travel can cut the travel time from Miami to West Palm Beach by nearly 75%. This single route represents a growing demand for convenient and more sustainable alternatives for short-haul travel in the US, and UrbanLink hopes to provide that to Florida visitors and beyond.

For example, the company shared that it anticipates that its seaglider operations in Miami alone could provide more sustainable travel options to up to 4.3 million passengers per year when commercial operations begin. UrbanLink founder and chairman Ed Wegel also spoke:

We’re proud to expand our partnership with REGENT and bring this revolutionary technology to more passengers traveling high-demand routes across Florida and Puerto Rico. This partnership propels Florida to the forefront of global innovation in advanced, all-electric mobility.

REGENT’s full-scale Viceroy electric seaglider prototype is currently in the process of successful sea trials en route to certification from the US Coast Guard. These 12-passenger vessels can reach up to 180 mph and travel up to 180 miles on a single charge.

First deliveries of the Viceroy seagliders to UrbanLink are expected to begin sometime in 2027.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Trending