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Less than three months after kicking off production of its flagship, solar-electric travel trailer called the Flow, electric mobility startup Pebble has begun deliveries to early customers in the US. The deliveries of these unique Pebble trailers will also include a new automated waste disposal feature called “Auto Dump,” a first for the industry.

Pebble remains a young electric recreational vehicle specialist whose latest milestone brings it closer than ever to shaking up a stale and derivative RV and travel trailer segment by using more modern and in a word, “cool” new technology.

This transition rides (no pun intended) on the success of its flagship trailer model, the Flow, which was unveiled to the public in the fall of 2023. At the time, we learned that the Flow trailer is 300% more aerodynamic than a conventional travel trailer, reducing drag and extending range.

Additionally, this solar electric travel trailer can be equipped with its own dual-motor active propulsion assist system, which helps it bear the brunt of its load while maximizing efficiency, regardless of whether an ICE or electric vehicle is towing it.

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Before there was a solid timeline for deliveries, Pebble opened pre-orders for the Flow. This past January, Pebble unveiled a production-intent design featuring welcomed upgrades in space utilization and some genuinely remarkable functions—all controllable from a single tablet.

By April 2025, production of the Flow was underway at Pebble’s 60,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Fremont, California, beginning with assemblies of an exclusive Founders Edition. Today, Pebble has hit a critical milestone in the production and sales process, kicking off Founder’s Edition Flow deliveries to its first customers.

  • Pebble deliveries

Founder’s Edition Pebble deliveries are officially underway

Following years of research and development, various upgrades, and the establishment of the necessary production tools to bring its flagship electric travel trailer to the masses, Pebble has officially begun delivering the Flow to initial customers.

The Flow’s arrival on the market, alongside similar, more sustainable recreation mobility products like Lightship, is helping ring in a new era of clean travel and tourism beyond the typical EV road trip. Pebble’s fully electric travel trailer enables its owners and guests to travel and relax off-grid for up to seven days at a time.

Unlike most traditional RVs and trailers, the Flow has its own propulsion system. It has also been integrated with advanced robotics and software-defined features to automate and ease the process of some of the most difficult and tedious parts of RVing, such as hitching to the towing vehicle. Per Pebble founder and CEO Bingrui Yang:

Delivering a Pebble Flow to our earliest customers and believers is a defining moment for our team. This product reflects years of engineering and thoughtful iteration, built on the belief that every detail, from setup to travel, should feel effortless and intuitive. This is the moment we’ve been building towards, and we can’t wait to see more and more Pebble Flow travel trailers on the road.

Deliveries of the new Pebble Flow travel trailer will also include another upgraded feature. The team calls it “Auto Dump” and hails it as “the RV industry’s first automated, one-touch waste disposal system.” It’s a well-established notion that waste dumping is the least glamorous and hygienic part of the RV experience, not to mention complicated, with multiple hoses creating a higher risk of mess.

Much like it has with several other functions of RV life, the Pebble team has reimagined waste disposal for the modern age, creating an automated “touch-less” process that consists of three steps:

  • Placing the pre-connected hose in the sewer inlet (pictured above)
  • Tap “Dump” on the Pebble App
  • Return the hose to its integrated storage compartment

It’s a simple process indeed, but Pebble shared that much more is going on behind the scenes. In addition to an expanded black water tank capacity (18 gallons), the Founder’s Edition of the Pebble Flow features a macerating toilet, a pump-powered hose instead of gravity-based drainage, and built-in safety logic to avoid any user error while dumping (there is no “wrong lever” that could lead to spillage).

Pebble trailers that soon reach customer deliveries will also be capable of a self-cleaning rinse cycle, which uses gray water recycled from its sinks and showers, reducing overall water consumption and significantly increasing overall sustainability.

Founder’s Edition deliveries of the Flow are now underway, but Pebble said it will continue to scale its production throughout 2025 without risking product quality. More Founder’s Edition reservation holders will be invited to complete their orders in Q3. That model starts at an MSRP of $175,000 and is available to reserve with a $500 refundable deposit. Some customers may also qualify for a federal tax credit of up to $12,450.

Here’s Pebble’s video showcasing the “Auto Dump” feature:

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This $900 million solar farm in Texas is going 100% to data centers

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This 0 million solar farm in Texas is going 100% to data centers

Enbridge is going big on solar again in Texas, and Meta is snapping up all the solar power it can get.

Last month, Electrek reported that the Canadian oil and gas pipeline giant just launched its first solar farm in Texas. Now it’s given the green light to Clear Fork, a 600 megawatt (MW) utility-scale solar farm already under construction near San Antonio. The project is expected to come online in summer 2027.

Once it’s up and running, every bit of Clear Fork’s electricity will go to Meta Platforms under a long-term contract. Meta will use the solar power to help run its energy-hungry data centers entirely on clean energy.

The solar farm project’s cost is around $900 million. Enbridge says it expects Clear Fork to boost the company’s cash flow and earnings starting in 2027.

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Enbridge EVP Matthew Akman said the project reflects “growing demand for renewable power across North America from blue-chip companies involved in technology and data center operations.”

Meta’s head of global energy, Urvi Parekh, added that the company is “thrilled to partner with Enbridge to bring new renewable energy to Texas and help support our operations with 100% clean energy.”

Meta’s first multi-gigawatt data center, Prometheus, is expected to come online in 2026.

Clear Fork is part of a growing trend: tech giants like Meta, Amazon, and Google are racing to lock down renewable energy contracts as they expand their fleets of AI-ready data centers, which use massive amounts of electricity.


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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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Isuzu’s first electric pickup is impressive, but it’s not cheap

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Isuzu's first electric pickup is impressive, but it's not cheap

A fully electric Japanese electric pickup truck? It’s not a Toyota or Honda, but Isuzu’s new electric pickup packs a punch. The D-MAX EV can tow over 7,770 lbs (3,500 kg), plow through nearly 24″ (600 mm) of water, and it even has a dedicated Terrain Mode for extreme off-roading. However, it comes at a cost.

Meet Isuzu’s first electric pickup: The D-MAX EV

After announcing that it had begun building left-hand drive D-MAX EV models at the end of April, Isuzu said that it would start shipping them to Europe in the third quarter.

By the end of the year, Isuzu will begin production of right-hand drive models for the UK. Sales will follow in early 2026.

Isuzu announced prices this week, boasting the D-MAX EV features the same “no compromise durability” of the current diesel version.

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The D-MAX EV pickup features a full-time 4WD system, a towing capacity of up to 3.5 tons (7,700 lbs), and an added Terrain Mode, which Isuzu says is designed for “extreme off-road capability.” With 210 mm (8.3″) of ground clearance, Isuzu’s electric pickup can wade through up to 600 mm (24″) of water.

Powered by a 66.9 kWh battery, Isuzu’s electric pickup offers a WLTP range of 163 miles. With charging speeds of up to 50 kW, the D-MAX EV can recharge from 20% to 80% in about an hour.

The electric version is nearly identical to the current diesel-powered D-Max, both inside and out, but prices will be significantly higher.

Isuzu D-Max EV specs and prices
Drive System Full-time 4×4
Battery Type Lithium-ion
Battery Capacity 66.9 kWh
WLTP driving range 163 miles
Max Output 130 kW (174 hp)
Max Torque 325 Nm
Max Speed Over 130 km/h (+80 mph)
Max Payload 1,000 kg (+2,200 lbs)
Max Towing Capacity 3.5t (+7,700 lbs)
Ground Clearance 210 mm
Wading Depth 600 mm
Starting Price (*Ex. VAT) £59,995 ($81,000)
Isuzu D-Max EV electric pickup prices and specs

Isuzu’s electric pickup will be priced from £59,995 ($81,000), not including VAT. The double cab variant starts at £60,995 ($82,500). In comparison, the diesel model starts at £36,755 ($50,000).

The EV pickup will launch in extended and double cab variants with two premium trims: the eDL40 and V-Cross. Pre-sales will begin later this year with the first UK arrivals scheduled for February 2026. Customer deliveries are set to follow in March.

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AI startups raised $104 billion in first half of year, but exits tell a different story

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AI startups raised 4 billion in first half of year, but exits tell a different story

In this photo illustration, Claude AI logo is seen on a smartphone and Anthropic logo on a pc screen. (Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

OpenAI and Anthropic continue to lead a fundraising bonanza in artificial intelligence, raising historic rounds and stratospheric valuations.

But when it comes to finding AI exits for venture firms, the market looks a lot different.

AI startups raised $104.3 billion in the U.S. in the first half of this year, nearly matching the $104.4 billion total for 2024, according to PitchBook. Almost two-thirds of all U.S. venture funding went to AI, up from 49% last year, PitchBook said.

The biggest deals follow a familiar theme. OpenAI raised a record $40 billion in March in a round led by SoftBank. Meta poured $14.3 billion into Scale AI in June as part of a way to hire away CEO Alexandr Wang and a few other top staffers. OpenAI rival Anthropic raised $3.5 billion, while Safe Superintelligence, a nascent startup started by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, raised $2 billion.

While Meta’s massive investment into Scale AI amounted to a lucrative exit of sorts for early investors, the overarching trend has been a lot more money going in than coming out.

In the first half, there were 281 VC-backed exits totaling $36 billion, according to PitchBook. That includes the roughly $700 million acquisition of EvolutionIQ, an AI platform for disability and injury claims management, by CCC Intelligent Solutions, and the public listing of Slide Insurance, which builds AI-powered insurance offerings for homeowners. Slide is valued at about $2.3 billion.

Read more CNBC reporting on AI

“The dominant exit trend right now is frequent but lower-value acquisitions and fewer IPOs with significantly higher value,” said Dimitri Zabelin, PitchBook’s senior research analyst for AI and cybersecurity.

CoreWeave’s IPO, which took place at the very end of the first quarter, was the exception on the infrastructure side. The stock shot up 340% in the second quarter, and the company is now valued at over $63 billion.

Zabelin said the pattern of more investments in applications with smaller deals has been in place for the past year.

“Vertical solutions tend to plug more easily into existing enterprise gaps,” Zabelin said.

The acquisitions wave is being driven, in part, by what Zabelin calls bolt-on deals where larger companies buy smaller startups to enhance their own future valuations, hoping to enhance their value ahead of a future sale or IPO.

“That also has to do with the current liquidity conditions in the macro environment,” Zabelin said.

Outside of AI, activity is slow. U.S. fintech funding dropped 42% in the first half of the year to $10.5 billion, according to Tracxn. Cloud software and crypto have also seen sharp pullbacks.

Zabelin said IPO activity could pick up if economic conditions improve and if interest rates come down. Investors clearly want opportunities to back promising AI companies, he said.

“The appetite for AI, specifically vertical applications, will continue to remain robust,” Zabelin said.

— CNBC’s Kevin Schmidt contributed to this report.

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