Trek Bikes has launched a summer sale that is taking up to $550 off a large lineup of the company’s popular e-bikes, like the Electra Cruiser Go! Step-Over e-bike for $1,199.99 shipped, or its counterpart step-thru model that is also going for $1,199.99 shipped – plus other e-bikes that are seeing general price cuts. Normally fetching $1,600, we have seen this particular model go for $200 less before, back during Black Friday sales, which hasn’t reoccurred since. In 2024 we’ve seen one previous discount that dropped costs to $1,200 in February, with today’s deal coming in to repeat the savings as a 25% markdown that saves you $400 and returns it to the second-lowest price we have tracked. For years we’ve been covering Trek Bikes’ many models, all of which you can browse, read through, and learn about here.
The Cruiser Go! e-bike is an homage to the American beach-cruising classics of years past, equipped with a 250W rear-hub motor and a fully-integrated 250Wh battery that reach a max speed of 20 MPH for up to 40 miles on a single charge. It features mechanical disc brakes, fatter 27.5-inch tires for a smoother ride, and an LED controller that lets you monitor and change the e-bikes functions and settings. It also comes supported by the Trek Central app which lets you get pre-ride information such as battery levels before even heading out the door, as well as live performance levels, GPS mapping, and it even saves the information from your previous rides for future reviews.
Bluetti AC180 Portable Power Station with 200W Solar Panel hits new $849 low
The official Bluetti Amazon storefront is offering up to 50% off discounts on its line of power stations, solar generator bundles, and accessories. A notable standout amongst the crowd is the AC180 Portable Power Station with 200W Solar Panel for $849 shipped. Usually going for $1,598, its been dropping to the same two rates since the start of 2024, first to $899 for the first few months and now more recently to the former $879 low, which today’s deal outshines as a massive 47% markdown that gives you a total $749 in savings and lands it at a new all-time low. You can grab the power station alone for $579, or add a B80 extra battery with it for $1,148, or get the power station with a 350W solar panel for $1,149.
With the AC180 power station, you can rest assured your charging and power needs are met on your next trip out of town or just the house thanks to its 1,152Wh capacity and 11 output ports: four ACs, four USB-As, one USB-C, one DC, and one wireless charging pad for your personal devices. It can be recharged up to 80% in just 45 minutes via a standard wall outlet or with a 500W solar input that takes just 2.8 to 3.3 hours (so with the included 200W panel, you’re looking at a recharge in around 7-ish hours, give or take). You’ll also be able to control the power station’s settings and keep track of charging levels on your tablet or smartphone via the BLUETTI app.
VEVOR’s 16A to 40A Level 1 and 2 EV Chargers start from new $93 low
Amazon is offering the VEVOR 16A Level 1+2 Portable EV Charger for $92.69 shipped. Down from its usual $130 price tag, since the new year began we haven’t seen much diversity in its discounts, often falling to the same $105 rate on average, which does beat out the $125+ rates from 2023, though the price hasn’t fallen lower past $100. Today’s deal, however, finally breaks the slow and steady progression for a sharp and sudden spike downwards as a 29% markdown that lands at a new all-time low.
Compatible with both NEMA 6-20R and NEMA 5-15P plugs, this 16A (maximum) portable EV charger is suitable for EVs that adhere to the J1772 standard and could use a handy backup charger when out on the road far from home. Its controller automatically adjusts the current according to the charging status to avoid overcharging, while also providing lightening, leakage, grounding, over-voltage, under-voltage, overcharge, over-current, and overheat protection. You can control and monitor the charging status remotely through the Smart App, as well as schedule charging time for 1-12 hours, letting you take advantage of off-peak charging and reduce your vehicle usage costs. Package also includes a hard-shell storage bag, a base, a charging cable hook, and an adapter.
Of course, I’m sure most of you, like me, saw the 16A maximum output of the above charger and immediately thought “I’ll be waiting so much longer for a full charge.” Well, Amazon has also cut prices on the VEVOR 40A Level 2 Portable EV Charger that is now at $133, down from $200. This upgraded model features a similar LED display, as well as the smart chip that provides the same list of protections as the above model. You’ll also get the same smart controls – especially for off-peak hour scheduling – and it arrives compatible with vehicles and plug-in hybrids that comply with the J1772 standard, requiring only a NEMA 14-50 outlet to plug the charger into. The main difference here is the obvious increase in amperage limit, with this model able to reach 40A while charging over the previous model’s 16A.
The savings this week are also continuing to a collection of other markdowns. To the same tune as the offers above, these all help you take a more energy-conscious approach to your routine. Winter means you can lock in even better off-season price cuts on electric tools for the lawn while saving on EVs and tons of other gear.
And today, Musk made it official that he will seek greater collaboration between three of his companies: Tesla, xAI, and twitter, in the form of an investment into xAI by Tesla.
The situation is a little more complicated than that, though.
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Tesla is a public company, owned by shareholders. Musk is the largest shareholder, but only owns around 12% of the company himself.
This is a different situation than xAI, which is a private company, owned by Musk. While there are other investors, he can exercise much more direct control over the company, and doesn’t have to put big decisions up to a vote.
One of the recent decisions he made with xAI was to purchase twitter in March. You may say, “wait, I thought he bought twitter back in 2022?,” and you’d be correct. Musk purchased twitter for $44 billion in 2022, which was widely agreed to be far too high a price, and then rapidly saw the company’s valuation drop to under $10 billion.
Then, in March 2025, Musk had xAI purchase twitter in an all-stock deal, valuing twitter company at $45 billion – again, far too high of a valuation, but considering he purchased the company from himself, he could set the price at whatever he wanted.
The move was widely considered to be a bailout of twitter, and the numbers involved considered arbitrary, perhaps partially to help save face for Musk after he made one of the worst business deals of all time.
Now the two are the same entity, and it seems clear that he would like to bring Tesla into the fold, in some way or another.
Musk has already improperly used resources from Tesla, a public company, to boost xAI and twitter, his private companies. Last year, he gave up Tesla’s priority position for highly sought-after NVIDIA H100 GPUs, instead shipping those GPUs to xAI and twitter. Tesla could have used these GPUs for training its FSD/Robotaxi systems, which Musk has claimed is the most important thing to Tesla’s future, but instead graciously sent them to his other company that used them to, uh, train a bot to say Nazi stuff apparently.
xAI has also poached talent from Tesla, multiple times, showing how Musk is using Tesla as a farm team for his private company.
So it hasn’t been a secret that Musk would like to use public money to bail out his private companies, as he’s been setting the stage for for a while now.
Musk has previously “discussed” getting Tesla to invest in xAI in the past, but the idea was never made official until today, when Musk said that he will put the idea to a shareholder vote.
In response to one of his superfans asking for the the opportunity to waste money on an overvalued social media app (which would mark the third time it has been overpaid for in as many years), and the backend fueling “MechaHitler,” Musk said this:
Tesla traditionally holds its annual shareholder meeting around the middle of the year, so if it were a normal year, this shareholder vote might be imminent.
But it’s not a normal year, as just last week Tesla announced an exceptionally late shareholder meeting, pushing it back to November, the latest it has ever held the meeting.
This means that Musk will have around four months to campaign for this idea – something that he’ll perhaps have more time to do, now that he’s no longer cosplaying as a government official.
We don’t know what the structure of the deal might look like yet, but Musk has been clear in the past that he wants more shares in Tesla. After selling many of his shares in order to buy twitter, he later complained that he doesn’t feel comfortable having less than 25% of Tesla. Given that his recent xAI/twitter deal was an all-stock deal, Musk could attempt to fund any investment of Tesla into xAI via shares, giving himself more Tesla shares in exchange for the company gaining a portion of xAI. Though to get him to 25% voting shares in Tesla, that would require either an enormous valuation for xAI, a small valuation for Tesla, or purchasing a large percentage of xAI (or, perhaps, all three, given how much higher TSLA’s valuation is than xAI’s).
We may however have a hint as to how that vote will go, because the last time Musk campaigned for a clearly terrible idea, Tesla shareholders ate it up.
In mid-2024, Musk ended his yearslong absenteeism at Tesla in a flurry of activity, hoping to persuade enough shareholders to vote for his illegal $55B pay package.
So it looks like we’ve got another campaign coming up, and if last time was any indication, expect some really bad decisions along the way. It worked last time, didn’t it?
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The off-highway equipment experts at Perkins and McElroy have teamed up to develop a plug-and-play battery electric power unit designed to help equipment OEMs and upfitters to seamlessly transition from diesel to battery electric power.
Designed to occupy the same space as the companies’ diesel-engined power units, Perkins dropped its new battery power unit into the similarly new McElroy TracStar 900i pipe fusion machine (specialized equipment used to join thermoplastic pipes like HDPE or polypropylene by heat-welding them end-to-end to form a continuous length pf pipe).
Perkins’ battery electric power unit replaces the company’s proprietary 134 hp, 3.6 liter 904 Series Tier V diesel engine, enabling units that are already deployed to be quickly upgraded to electric power – and helping trade allies and development partners to easily retrofit existing equipment in order to add zero-emission options to their operational fleet.
“We’re actively helping customers navigate the shift in power system requirements, with a range of advanced power systems including electric, diesel-electric and alternative fuel compatible engines,” says Jaz Gill, vice president, global sales, marketing at Perkins. “When it comes to the innovative fully integrated battery electric power unit, it can be ‘dropped in’ to a machine to replace a diesel engine. The system consists of a Perkins battery along with inverters, motors and on-board chargers – all packaged up into a compact drop-in system to support seamless transition from diesel to electric for our customers looking to make that move.”
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McElroy believes that an electric, emissions-free power unit like this one will open new opportunities and applications for its customers.
“Their team has done a phenomenal job of integrating their battery electric system into our TracStar 900i,” explains McElroy President and CEO Chip McElroy. “We’re really excited to see what the market thinks about this concept.”
Development of the battery electric powered pipe fusion machine was completed in about nine months. Future Perkins-powered electric equipment running the 904 diesel (small excavators, telehandlers, pumps, and gensets) could be developed even more quickly. You can find out more in the company’s promo video, below.
British ultra-luxe brand Bentley is teasing the upcoming, first-ever all electric model that will take it into the 2030s with a new concept car inspired by the iconic 1930 “Blue Train” Speed Six coupe – and it looks fantastic!
More than any other brand, Bentley was defined by its engine. For decades, in fact, the only meaningful mechanical difference between a Rolls-Royce and a Bentley was the 6.75L twin-turbocharged V8 engine under the flying B hood ornament.
That all changed at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Rolls-Royce was acquired by BMW, while Volkswagen took the reins at Bentley, setting both brands on distinct paths. Now, without its own engine, Bentley faces the challenge of proving to discerning buyers that its cars justify a premium over its mechanical cousins at VW, Audi, and Porsche. That’s why the company is looking to it pre-Rolls merger past, all the way back to the legendary 1930 “Blue Train” Speed Six coupe.
Bentley Blue Train EXP 15 concept
EXP 15 concept and 1930 Blue Train; via Bentley.
“Bentley’s then-chairman Woolf Barnato had a Speed Six four-door Weymann fabric saloon by H J Mulliner, which he used to race the Blue Train in 1930,” explains Darren Day, Bentley’s Head of Interior Design. “Meanwhile, he had a unique one-of-one Speed Six coupe being built, with a body by Gurney Nutting. Even though the coupe wasn’t finished when the race took place, it’s that car (the coupe) that’s become associated with it and has since become an iconic Bentley. What we were influenced by is the idea of a three-seat car with a unique window line and super slick proportions used for grand tours.”
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The EXP 15 concept car features a unique, three-door, three-passenger layout under a sweeping, dramatic roofline lifted from the 1930 tourer. “The seat can rotate and you step out, totally unflustered, not trying to clamber out of the car like you see with some supercars,” continued Day, before dropping the biggest hint yet as to who they’re building the car for. “You just get out with dignity and the Instagram shot is perfect.”
Bentley EXP 15 interior
While almost no technical specs have been revealed other than “full electric,” Bentley says its new concept’s innovative interior layout allows passengers to stretch out in comfort alongside accessible storage compartments that can house a bar, hand luggage, or even pets. The EXP 15 even offers tailgate seating for outdoor parties or suburban soccer games.
But, while the new concept is tall, Bentley hopes it manages to offer the commanding driving position and comfort of an SUV while giving off the “vibe” of a classic grand tourer – something Bentley thinks could be the next wave of the luxury car market.
“The beauty of a concept car is not just to position our new design language, but to test where the market’s going,” offers Robin Page, Bentley Director of Design. “It’s clear that SUVs are a growing segment and we understand the GT market … but the trickiest segment is the sedan because it’s changing. Some customers want a classic ‘three-box’ sedan shape, others a ‘one-box’ design, and others again something more elevated. So this was a chance for us to talk to people and get a feeling.”
As before: no specs, no range estimates, and no promises about if and nothing definitive about when the oft-promised all-electric Bentley will finally bow – but this is certain: when it does arrive, it will be big, brash, and fast.
Electrek’s Take
Now that SUVs are everywhere and in every segment, automakers are desperate to explore or open new niches, hoping to find that next “SUV-like” growth segment. As weird as the three-door, three-seat EXP 15’s interior layout is, you have to admit that it’s different. And, for a vehicle that spends 90% of its time with just one person inside it, it might be more than practical enough.
Let us know if you think Bentley has a winner, or just another concept car gimmick on its hands in the comments.
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