This slightly shady $500 kit turns your e-bike into an electric snowmobile
It’s a situation we’ve probably all experienced before: you’re riding your e-bike and thinking to yourself, “This is nice, but you know what could make this bike even better? Tank tracks!”
Well now there’s an easy way to do it in the form of a conversion kit that takes an e-bike and turns it into something of a snowmobile with the inclusion of a snow track kit.
I’m not saying this is a good idea. In fact, it’s probably a terrible idea for several reasons that we’re going to cover. But none of them make this any less awesome or weird, which means it’s a prime candidate for a spot in this week’s Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column.
I do have to let you know going into this that the product page is very light on details, so I’ve had to suss out some specs here.
I do know that the kit includes a 1,000W motor designed to run on 48V, though they also describe it as 2,000W in some areas. So your mileage may vary… literally.
The kit itself seems to include the rear assembly that consists of a snow track wrapped around a motor and two idler pulleys, all mounted inside a frame that replaces the bike’s rear wheel.
A ski attachment is also included so that riders can replace their front wheel and go full snowmobile.
There doesn’t appear to be a battery included in the kit, though it does look like a controller comes mounted on the rear assembly. That leads me to believe that it’s up to you to supply your own battery, and I’m guessing that trying to jury rig the wires from your RadRover battery into this setup is going to void your Rad warranty.
I guess you could also start with a non-electric bike and just find your own 48V battery, which is likely more advisable, though none of this is what I would classify as advisable.
Then there’s the issue of control. It seems like the whole bike chain thing becomes obsolete in the new setup, meaning your pedals are now freewheeling footrests. For power, I guess you run your throttle back to the new controller, though that’s another reason just to start this build from scratch. And brakes seem to be something of an afterthought. There’s a hydraulic disc brake on the rear motor, but it seems like it’s just going to lock up the track instantly, and you’ll eventually skid to a stop when physics decides your momentum is no longer worth sustaining. It’s kind of like anti-lock brakes except that it’s the opposite: only-lock brakes.
But hey, you can’t beat that orange color! If you’re going to head too far out in the snowy wilderness on a contraption that is likely to get you stranded, you might as well have the decent manners to make it easy for search and rescue to find you. That’s just how I was raised.
I think it’s fair to say that there are some concerns with this kit, most of which come from the design. But one final surprising concern of mine is the price – not that it’s too high, but rather too low. For just $520, this Bad Idea On Ice can be yours!
I feel like any self-respecting DIY electric snowmobile should cost significantly more than this. In fact, we usually see them for 4x-5x this price.
A lobster dinner for $50 sounds like a deal. A lobster dinner for $15 sounds like food poisoning. That’s kind of where I’m sitting with this DIY snowmobile kit.
But hey, I’ll try anything once!
Disclaimer: just in case anyone is still unsure or happens to be new here (welcome!), this part of a tongue-in-cheek weekly column that explores wild, weird, awesome, and sometimes outlandish EVs found on China’s largest shopping site Alibaba. Most of these would be a bad idea to actually try, and all would be a bad idea to actually order. Please don’t risk your money on this stuff – let’s just enjoy looking at it from a safe distance.
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National Grid Renewables has broken ground on its 100 MW Apple River Solar Project in Polk County, Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin solar farm, which will use US-made First Solar Series 6 Plus bifacial modules, will be constructed by The Boldt Company, creating 150 construction and service jobs. Apple River Solar will generate over $36 million in direct economic benefits over its first 20 years.
Once it comes online in late 2025, Apple River Solar will supply clean energy to Xcel Energy, which serves customers throughout the Upper Midwest. According to National Grid Renewables, the solar farm will generate enough energy to power around 26,000 homes annually. It will also offset about 129,900 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year – equivalent to taking 30,900 cars off the road.
“We are excited to see this project begin as it underscores our dedication to delivering clean, reliable and affordable energy to our customers,” said Karl Hoesly, President, Xcel Energy-Wisconsin and Michigan. “This project is an important step in those goals while bringing significant economic benefits to Polk County and the local townships.”
Electrek reported in February that Xcel Energy, Minnesota’s largest utility, expects to cut more than 80% – and possibly up to 88% – of its emissions by 2030, putting it on track to hit Minnesota’s goal of net zero by 2040. It also says it’s on track to achieve its clean energy goals for all the Upper Midwest states it serves – Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Michigan.
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Tesla has announced that it will finally deliver 500 kW charging as it is about to install its long-awaited V4 Supercharger cabinets.
The rollout of Supercharger V4 has been a strange one, to say the least.
Tesla has been deploying the new charging stations for two years and calling them “Supercharger V4”, but it has only been deploying the charging stalls.
Supercharger stations are made of two main parts: the stalls, which are where the charging cable is located, and the cabinets, which are generally located further back and include all the power electronics.
For all these new “Supercharger V4”, Tesla was actually using Supercharger V3 cabinets. This has been limiting the power output of the charging stations to 250 kW – although
Today, Tesla officially announced its “V4 Cabinet”, which the automaker claims will enable of “delivering up to 500kW for cars and 1.2MW for Semi.”
Here are the main features of the V4 Cabinet as per Tesla:
- Faster charging: Supports 400V-1000V vehicle architectures, including 30% faster charging for Cybertruck. S3XY vehicles enjoy 250kW charge rates they already experience on V3 Cabinet — charging up to 200 miles in 15 minutes.
- Faster deployments: V4 Cabinet powers 8 posts, 2X the stalls per cabinet. Lower footprint and complexity = more sites coming online faster.
- Next-generation hardware: Cutting-edge power electronics designed to be the most reliable on the planet, with 3X power density enabling higher throughput with lower costs.
Tesla reports that its first sites with the new V4 Cabinets are going into permitting now. The company expects its first sites to open next year.
We recently reported about Tesla’s new Oasis Supercharger project, which includes larger solar arrays and battery packs to operate the charging station mostly off-grid.
Early in the deployment of the Supercharger network, Tesla promised to add solar arrays and batteries to all Supercharger stations, and Musk even said that most stations would be able to operate off-grid.
While Tesla did add solar and batteries to a few stations, the vast majority of them don’t have their own power system or have only minimal solar canopies.
Back in 2016, I asked Musk about this, and he said that it would now happen as Tesla had the “pieces now in place” with Supercharger V3, Powerpack V2, and SolarCity:
It took about 8 years, but it sounds like the pieces are now getting actually in place with Supercharger V4, Megapacks, and this new Oasis project.
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Hyundai has a new secret weapon it’s about ready to unleash. To revamp the brand in China and counter BYD’s surge, Hyundai is launching a new AI-powered EV next year. The new model will be Hyundai’s first dedicated electric car for the world’s largest EV market.
With the help of Haomo, a Chinese autonomous startup, Hyundai will launch its first EV equipped with generative AI. It will also be its first model designed specifically for China.
A Hyundai Motor official said (via The Korea Herald) the company is “working to load the software” onto the new EV model, “which will be released in the Chinese market next year.” The spokesperson added, “The level of autonomous driving is somewhere between 2 and 2.5.”
In comparison, Tesla’s Autopilot is considered a level 2 advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) on the SAE scale (0 to 5), meaning it offers limited hands-free features.
With Autopilot, you still have to keep your eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel, or the system will notify you and eventually disengage.
Haomo’s system, DriveGPT, unveiled last spring, takes inspiration from the OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT.
The system can continuously update in real-time to optimize decision-making by absorbing traffic data patterns. According to Haomo, DriveGPT is used in around 20 models as it looks to play a bigger role in China.
Hyundai hopes new AI-powered EV boosts sales in China
Electric vehicle sales continue surging in China. According to Rho Motion, China set another EV sales record last month with 1.2 million units sold, up 50% from October 2023.
Over 8.4 million EVs were sold in China in the first ten months of 2024, a notable 38% increase from last year.
BYD continues to dominate its home market. According to Autovista24, BYD accounted for 32.9% of all PHEV and EV (NEV) sales in China through September, with over half of the top 20 best-selling EV models.
Tesla was second with a 6.5% share of the market, but keep in mind these numbers only include plug-in models (PHEV).
Like most foreign automakers, Hyundai is struggling to keep up with the influx of low-cost electric models in China. Beijing Hyundai’s sales have been slipping since 2017. Through September, Korean automaker’s share of the Chinese market fell to just 1.2%.
Last month, Hyundai opened its first overseas digital R&D center in China to help kick off its return to the region.
According to local reports, Hyundai is partnering with other local tech companies like Thundersoft, a smart cockpit provider, and others in China to power up its next-gen EVs
With its first AI-powered EV launching next year, Hyundai hopes to turn things around in the region quickly. The new model will be one of five to launch in China through 2026.
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