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A cop nearly smeared me across the bike lane. Here’s what went wrong [Video]
As perhaps one of the most prolific electric bike reviewers on the internet, I spend a lot of time riding city streets and have occasionally wondered if this is the way I’ll go out one day. Yesterday, I nearly had the answer to that question as a police cruiser almost smeared me across three lanes of traffic.
It happened to occur while I was in the middle of filming a review of a Velotric Breeze 1 electric bike. With the rare opportunity of catching a moment like that on camera, it turned into a chance for me to take a second look at what I did right as well as what I might have done wrong to wind up in that situation.
And why keep that kind of analysis to myself? Come along with me while I Monday morning quarterback myself.
An uncomfortably close perspective on bike safety
As cyclists, we’re probably the most vulnerable road users out there. Out of necessity, that liability gives us a unique perspective – one that is even more well-rounded if you happen to also drive a car from time to time.
In fact, an hour before I got an uncomfortably close view of a police cruiser’s grille, I was driving my family’s borrowed minivan, and only an hour afterward, I was going 0 to 60 in three seconds on my LiveWire electric motorcycle, so I’d consider myself a fairly holistic road user.
When I’m riding my electric bicycles in the bike lane, especially the unprotected bike lanes that are merely a strip of paint laid down on the shoulder of a busy road, I’m constantly scanning for threats. As you can see in the video below, that gave me around 1-2 seconds of warning as I saw a police cruiser accelerating hard as he prepared to blow past a stop sign to cross three empty lanes of a major road. The only problem was that there was a fourth lane there – a bicycle lane – and it was very occupied, by me.
See what I mean in the video below.
What happened?
Basically, the police cruiser appeared to be in quite a rush. The officer didn’t have the lights or siren on, so I’m not sure if it was official, but the car was booking it. I first heard the engine winding up before even seeing the car, and it was obvious he wasn’t preparing to stop, despite the stop sign at the end of the crossroad.
As soon as I heard the engine and turned my head to clock the car’s trajectory, I was on the brakes. The Velotric Breeze 1 electric bike I was riding has what I can now confirm are excellent hydraulic brakes and I immediately started slowing down. A fraction of a second later, the cop appeared to see me panic braking and started his own panic braking, sliding his cruiser across the stop line and halfway through the pedestrian crosswalk lines.
Once I saw his brake dive and could see he was going to be able to stop in time, I let off my own brakes to continue down the bike lane and not dangerously slide to a stop myself. I had a few choice words but figured I’d be better advised not to confront the cop lest I get hit with some sort of “attempted to damage government property with his formerly intact femur” charge.
I understand that the video above might not look as intense as it felt, but let me assure you that seeing 5,000 pounds of police car skidding towards you on a bicycle will have you leaving your own skidmark of sorts.
What went right… and wrong?
It’s important to remember that this kind of thing happens to countless cyclists every single day. As a bike reviewer, I was merely lucky to have a 360º camera recording during it and the privilege of having a platform to share it on. So why not take the opportunity to make the most of this and learn something useful from the situation?
First of all, let’s look at what went wrong. While this is mostly the fault of the cop, I’m not off the hook here, either.
The main issue here is that the cop was driving recklessly on a side road and intending to blow a stop sign before cutting across three lanes of traffic onto a major road, all while obviously not watching very closely for traffic. Now if he had been responding to a call, that would have been one thing. Police officers aren’t beholden to certain traffic laws and are allowed to disregard things like speed limits and stop signs when responding to an emergency call. However, that’s exactly why they have sirens and lights, to alert other road users. In this case, the cop either wasn’t responding to a call or didn’t turn on his lights or sirens. The fact that he still didn’t turn on his lights or siren even after nearly pancaking me means he probably wasn’t responding to a call, and was just gunning it down a side street because he could.
The second issue is poor road design. Not only was the cop at a disadvantage due to the relatively tall shrubs and retail signs on the side street that could limit a driver’s view of oncoming traffic on the main road, but the bicycle lane I was using was the worst kind: just a strip of paint on the shoulder. There’s no protective border, no green paint as a reminder to drivers, and no clear visual separation at intersections where conflicts are most likely to occur. The cop should still be looking for road users, including cyclists, but the road design didn’t make that any easier.
The last issue, which is on me, is that I was wearing dark colors and not highly visible. Black shirt, dark pants, black helmet – nothing that jumps out and says “look at me.” Now, I’m not a fan of the argument that cyclists should wear high-vis clothing because it smacks of the same kind of victim-blaming thought process brought to you by the folks who use “sure, he shouldn’t have assaulted her behind that bar, but did you see what she was wearing?”. So I could have been more visible, and shoutout to Velotric for offering lots of bright bike colors, but I shouldn’t have to wear a bright yellow vest in order for drivers to not kill me.
Ok, now let’s look at what went right. First of all, I know that I always have to be aware of my surroundings when I’m on a bike. When I ride, I don’t wear headphones and I don’t talk on the phone. My eyes are always scanning and I’m always listening for threats. In this case, I was talking to the camera while filming a review, but you can see I’m still looking around during it and I immediately heard the cop car’s engine accelerating hard as he prepared to swing out onto the road. That meant I could get on the brakes before he even knew I was there. Fortunately, I didn’t have to test the following theory since he saw me at the last minute and also slammed on his brakes, but I believe I could have stopped just short of the side street with my full-on emergency braking. Again, props to Velotric for using good hydraulic brakes on the Breeze 1 e-bike. So that part went well – always be aware of your surroundings and never needlessly mute one of your important senses like sight or hearing.
Next, I was riding at appropriate speeds for the conditions. That bike can do 28 mph (45 km/h) easily, and I enjoy going that fast on long straightaways and in areas where conditions allow. But as you can see from the video, there’s a cross street or retail parking lot entrance just about every few seconds and there are simply too many chances for something like this to happen. I was doing closer to 15-20 mph in this area due to the high number of intersections, which meant that I had more time to react when I detected the threat. At full Class 3 speeds of 28 mph, there’s no way I would have been able to brake in time and I would have been completely reliant on the cop not running that stop sign. Don’t get me wrong, I love going fast and I do it often. But I also slow down when conditions suggest it, and today, that paid off.
And lastly, as I mentioned above, the bike I was riding is an eye-catching bright blue color. In fact, only a few minutes earlier, another cyclist stopped me to tell me how much he loved the color. I truly think that when the cop did finally see me, he probably saw the bright blue bike before he actually saw me. I’ve long advocated for brightly colored e-bikes, partly because of my disdain for suggesting that cyclists should be forced to wear bright-colored clothing for their own protection. Personally, I like fun and bright-colored e-bikes, but I also accept that they help make us more visible regardless of the outfit we choose to wear that day. I’ll also point out that I was also wearing a decent bicycle helmet with a properly adjusted chin strap. It’s been a while since I’ve actually put helmet to pavement, but in the couple of times I’ve crashed over the last decade or so, I’ve been glad it was there.
The moral of the story, if there is one, is that hypervigilance is important for cyclists, and even more important for drivers. If you operate a vehicle that exposes you to the risks of the road, you have to watch out for yourself. And if you operate a vehicle that exposes everyone else to the risk of your vehicle, then the responsibility sits even heavier upon you.
Even ignoring the fact that, in this case, it was the very people we expect to keep our roads safe that ultimately caused the greatest danger, all car drivers simply must do a better job watching for all road users, and that includes the most vulnerable, such as cyclists and motorcyclists.
And as vulnerable road users ourselves, those of us who opt for two wheels must remember that among the few people who actually read my previous sentence, almost none will heed it, and that means we are the only ones we can count on to truly protect ourselves.
Perhaps one day more cities will have better ways to physically separate cyclists from cars through the use of improved road infrastructure and protected cycling lanes. Until then, we’ll have to rely on our eyes, our ears, and our helmets.
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Global research firm Rho Motion has shared its monthly global EV sales report for April, which details continued long-term growth. While global EV sales are down compared to March 2025, the year-over-year tally remains strong, despite uncertainty amid the threat of tariffs and trade wars.
Since merging with Benchmark Mineral Intelligence last June, Rho Motion has become one of the go-to platforms for data surrounding critical mineral and energy transition supply chains. Its monthly updates on market intelligence, including prices and sales data, are must-see research every time they’re published.
This month’s report is no different.
In March 2025, we reported that EV sales worldwide had surged to 1.7 million units, bringing the total to 4.1 million units for Q1. March marked a 40% increase compared to February 2025, and a 29% increase year-over-year.
For April 2025, Global EV sales stumbled slightly compared to the prior month, but held steady in YoY growth.
April global EV sales fall MoM but rise YoY
According to Rho Motion’s latest report, global EV sales for April 2025 were 1.5 million units, bringing the year-to-date tally to 5.6 million NEVs (BEVs, PHEVs, and LDVs). April sales fell 12% compared to March 2025, but matched the previous month’s year-over-year growth at 29%.
Here’s how those 2025 global EV sales breakdown by region, compared to January to April 2024:
- Global: 5.6 million, +29%
- China: 3.3 million, +35%
- Europe: 1.2 million, +25%
- North America: 0.6 million, +5%
- Rest of World: 0.5 million, +37%
As has been the case with every Rho Motion report we cover, China continues to lead the world in EV adoption despite sales dropping 9% month-over-month. Having recently visited the Shanghai Auto Show alongside some OEM visits in Hangzhou, I can see why adoption is moving more quickly. The number of available makes and models at affordable prices is incredible, and the technology you get for your money is downright staggering.
Even amongst ongoing talks of tariffs between global superpowers, including EV powerhouse China, EV sales continue to grow. Per Rho Motion data manager, Charles Lester:
Ongoing tariff negotiations are dominating talk in the electric vehicle industry but quietly, domestic manufacturers in China and the EU continue to perform well and grow market share. The EU is certainly the success story for EV sales in 2025 so far, with emissions targets lighting a fire under the industry to accelerate the switch to electric, they have grown the market by a quarter in the first third of the year. In China, that year on year sales increase is even greater at 35%, spurred on by the vehicle trade in scheme.
Europe, whose adoption numbers stumbled in 2024, has seen steady growth in EV adoption in 2025, landing second to China in sales growth last month (a 25% increase). This increase has been fueled by the increasing number of BEV and PHEV imports to the region from China from brands like BYD, ZEEKR, NIO, and XPeng.
North American sales have only grown by 5% in 2025, with Mexico leading the pack. The rest of the global EV market saw a 37% increase in sales, but those numbers only accounted for about half a million units.
Next time anyone tells you EV adoption is slowing down, you can just send them this data, because it is quite the contrary. Global EV sales continued to grow in April, and that trend should continue through 2025 and beyond.
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Republicans announced a new tax plan today and it’s just about as bad for America as expected, taking money for healthcare, clean air and energy efficiency from American families and sending it to the ultra-wealthy instead.
You might think that this helps one of those ultra-wealthy, Elon Musk, who gave hundreds of millions of dollars to ani-EV candidates to help make this happen. But the main source of his wealth, Tesla, will be specifically harmed by rescission of EV credits – and its competitors largely won’t be.
Now that the republican party has unveiled its job-killing tax proposal, we know a little more about what’s in it.
Originally, it was thought by many that the proposal would completely kill all federal EV credits, with some estimating that the $7,500 credit would go away immediately (personally, I never thought it would be that stupid, but you never know with the republicans).
But it’s clear they want to destroy the credit and make cars more expensive for Americans. After all, Donald Trump, while running for an office he remains Constitutionally barred from holding, asked oil companies for a billion-dollar bribe in exchange for ending the EV credit, a promise he has continued to say he will uphold as he squats in the aforementioned office.
And last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the House is likely to end the credit.
It turns out the details are a little more nuanced than that, and that while the credit is ending, it will sunset a little later than many feared.
It’s likely that the credit will last through the end of this year – which makes sense, since that’s how tax changes often work. Then, at the end of the year, Inflation Reduction Act credits will largely disappear.
However, in the current draft of the bill, some automakers will retain access to some EV credits, for a time. This is due to an exception given for manufacturers who have not sold 200,000 vehicles between 2009 and 2025, a similar cap to the old EV tax credit that was first implemented in 2008, before Congress improved it and removed the cap in the Inflation Reduction Act.
So, smaller manufacturers will continue to have some support, while large manufacturers who have already sold plenty of cars will lose all of their credits.
A number of manufacturers have already reached the 200k EV cap, including Nissan, Ford, Toyota, Hyundai/Kia, GM, and of course, Tesla. Those manufacturers will lose access to credits.
But others who started late or have more niche offerings continue to be under the 200k cap. These include companies like Mercedes, Honda, Lucid, Mazda and Subaru.
Specifically, Rivian has been identified as one of the possible winners here, as the company has not yet sold 200,000 vehicles, though should be crossing that line sometime in the next couple years.
And finally, the real competition for Tesla, gas cars, will not lose anything from the rescission of EV credits. Those cars will continue selling, they’ll just have a $7,500 advantage relative to today – on top of their advantage of each gas car being allowed to choke the world with $20,000+ in unpaid pollution costs, which show up on everyone’s hospital bills and health insurance premiums.
So that brings up an interesting point: when Tesla and its bad CEO Elon Musk threw their support behind all of this, what did they think they would get out of it?
After all, Tesla wrongly said, at the behest of Musk and his tortured logic, that ending EV credits would somehow help it.
We called out that obvious incorrect statement at the time, saying that No, for crying out loud, killing EV subsidies will not help an EV company.
But now it turns out that the situation is even worse for Tesla, because not only does Tesla’s gas competition get to keep the credits, but many electric competitors will get to keep them for some time as well.
And don’t forget that this last quarter, government incentives were the only thing keeping Tesla from losing money. A regulatory environment that is more hostile to Tesla could turn black to red on the balance sheet, along with dropping sales and negative brand perception. Thank the bad CEO you voted to give $55B to for that loss, shareholders.
But the oil companies, another competitor for Tesla, will continue to benefit from roughly $760 billion in subsidy per year in the US alone, in terms of the health and environmental costs they impose on society and do not pay for.
If that subsidy was ended alongside the $7,500 EV credit, then EVs would indeed come out on top. But instead of ending those massive subsidies to fossil fuels, republicans have proposed to increase them, by cutting down enforcement and loosening pollution limits, both through this tax bill and through other agency actions and proposals.
Further, the tax proposal unveiled today sunsets credits for many other products that Tesla sells. There are solar and home energy efficiency credits which Tesla takes advantage of through its Energy division, which sells solar and home battery systems to homeowners. These can be worth tens of thousands of dollars per installation, and those will go away if this proposal goes through.
So in the end, Tesla loses access to credits both on its cars and its Energy division, while its competitors get an even more beneficial regulatory environment to continue polluting. And even its electric competitors get a temporary leg up for the time being.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk gets his part of the $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that go directly to wealthy elites. So at least his pocketbook will look slightly better for a time, even though the company that has been responsible for filling it it will fall further due to less attractive product pricing and through his own association, which has driven protests against the company, embarrassed owners and pushed many customers away.
So, to those of you who wanted us to “trust the plan” – how, exactly, is this beneficial to Tesla, again?
Among the proposed cuts is the rooftop solar credit. That means you could have only until the end of this year to install rooftop solar on your home, before republicans raise the cost of doing so by an average of ~$10,000. So if you want to go solar, get started now, because these things take time and the system needs to be active before you file for the credit.
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China’s EV giant is on a roll. BYD is coming off its best sales week in China of 2025, racking up nearly 68,000 registrations. In comparison, Tesla logged just over 3,000.
BYD notches its best EV sales week of 2025
Another week, another impressive performance from BYD. Although most automakers saw higher sales for the week ending May 11, the company continues leading China’s EV market by a mile.
According to the latest insurance registration data (via CarNewsChina), BYD registered 67,980 vehicles from May 5 to May 11. That’s up 15% from the 58,310 registrations the previous week and BYD’s best sales week of 2025.
BYD’s premium sub-brands, Denza and Fang Cheng Bao, notched 2,990 and 2,660 registrations, respectively, up 3.8% and 17.7% from the prior week.
NIO and XPeng posted stronger numbers last week in China, with 6,060 (+18.2%) and 6,870 (+23.8%) vehicle registrations. NIO’s new sub-brands are starting to gain traction. Onvo registered 1,660, and Firefly, which began deliveries on April 29, added 470 more.
During the week of May 5 to May 11, other Chinese EV brands, including Xiaomi, Deepal, and ZEEKR, also made strong showings. Xiaomi registered 5,180 vehicles of its sole EV, the SU7. Deepal registered 4,700 vehicles, and ZEEKR followed with 4,310.
Earlier today, Electrek reported that Tesla delivered just 3,070 vehicles in China last week, down 69% from the same week the prior year.
Tesla extended its 0% financing offer through June 30 to help drive demand and keep pace with BYD, SAIC, and others.
Electrek’s Take
Although EV sales were up 38% in China in April, Tesla’s fell 9% to 28,731. On the other hand, BYD sold over 380,000 new energy vehicles last month.
Those numbers include plug-in hybrids, but even if you look strictly at EV sales, BYD is leading Tesla and every automaker by a wide margin in China. Last month, BYD sold over 195,000 fully electric (EV) cars, the first time in over a year that BYD sold more EVs than PHEVs.
BYD’s overseas sales also hit a fifth straight month of growth, with over 79,000 vehicles sold. It outsold Tesla in key markets, including Germany (1,566 vs 855) and the UK (2,511 vs 512) in April.
Through April, the automaker has sold over 285,000 vehicles in overseas markets. With new manufacturing plans opening in Europe, Mexico, Brazil, Southeast Asia, and other global regions, BYD’s momentum is expected to accelerate over the next few years.
BYD is best known for its low-cost EVs, but it’s rapidly expanding into new segments with pickup trucks, luxury vehicles, and electric supercars rolling out.
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