Arc has built the first models of its much-anticipated Arc Sport 500hp electric wake boat, and we got a chance to take it for a quick demo in Long Beach, CA and holy heck, this thing rips.
Arc is a very new company – it was founded in 2021 in Los Angeles, and is targeting the luxury boat market with high-powered electric boats. Its cofounders, Mitch Lee and Ryan Cook, are engineers who met while working at Boeing.
The company has since grown to over 100 employees, and the company boasts that many are former SpaceX, Tesla, and Rivian workers (like, well, every other electric startup).
But it seems to have something to it, because Arc has been able to raise over $100 million in funding so far – not a bad chunk of change to get things started.
The Arc Sport, announced in February, is not Arc’s first boat. It previously released the Arc One, a limited-edition, $300,000 speedboat, of which only 20 units were made.
But the Sport is a wake boat, a more specialized type of boat, and it’s a downright steal compared to that model, starting at the low-low price of $258,000. Pocket change, really (although, an early tricked-out “Founder’s Fleet” model with all the options and extras included will cost $322k).
This is by no means cheap, but is relatively competitive with the higher-end wake boats from companies like Nautique or Malibu (Nautique has its own electric wake boat, which starts at $312k).
Wake boats have been growing in popularity lately, both for standard boating activities and for wakeboarding/wakesurfing. Wake boats need high power along with specialized control surfaces and ballast control to help make a large, surfable wake behind the boat.
They also include a tower to attach a tow rope to, so wakeboarders can get up onto the board. The Arc Sport has an adjustable tower which raises and lowers, to offer a higher angle to help pull riders up out of the water, or lower clearance in case that’s needed for navigating around a marina.
Electric drive has a lot of benefits for this application – many of which are familiar from the world of automotive. For one, when wakeboarding behind the Arc Sport, you aren’t constantly choking down fumes and getting loopy from exhaust mere feet from your face in an otherwise beautiful natural lake environment. Which is quite a plus.
The weight penalty of the Sport’s massive 226kWh battery isn’t that significant, either. Wake boats typically benefit from having a lot of mass at the stern of the boat – and will intentionally take on water as ballast to ensure that the rear is as low as possible in order to throw a larger wave. So a chunky battery, sited low in the stern, is fit-to-purpose anyway.
And, like in electric cars, an electric motor has high torque at zero rpm, which means it has… A LOT OF GET-UP-AND-GO.
Arc used a low (2,000) rpm semi truck motor with direct drive (no gearbox) to reduce noise and friction and ensure high torque, which means we literally fell right out of our damn seat the first time they punched it. Arc says it has twice the torque of competing boats, and it sure felt like that.
An electric motor is also easier to put where you want it, so there doesn’t need to be a big, loud, hot, vibrating mass in the middle of the boat (where engines often go), making it easier to use that space for socializing or moving around inside the boat. The motor in this case is pretty centrally located, under the floor of the boat.
The boat is quite quiet at low speeds and some light vibration can be felt through the floor, but it’s a lot less than you’d get from a fossil machine. Though between the noise of splashing water, buffeting wind and 500 horsepower, things get a bit noisier when getting up to the electronically-limited top speed of 40 knots.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time around boats myself, growing up alongside a harbor and in a boating family. Not much of that time has been spent piloting anything impressive, but I’ve been at the helm of a few boats here and there. As for electric boats, all I had piloted before now were Duffys and the like – low-speed cruisers, nothing like this.
After getting a quick demo ride from Arc, it was time for me to grab the helm and go for a spin. I did a few figure-8s, making wake for myself to cut through, and felt that extreme acceleration on my own (which was… easier to stay seated during when I was actually prepared for it).
And once I started, I really didn’t want to stop (but then again, that’s often the case for a day of boating, isn’t it?). The boat handled great in the flat water we had it in – and the choppier water once I laid down some wake to blast through.
The captain’s seat was a little tight on legroom, but this is adjustable and Arc is looking to increase the amount of adjustability on the production version. And the throttle was pretty twitchy, which is bound to happen with so much power, but Arc was thinking about smoothing out the mapping of the throttle lever, which I think would be a good idea. Luckily, Arc has complete control over the boat’s software, so tweaks like this are possible and there could even be user-selectable drive modes.
This is another way that Arc distinguishes itself: through a sleek modern interface updatable over-the-air. Some boats have the ability to update maps over the air, but Arc says it’s the first to be able to provide Tesla-like updates to software that’s deeply integrated into the boat.
The UI we saw wasn’t finalized, but what we saw worked well and had various aspects of customizability, like simple controls to adjust the wake, and the pitch of the boat in the water, or to look through one of the boat’s three cameras. One neat aspect was a small red bar on the pilot’s display showing when your steering is centered, which is something that’s easy to lose track of in a boat.
We didn’t get to test out any connectivity/app features, but remote management of charging, checking the cameras on the boat, and so on, seem like natural features that will come down the pipe.
As for the practical parts, the Arc sport is 23 feet long with comfortable seating for 15 (though make sure you’re holding onto something when the pilot punches it), lots of cupholders (Arc told us the final version might even have more), good room for storage under the seats and rear deck (another benefit of electric drive, more storage space where the motor would go), and board storage on top of the adjustable tower.
It also has a set of side thrusters on the bow and stern which help with precision maneuvering, which can be a great help while docking, particularly for less-experienced pilots.
And maintenance should be easier too. Boats are famously a nuisance to keep in good running order, given that they sit parked in a corrosive substance full of strange plants and animals for literally all of their lives. That’s no different here, but at least you won’t have to worry about fuel going bad or winterizing the boat.
Most docks have 240V service for shore power, and Arc’s boats can just stay plugged in (while 7-10kW service means 20-30 hours for a “full charge” of the 226kWh battery, it’s rare that you’ll have a boat out more than ~4 hours in a day anyway). And it’s a lot cheaper to fuel than paying marina rates for gasoline. The Sport is also capable of 225kW CCS DC charging, for the few marinas that have installed DC fast chargers (there’s one in Tahoe).
That brings us to the “range” question, which is a different set of calculus for boats. Arc says the massive battery is good for 4-5 hours of use, though that depends highly on what you’re doing. If you’re just cruising around at low speed, that time will be extended tremendously. If you’re doing constant start-stops or running at high speeds, you’ll use a lot more energy (water is thicker than air after all – there’s a much bigger speed penalty to efficiency on water).
Arc said it took the boat out to Catalina Island, which is 26 miles across the sea from the California coastline. On the way out, they kept it conservative, and used about 10% of the battery. Then they camped overnight and bombed back to the mainland the next day at high speed, and ended up with about 35% left by the time they got back. So that higher-speed trip used ~5x as much energy as the low-speed one did (there may have been differences in wind/waves as well). And 50+ miles on the ocean, with range to spare, is quite a day or two of boating.
But for the most part, these machines will be used on lakes or in calm waters anyway, so it should be more than enough for a great day out.
And in a nice lake environment, the underlying benefit of an electric boat becomes exceptionally clear. These are sensitive and contained environments, so adding anything foreign to them can really screw up the ecosystem. The less nonsense we can bring into lakes, in the form of fumes and oil and what-have-you, the better.
The quiet and lack of exhaust really enhance the experience of boating, but unfortunately Arc doesn’t have a solution to one problem: everyone else. While boating around we still occasionally had to smell the stench from some passing boat, and the water surface near the docks was still oily due to the activity of other boats.
And that’s going to end up changing – some marinas and lakes are already giving out separate electric-boat registrations, and charging significant extra money for launching gas-powered boats due to the environmental damage they cause, which electric boats don’t have to pay. Local pushes to clean up lakes are quite strong – the preponderance of “Keep Tahoe Blue” bumper stickers throughout California suggest that as more options become available, restrictions on dirtier options may well increase.
So lets keep our eye on the prize here – not only is the Arc Sport a pricey-yet-capable toy, it’s also the vanguard of an industry that’s about to change for the better. Our whole Earth is heating up and getting dirtier with every gallon of dino-juice we bleed from this precious planet of ours, so why not keep some of it deep underground where it belongs instead of on the surface of our lakes and marinas.
Arc is kicking off its nationwide demo tour today, which you can sign up for here. They’re still not the full production boats, but they’re close. Arc has started taking orders (you can reserve one for $500) and plans to deliver boats “this year” (with the Founder’s Fleet all being delivered by next summer), with an eventual goal of producing “hundreds” per year.
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A stack of old mobile phones are seen before recycling process in Kocaeli, Turkiye on October 14, 2024.
Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images
As the U.S. and China vie for economic, technological and geopolitical supremacy, the critical elements and metals embedded in technology from consumer to industrial and military markets have become a pawn in the wider conflict. That’s nowhere more so the case than in China’s leverage over the rare earth metals supply chain. This past week, the Department of Defense took a large equity stake in MP Materials, the company running the only rare earths mining operation in the U.S.
But there’s another option to combat the rare earths shortage that goes back to an older idea: recycling. The business has come a long way from collecting cans, bottles, plastic, newspaper and other consumer disposables, otherwise destined for landfills, to recreate all sorts of new products.
Today, next-generation recyclers — a mix of legacy companies and startups — are innovating ways to gather and process the ever-growing mountains of electronic waste, or e-waste, which comprises end-of-life and discarded computers, smartphones, servers, TVs, appliances, medical devices, and other electronics and IT equipment. And they are doing so in a way that is aligned to the newest critical technologies in society. Most recently, spent EV batteries, wind turbines and solar panels are fostering a burgeoning recycling niche.
The e-waste recycling opportunity isn’t limited to rare earth elements. Any electronics that can’t be wholly refurbished and resold, or cannibalized for replacement parts needed to keep existing electronics up and running, can berecycled to strip out gold, silver, copper, nickel, steel, aluminum, lithium, cobalt and other metals vital to manufacturers in various industries. But increasingly, recyclers are extracting rare-earth elements, such as neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium, which are critical in making everything from fighter jets to power tools.
“Recycling [of e-waste] hasn’t been taken too seriouslyuntil recently” as a meaningful source of supply, said Kunal Sinha, global head of recycling at Swiss-based Glencore, a major miner, producer and marketer of metals and minerals — and, to a much lesser but growing degree, an e-waste recycler. “A lot of people are still sleeping at the wheel and don’t realize how big this can be,” Sinha said.
Traditionally, U.S. manufacturers purchase essential metals and rare earths from domestic and foreign producers — an inordinate number based in China — that fabricate mined raw materials, or through commodities traders. But with those supply chains now disrupted by unpredictable tariffs, trade policies and geopolitics, the market for recycled e-waste is gaining importance as a way to feed the insatiable electrification of everything.
“The United States imports a lot of electronics, and all of that is coming with gold and aluminum and steel,” said John Mitchell, president and CEO of the Global Electronics Association, an industry trade group. “So there’s a great opportunity to actually have the tariffs be an impetus for greater recycling in this country for goods that we don’t have, but are buying from other countries.”
With copper, other metals, ‘recycling is going to play huge role’
Although recycling contributes only around $200 million to Glencore’s total EBITDA of nearly $14 billion, the strategic attention and time the business gets from leadership “is much more than that percentage,” Sinha said. “We believe that a lot of mining is necessary to get to all the copper, gold and other metals that are needed, but we also recognize that recycling is going to play a huge role,” he said.
Glencore has operated a huge copper smelter in Quebec, Canada, for almost 20 years on a site that’s nearly 100-years-old. The facility processes mostly mined copper concentrates, though 15% of its feedstock is recyclable materials, such as e-waste that Glencore’s global network of 100-plus suppliers collect and sort. The smelter pioneered the process for recovering copper and precious metals from e-waste in the mid 1980s, making it one of the first and largest of its type in the world. The smelted copper is refined into fresh slabs that are sold to manufacturers and traders. The same facility also produces refined gold, silver, platinum and palladium recovered from recycling feeds.
The importance of copper to OEMs’ supply chains was magnified in early July, when prices hit an all-time high after President Trump said he would impose a 50% tariff on imports of the metal. The U.S. imports just under half of its copper, and the tariff hike — like other new Trump trade policies — is intended to boost domestic production.
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Price of copper year-to-date 2025.
It takes around three decades for a new mine in the U.S. to move from discovery to production, which makes recycled copper look all the more attractive, especially as demand keeps rising. According to estimates by energy-data firm Wood Mackenzie, 45% of demand will be met with recycled copper by 2050, up from about a third today.
Foreign recycling companies have begun investing in the U.S.-based facilities. In 2022, Germany’s Wieland broke ground on a $100-million copper and copper alloy recycling plant in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Last year, another German firm, Aurubis, started construction on an $800-million multi-metal recycling facility in Augusta, Georgia.
“As the first major secondary smelter of its kind in the U.S., Aurubis Richmond will allow us to keep strategically important metals in the economy, making U.S. supply chains more independent,” said Aurubis CEO Toralf Haag.
Massive amounts of e-waste
The proliferation of e-waste can be traced back to the 1990s, when the internet gave birth to the digital economy, spawning exponential growth in electronically enabled products. The trend has been supercharged by the emergence of renewable energy, e-mobility, artificial intelligence and the build-out of data centers. That translates to a constant turnover of devices and equipment, and massive amounts of e-waste.
In 2022, a record 62 million metric tons of e-waste were produced globally, up 82% from 2010, according to the most recent estimates from the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union and research arm UNITAR. That number is projected to reach 82 million metric tons by 2030.
The U.S., the report said, produced just shy of 8 million tons of e-waste in 2022. Yet only about 15-20% of it is properly recycled, a figure that illustrates the untapped market for e-waste retrievables. The e-waste recycling industry generated $28.1 billion in revenue in 2024, according to IBISWorld, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 8%.
Whether it’s refurbished and resold or recycled for metals and rare-earths, e-waste that stores data — especially smartphones, computers, servers and some medical devices — must be wiped of sensitive information to comply with cybersecurity and environmental regulations. The service, referred to as IT asset disposition (ITAD), is offered by conventional waste and recycling companies, including Waste Management, Republic Services and Clean Harbors, as well as specialists such as Sims Lifecycle Services, Electronic Recyclers International, All Green Electronics Recycling and Full Circle Electronics.
“We’re definitely seeing a bit of an influx of [e-waste] coming into our warehouses,” said Full Circle Electronics CEO Dave Daily, adding, “I think that is due to some early refresh cycles.”
That’s a reference to businesses and consumers choosing to get ahead of the customary three-year time frame for purchasing new electronics, and discarding old stuff, in anticipation of tariff-related price increases.
Daily also is witnessing increased demand among downstream recyclers for e-waste Full Circle Electronics can’t refurbish and sell at wholesale. The company dismantles and separates it into 40 or 50 different types of material, from keyboards and mice to circuit boards, wires and cables. Recyclers harvest those items for metals and rare earths, which continue to go up in price on commodities markets, before reentering the supply chain as core raw materials.
Even before the Trump administration’s efforts to revitalize American manufacturing by reworking trade deals, and recent changes in tax credits key to the industry in Trump’s tax and spending bill, entrepreneurs have been launching e-waste recycling startups and developing technologies to process them for domestic OEMs.
“Many regions of the world have been kind of lazy about processing e-waste, so a lot of it goes offshore,” Sinha said. In response to that imbalance, “There seems to be a trend of nationalizing e-waste, because people suddenly realize that we have the same metals [they’ve] been looking for” from overseas sources, he said. “People have been rethinking the global supply chain, that they’re too long and need to be more localized.”
China commands 90% of rare earth market
Several startups tend to focus on a particular type of e-waste. Lately, rare earths have garnered tremendous attention, not just because they’re in high demand by U.S. electronics manufacturers but also to lessen dependence on China, which dominates mining, processing and refining of the materials. In the production of rare-earth magnets — used in EVs, drones, consumer electronics, medical devices, wind turbines, military weapons and other products — China commands roughly 90% of the global supply chain.
The lingering U.S.–China trade war has only exacerbated the disparity. In April, China restricted exports of seven rare earths and related magnets in retaliation for U.S. tariffs, a move that forced Ford to shut down factories because of magnet shortages. China, in mid-June, issued temporary six-month licenses to certain major U.S. automaker suppliers and select firms. Exports are flowing again, but with delays and still well below peak levels.
The U.S. is attempting to catch up. Before this past week’s Trump administration deal, the Biden administration awarded $45 million in funding to MP Materials and the nation’s lone rare earths mine, in Mountain Pass, California. Back in April, the Interior Department approved development activities at the Colosseum rare earths project, located within California’s Mojave National Preserve. The project, owned by Australia’s Dateline Resources, will potentially become America’s second rare earth mine after Mountain Pass.
A wheel loader takes ore to a crusher at the MP Materials rare earth mine in Mountain Pass, California, U.S. January 30, 2020. Picture taken January 30, 2020.
Steve Marcus | Reuters
Meanwhile, several recycling startups are extracting rare earths from e-waste. Illumynt has an advanced process for recovering them from decommissioned hard drives procured from data centers. In April, hard drive manufacturer Western Digital announced a collaboration with Microsoft, Critical Materials Recycling and PedalPoint Recycling to pull rare earths, as well as copper, gold, aluminum and steel, from end-of-life drives.
Canadian-based Cyclic Materials invented a process that recovers rare-earths and other metals from EV motors, wind turbines, MRI machines and data-center e-scrap. The company is investing more than $20 million to build its first U.S.-based facility in Mesa, Arizona. Late last year, Glencore signed a multiyear agreement with Cyclic to provide recycled copper for its smelting and refining operations.
Another hot feedstock for e-waste recyclers is end-of-life lithium-ion batteries, a source of not only lithium but also copper, cobalt, nickel, manganese and aluminum. Those materials are essential for manufacturing new EV batteries, which the Big Three automakers are heavily invested in. Their projects, however, are threatened by possible reductions in the Biden-era 45X production tax credit, featured in the new federal spending bill.
It’s too soon to know how that might impact battery recyclers — including Ascend Elements, American Battery Technology, Cirba Solutions and Redwood Materials — who themselves qualify for the 45X and other tax credits. They might actually be aided by other provisions in the budget bill that benefit a domestic supply chain of critical minerals as a way to undercut China’s dominance of the global market.
Nonetheless, that looming uncertainty should be a warning sign for e-waste recyclers, said Sinha. “Be careful not to build a recycling company on the back of one tax credit,” he said, “because it can be short-lived.”
Investing in recyclers can be precarious, too, Sinha said. While he’s happy to see recycling getting its due as a meaningful source of supply, he cautions people to be careful when investing in this space. Startups may have developed new technologies, but lack good enough business fundamentals. “Don’t invest on the hype,” he said, “but on the fundamentals.”
Glencore, ironically enough, is a case in point. It has invested $327.5 million in convertible notes in battery recycler Li-Cycle to provide feedstock for its smelter. The Toronto-based startup had broken ground on a new facility in Rochester, New York, but ran into financial difficulties and filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in May, prompting Glencore to submit a “stalking horse” credit bid of at least $40 million for the stalled project and other assets.
Even so, “the current environment will lead to more startups and investments” in e-waste recycling, Sinha said. “We are investing ourselves.”
LiveWire, the electric motorcycle company that was spun out of Harley-Davidson several years ago, has just shown off two fun-sized electric motorcycles designed to make powered two-wheelers more accessible to new riders, both physically and financially.
The company took to HD Homecoming, a motorcycle festival in Milwaukee, to give a surprise unveiling of the new bikes.
The bikes, which wear what look to be smaller 12″ tires and offer a barely 30″ (76 cm) seat height, are smaller and nimbler than anything we’ve seen from LiveWire before.
But that doesn’t mean they can’t perform. These aren’t some 30 mph (48 km/h) mopeds. LiveWire confirmed that early testing shows respectable performance figures of around 53 mph (85 km/h) speeds and 100 miles (160 km) of range from the pair of removable batteries.
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I’m assuming that range is measured at a lower urban speed, but these appear to be purpose-built to give riders the capability to ride where and how they want at a much more affordable price than LiveWire has ever offered.
Showing off both a trail and a street version, the LiveWire seems to be covering all of its bases.
“The trail model is intended for riding backyards, pump tracks, or even out on the ranch or campgrounds,” the brand explained. “The street model is perfect for urban errands, new riders, mini-moto fans, and anyone looking for a new hobby in the form of a readily customizable, approachable electric moto experience.”
LiveWire hasn’t shared any pricing details yet, and the two models are understood to still be in their development phase, but the advanced stages of the designs mean we likely won’t have to wait too much longer.
And with most of LiveWire’s current electric motorcycle models in the $16k- $17k, these bikes could conceivably cost less than half of that figure, changing the equation for young riders who can’t afford a luxury ride.
Electrek’s Take
Of course, they had to do this unveiling at the exact time that I was banging out a multi-thousand-word treatise bemoaning the fact that LiveWire hadn’t launched any smaller models yet. Hmmm, maybe it’s time for an article about how the e-bike industry needs a single battery standard.
Anyway, I’m all-in on this! I can’t even describe how excited this news makes me! This is an important step for LiveWire’s growth because the kind of folks who are drawn to electric motorcycles are often a different market than that sought by traditional legacy motorcycle manufacturers. LiveWire’s existing models are impressive, both in their extreme performance and their design, but they’re still powerhouses that provide more kick than most riders probably need.
These new mini e-motos could be exactly what new riders are looking for. Consider all the teens and young adults ripping it up on Sur Rons in towns across the US right now. Those Sur Rons aren’t street-legal bikes and they were never meant for the riding they’re most commonly being used for. But a street bike in a fun little Grom form factor like LiveWire is showing off? It could scratch that itch and also provide riders with the safety and support of a motorcycle company that comes from a storied history of over 100 years of motorcycle design, all from a new brand like LiveWire that speaks young riders’ language.
And that trail version – same thing. It’s going to offer the fun off-road riding that so many are looking for, yet do it in a well-designed package that isn’t just produced by some nameless factory in China trying to eke out the best profit margin.
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Forget fumbling with cables or hunting for batteries – TILER is making electric bike charging as seamless as parking your ride. The Dutch startup recently introduced its much-anticipated TILER Compact system, a plug-and-play wireless charger engineered to transform the user experience for e-bike riders.
At the heart of the new system is a clever combo: a charging kickstand that mounts directly to almost any e‑bike, and a thin charging mat that you simply park over. Once you drop the kickstand and it lands on the mat, the bike begins charging automatically via inductive transfer – no cable required. According to TILER, a 500 Wh battery will fully charge in about 3.5 hours, delivering comparable performance to traditional wired chargers.
It’s an elegantly simple concept (albeit a bit chunky) with a convenient upside: less clutter, fewer broken cables, and no more need to bend over while feeling around for a dark little hole.
TILER claims its system works with about 75% of existing e‑bike platforms, including those from Bosch, Yamaha, Bafang, and other big bames. The kit uses a modest 150 W wireless power output, which means charging speeds remain practical while keeping the system lightweight (the tile weighs just 2 kg, and it’s also stationary).
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TILER has already deployed over 200 charging points across Western Europe, primarily serving bike-share, delivery, hospitality, and hotel fleets. A recent case study in Munich showed how a cargo-bike operator saved approximately €1,250 per month in labor costs, avoided thousands in spare batteries, and cut battery damage by 20%. The takeaway? Less maintenance, more uptime.
Now shifting to prosumer markets, TILER says the Compact system will hit pre-orders soon, with a €250 price tag (roughly US $290) for the kickstand plus tile bundle. To get in line, a €29 refundable deposit is currently required, though they say it is refundable at any point until you receive your charger. Don’t get too excited just yet though, there’s a bit of a wait. Deliveries are expected in summer 2026, and for now are covering mostly European markets.
The concept isn’t entirely new. We’ve seen the idea pop up before, including in a patent from BMW for charging electric motorcycles. And the efficacy is there. Skeptics may wonder if wireless charging is slower or less efficient, but TILER says no. Its system retains over 85% efficiency, nearly matching wired charging speeds, and even pauses at 80% to protect battery health, then resumes as needed. The tile is even IP67-rated, safe for outdoor use, and about as bulky as a thick magazine.
Electrek’s Take
I love the concept. It makes perfect sense for shared e-bikes, especially since they’re often returning to a dock anyway. As long as people can be trained to park with the kickstand on the tile, it seems like a no-brainer.
And to be honest, I even like the idea for consumers. I know it sounds like a first-world problem, but bending over to plug something in at floor height is pretty annoying, not to mention a great way to throw out your back if you’re not exactly a spring chicken anymore. Having your e-bike start charging simply by parking it in the right place is a really cool feature! I don’t know if it’s $300 cool, but it’s pretty cool!
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