Meepo Flow: gorgeous all-purpose cruising e-skateboard for summer fun
At 51 years old, I’m trying not to ruin myself at skate parks anymore, but I still enjoy riding a long skateboard on short trips or just out and about on a sunny day. Last month, I got to try out the reasonably-priced Meepo Flow ($699), a lovely wood-grained, electric longboard with a kicktail. But its standout feature is more about what it isn’t. Let me explain.
Like I said, my park days were over a long time ago but I still love the feeling of skateboarding down the street and even as a transportation method in city centers. About 5 years ago, I got a Boosted Mini X – That’s before the company went bankrupt. I still take it into NYC, to big trade shows, airports, and ride it along bike paths with my friends.
But the Boosted has its issues. For one, because the company went out of business, the app that controls it is not longer available. So it kind of lives in the app’s last available state (had to upgrade the phone with the app a few years ago). I realize I can find an Android APK and sideload it but that’s not how I roll these days. There was also a Ride app that worked for awhile that had some of the features but that’s also gone from the app store. But the Boosted Mini was never a perfect board for me, I’d often fall off because my stance wasn’t wide enough to handle the acceleration. Even worse, after a home renovation project that went awry, I can’t find the controller.
New Meepo Flow
When getting a new board, I also wanted to get some features that the Boosted board and some other long boards didn’t have. Namely, a kick tail. Like I said, I’m not heading to a park any time soon, but it is nice to be able to turn around in a small radius with a kick tail. The added weight of the 362Wh battery (21lbs overall) makes lifting the board something that must be done with intention. Keep in mind, the motor guards on the back will sometimes scrape a little bit on kick turns.
Also I wanted a little more style than the all black Boosted Board provided, and the bamboo/ 2 tone Meepo Flow certainly fills that checkbox.
Finally, instead of a parkboard length, I wanted something a little bit longer, which on electric skateboards in particular, is really important. Acceleration and deceleration are a lot easier to handle with a wider stance offered on longer boards. The Boosted Mini earned the nickname “ankle breaker” for this reason. But I’m still looking for some portability, and the Flow’s “goldilocks” size is the perfect mix of long enough to have a stable stance but short enough to remain portable.
Out of the box and onto the street
Meepo’s Flow was probably one of the best out-of-the-box experiences I’ve had in a while. The board was sufficiently charged as was the controller. the only other thing in the box is the controller and some tools to adjust the board and replace the belts.
Simplicity is key
There is no app. There is no connections to set up. You simply turn the controller and skateboard on and you are ready to go. You can be skateboarding within a minute of being handed the box.
I will say that out of the box, the trucks are very tight which is good for avoiding speed wobbles but not great for carving. I’m more of a slow carver so I loosened them quite a bit.
Also, these are big 105mm x 65mm wheels, and as someone used to riding a little lower on a board, this took some getting used to. The flipside is that the huge wheels take road cracks, stones and potholes like a champ. They also have enough grip not to spin out even at the 4 setting.
Have I raved enough about how much I love the simplicity of this thing?
There are basically 4 speeds.
- The controller defaults to 1 which has a very smooth uptake and slowdown. I recommend this is where people start.
- The 2 speed is where I live mostly, especially in crowded areas. Acceleration and deceleration are more significant here but nothing that will throw you off the board. Top speed approaches 15-20mph which is fine by me.
- The 3 speed is as crazy as I want to get and here I’m stable enough to stay on the board but it takes effort when speeding up and slowing down to stay on the board. I don’t feel safe at this top speed though I have hit it.
- 4 basically throws me off the board. I’ve tried being super careful and easing the speed up but I still get thrown off the board. Do not recommend unless you are a speed freak.
That’s where my 13-year-old son comes in. In the winter, he’s a competitive snowboarder. In the summer, he’s in the skate parks. He instantly fell in love with this thing, especially its ability to fly UP hills and slow down on hills. On roads he’s a speed freak, routinely pushing its 32-mph top speed which I don’t like at all from a safety standpoint. Perhaps a way to lock it at speeds 2-3 would be a nice addition for parents.
Shortcomings
If I was to change one thing about the Meepo Flow, I would probably make the main battery charger interface 100+W USB-C instead of the proprietary ST3-ish charger connector. The ST3 means that it will be hard/expensive to find extra/replacement chargers and charging while on the road. Meanwhile, the option of USB-C would allow for universal charging and even the use of external batteries to improve usage time. Heck, I could even charge my phone or the Meepo controller from my Flow e-skateboard!
Dear Micromobility industry, let’s get USB-C on all the things done!
I’m also concerned about the external nature of the belts but to be fair I’ve not yet had a problem with the belts staying firm. I’ve seen some folks in forums saying that this thing burns through belts, which can be replaced cheaply on Amazon beyond the 2 extra provided in the packaging) but maybe I’m just not going as hard as others. It might help the belts last longer if they were enclosed in casing however.
Electrek’s take
I just love the simplicity and price of this board and if it wasn’t for my son falling in love with it too, it would be my daily driver. As it stands, he wants it all the time and I’m juggling the idea of trying to resurrect my Boosted Board, getting an also interesting Meepo off road board or just getting a second Meepo Flow at $699 or perhaps a Refurbished one at $559.
MEEPO FLOW Specs:
- Range: 24miles / 38km
- Top Speed: 32mph / 52 kph
- Deck: 2 ply fiberglass + 2 ply bamboo+5 ply Canadian maple
- Dimensions: 880mmx241mm/34.6″ x 9.5″
- Hill Climbing: 26%
- Battery: 50.4 V – 12S2P Molicel P42A – 362Wh / 8.4AH
- Remote: N5S
- Motor Power: 2519 Watts x 2 brushless sensored motors HB4240 155KV Motor
- Trucks: DKP
- Charging Time: 50.4V4.5A Charger: 2h
- Max Load: 330lbs / 150kg
- Wheels: 105mm x 65mm wheels
- Weight: 21.4 lbs/ 9.7 kg
- Bushing: 100A
- Waterproof: IPX5
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks to members of the media as he arrives at a lodge for the Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference on July 8, 2025 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Oracle‘s historic stock surge this week marked the latest chapter in the story of a single private company that’s dominated the tech landscape for almost three years: OpenAI.
In Oracle’s blowout earnings report, OpenAI was a key catalyst due to a massive amount of money the artificial intelligence startup expects to spend on cloud computing technology in the coming years.
It’s becoming a familiar theme.
A week earlier, Broadcom shares popped almost 10% after the chipmaker and software vendor said it forged a $10 billion deal to build custom processors for a customer that analysts said was OpenAI.
Among tech’s megacaps, Microsoft has the closest link to OpenAI, having invested more than $13 billion in the company and serving as its key cloud partner for six years. Nvidia’s march to becoming the world’s most valuable company is intimately tied to OpenAI, as its graphics processing units (GPUs) sit at the heart of large language model development and are essential for running big AI workloads.
Those four companies alone — Oracle, Broadcom, Microsoft and Nvidia — have seen their combined market caps swell by over $4.5 trillion since OpenAI burst into public view with the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. And those gains are a big reason why the Nasdaq and S&P 500 have sustained sharp rallies, with both benchmarks closing at a record on Friday.
OpenAI’s outsized influence has some market experts understandably concerned. It remains a cash-burning startup that’s governed by a nonprofit parent.
The company’s $500 billion valuation is supported by a small number of investors betting that OpenAI will prevail in the face of hefty competition from the likes of Meta and Google as well as other highly-valued newcomers like Anthropic and any number of players out of China.
“While we love ChatGPT, OpenAI is still a not for profit limited in its ability to raise capital,” said Gil Luria, an analyst at D.A. Davidson, in an interview with CNBC.
Luria, who recommends holding Oracle shares, dug into the company’s numbers as the stock was in the midst of a 36% jump on Wednesday, its biggest gain since 1992.
In its quarterly earnings report late Tuesday, Oracle said it signed four multibillion-dollar contracts with three different customers during the period. One of those was with OpenAI, which said previously that it agreed to develop 4.5 gigawatts of U.S. data center capacity with Oracle.
Investors knew, based on a filing with the SEC in June, that Oracle signed a $30 billion cloud contract with an unnamed company that’s set to begin in two years. CNBC confirmed a Wall Street Journal report from Wednesday that OpenAI has agreed to spend $300 billion in computing power over about five years, starting in 2027.
In the two trading days after its historic pop, Oracle’s stock retreated, dropping more than 6% on Thursday and another 5% on Friday, as other investors began sharing Luria’s concerns.
The new revelations about OpenAI’s massive cloud commitment provided a clearer sense of Oracle’s expanding backlog. Oracle said its performance obligations, a measure of contracted revenue that has not yet been recognized, surged 359% from a year earlier to to $455 billion.
Luria said the concentration of Oracle’s backlog with a single customer “significantly reduces” enthusiasm, particularly if “more than 90% came from OpenAI.”
Oracle didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Altman’s open wallet
OpenAI has made big commitments to several other cloud providers, including CoreWeave and Google, and reportedly plans to put $19 billion toward Stargate, a project President Donald Trump announced in January to bolster AI infrastructure investments in the U.S. Stargate is a joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, which is separately leading a planned $40 billion investment in OpenAI.
Luria said the takeaway is that “Sam Altman has the gumption to sign very large checks without needing to worry about whether those can ever be cashed.”
OpenAI declined to comment.
While OpenAI will be losing money for the foreseeable future, the company is expecting revenue growth to continue at a breakneck pace. After hitting $10 billion in annual recurring revenue in June, OpenAI is on pace for that number to reach $125 billion by 2029, CNBC confirmed.
And on Thursday, OpenAI got a step closer to formalizing its transition to a for-profit entity. The company said its nonprofit parent will continue to have oversight over the business and will own an equity stake of more than $100 billion as the commercial entity becomes a public benefit corporation.
OpenAI needs the restructuring to take place by year-end in order to secure the entirety of the $40 billion from its latest financing round.
For Oracle, the massive increase in OpenAI spending has landed the company within shouting distance of the trillion-dollar club, which currently includes eight tech peers. Oracle’s market cap climbed to about $930 billion on Wednesday before retreating to $830 billion to close the week.
Byron Deeter, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, told CNBC’s “Money Movers” that he’s still skeptical of Oracle’s prospects in AI. The company has spent years trying to play catchup in cloud infrastructure, where it trails Amazon, Microsoft and Google.
Deeter said Oracle remains a “B-level hyperscaler” without meaningful positions in AI software or chips.
“Two days ago, we all thought Oracle was essentially nowhere in AI,” Deeter said, following the earnings report. “They announce this mega-deal, people think they’re the next great hyperscaler – and I don’t buy that part.”
Fortescue is marching towards zero emissions as it invests in new, zero-emission mining equipment options across its global operations. And that investment? It’s already paying off. One analyst says the company’s saving almost $400 million in fuel costs alone. Each year.
From massive, Liebherr-built electric haul trucks and excavators to more than $400 million in Chinese equipment from XCMG, Fortescue is putting its money where its mouth is and making real efforts to decarbonize its global mining operations.
“We’re moving rapidly to decarbonize our Pilbara iron ore operations and eliminate our Scope 1 and 2 terrestrial emissions by 2030. To achieve this target, we will need to swap out hundreds of pieces of diesel mining equipment at the end of their life with zero emissions alternatives,” said Fortescue Metals Chief Executive Officer, Dino Otranto, when the XCMG order was announced. “As the global mining industry continues to evolve, we’re proud to be at the forefront of driving innovation in value adding green technology and showing the world that industry can decarbonize.”
Those efforts aren’t just cutting back on air pollution. Electric equipment assets are helping to keep the company’s workers safe and healthy, too. What’s more, they’re saving the company money – they’re already seeing $300-400 million in fuel savings annually.
Liebherr T264 electric haul truck
The Liebherr T264 electric haul trucks now working for Fortescue defy common sense notions of size, scale, and power. Each truck tips the scales at 176 tonnes (194 tons) and can haul more than 240 tonnes (265 tons) of payload thanks to powerful electric motors and a big-as-a-house-sized 3.2 MWh battery that can be recharged in a little over 30 minutes by Liebherr’s proprietary 6 MW DC fast charger.
If you could keep the car from exploding, that 6 MW (that’s 6,000 kW to you and me) charger could zap a Tesla Model Y Long Range’s 75 kWh battery in some thirty (30) seconds.
“Fortescue has ordered 360 of (T264 battery electric haul trucks) as part of a $4 billion deal with Liebherr to electrify operations at its enormous iron ore mines,” says Gavin Mooney, general manager at Australian energy software platform, Kaluza. “Fuel and energy costs are Fortescue’s biggest operating costs as well as largest source of emissions. By electrifying operations like this it will be able to kill two birds with one stone.”
Battery electric vehicles have moved millions of tons of material at Fortescue mines over the last two years alone, and continue to keep the minerals moving with minimal less impact to the environment.
Electrek’s Take
With billions of dollars on the line and pressure to reduce carbon emissions coming from all sides, it should come as no surprise that the race is on to bring practical, electric, and autonomous heavy mining equipment to market. At CES 2024, electric equipment from Hyundai, Bobcat, Volvo CE, and Caterpillar garnered lots of attention with their innovative concepts, and analysts like IDTechEx estimate that a single 150-ton haul truck can use over $850,000 worth of fuel in a single year.
Meanwhile, big electric haul trucks like this 240 ton unit from Caterpillar can, in certain use cases with high amounts of regenerative braking, operate without any significant cost to recharge. At that point, the reduced maintenance and downtime of BEVs compared to diesel vehicles becomes icing on the TCO cake.
We spoke to Fortescue Zero executives a few months ago on a special interview episode of Quick Charge. Check it out (above) then let us know what you think of Fortescue’s fuel savings in the comments.
Sources links throughout; featured image by Fortescue Zero.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
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This world’s first fully electric deconstruction site is being hailed as a landmark in sustainable urban development — and it’s powered by Siemens technology and Volvo Group’s battery-electric trucks and heavy equipment.
The deconstruction project (that’s kind of like a really careful demolition) marks the first full-scale electric deconstruction of its kind, and serves as important proof that with the right partners and the will to do it, urban construction projects like this can be carried out sustainably, today – and all without fossil fuels. It’s all part of Siemens’ €500 million technology campus redevelopment, the deconstruction site in Erlangen, Germany, and marks a pivotal step in advancing sustainable urban transformation and circular construction practices.
In collaboration with the demolition specialists at Metzner Recycling, Volvo CE deployed a fully electric fleet of equipment assets specially chosen to deliver quiet, precision demolition across the 25,000 cubic meter job site.
As well as deconstruction tasks, the electric machines helped sort and process approximately 12,800 tons of construction waste, with 96% recycled into raw materials for future use – supporting the shift towards circular materials management.
VOLVO CE
“At Siemens Real Estate, we are committed to pushing the boundaries of sustainable construction and demolition,” explains Christian Franz, Head of Sustainability at Siemens Real Estate. “This groundbreaking electric deconstruction project boasts an impressive 96% recycling rate and is a testament to our commitment to achieving excellence in sustainability … this project illustrates how partnerships and determination can create a lasting impact and help shape a more sustainable real estate industry.”
In addition the construction equipment was hauled into the site by Volvo Truck’s battery electric semi trucks, enabling emission-free operations from demolition, to crushing, materials processing, and transport.
Electrek’s Take
With a full line of electric wheel loaders, excavators, articulated haul trucks – even drum rollers and off-grid charging solutions to haul around with their electric semi trucks – Volvo is in a great position to take advantage of increasingly restrictive noise and emission regulations across Europe.
It’s too bad they’re suing California to be able to pollute more.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo CE.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
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