Rivian’s ALSO announces lower $3,500 price for it’s fancy new e-bike

ALSO, the electric bike spin-off from EV-maker Rivian, just dropped some welcome news: a more affordable version of the bike is coming. Officially called the TM-B, the new model will launch at $3,500, coming in a full $1,000 under the previously announced $4,500 TM-B Performance we saw last month.

While the Performance model leaned heavily into premium components and higher output, the new TM-B appears designed to bring the platform’s eye-catching design to a wider audience.

The TM-B includes much of the same design and basic feature set as the TM-B Performance, though the $1,000 lower price tag does come from the company filet-ing a few corners. The bike drops from the 10x assist of the Performance edition to just 5x assist (presumably meaning half the power, but it’s hard to say since e-bike companies generally don’t list power as a multiple of rider input). It also has a smaller battery, more basic coil spring shock instead of the nicer and lighter air shock, fewer ride modes, and doesn’t come with the same premium styling options.

The bike does retain ALSO’s interesting drive-by-wire solution though, which means that there isn’t a physical connection between the pedals and the bike. Instead, riders turn pedal cranks connected to a generator that converts pedaling energy into electrical energy to feed the rear wheel through a Gates carbon belt drive.

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Hydraulic disc brakes along with ABS-braking come standard on both models, and the cockpit includes a compact color display with app connectivity, offering basic ride metrics and configurable assist modes.

ALSO hasn’t committed to an exact delivery date, but reservations are now open.

Electrek’s Take

A $3,500 entry point is undeniably better news for fans of ALSO’s design language who weren’t ready to shell out $4,500. However, I still seem to be one of the few in the industry who are hesitant to believe there is a path to profitability here. Americans don’t buy $4,500 e-bikes, at least not in high volume, and they don’t really buy $3,500 e-bikes, either.

It’s not that the bike isn’t worth it – ALSO’s engineers should be commended for stuffing a crazy amount of tech and innovation into this bike. But it simply won’t matter when the bike doesn’t sell very many units and ALSO has to keep making payroll on its huge workforce comprised of many expensive engineers and other tech roles. It’s very close to the same playbook that we watched sink other tech-forward e-bike companies like VanMoof, which went bankrupt after it couldn’t keep up with servicing its expensive and proprietary e-bike tech while trying to float a massive workforce.

Frankly, I’m a bit confused. Most basic e-bike media seems to be going nuts over the thing, and I’m the only one pointing out that the king appears to be walking around naked.

Also, the timing here is… odd.

Good news usually gets announced on a Tuesday morning, not sent to us at 4:56 PM on a Friday, right as everyone logs off and heads into the weekend. The classic “Friday news dump” is where companies hide things they don’t want attention on – not where they brag about slicing $1,000 off the entry price of a new model. A head scratcher all around.

Either way, a lower-priced TM-B is objectively good news. The problem is, it might just be shouting into the wind.