NIU BQi-C3 Pro review: A funny-shaped yet awesome electric bike
I fell in love with the NIU BQi-C3 Pro electric bicycle the first time I laid eyes on it. The U-shaped frame and the vibrantly contrasting red and white color scheme created a comfortable-looking yet playful design that I knew I would have to test out myself.
It took longer than I had hoped – I continued to drool over it at more than one industry show after its debut – but the day finally came when I got to test it. And now that I’ve put several good weeks on the BQi-C3 Pro, I can finally share my thoughts on this unique e-bike.
This isn’t NIU’s first e-bike model, but it’s also not the brand’s main claim to fame. You’re probably more familiar with the company’s seated electric scooters that have helped propel NIU into a global leader in the electric scooter market.
You may have even seen the brand’s electric kick scooter line that has proven over the last couple years to be a growing segment of NIU’s diverse transportation lineup.
But the BQi-C3 Pro is new territory for NIU, both in terms of design and components. Check out what it’s like to ride such an interesting e-bike in my video review below. Then keep reading for my complete written review after the video.
NIU BQi-C3 Pro video review
NIU BQi-C3 Pro tech specs
- Motor: 750W peak-rated rear hub motor
- Top Speed: 45 km/h (28 mph) in unlocked Class 3 mode
- Battery: Dual 48V 10Ah batteries for 960Wh total
- Range: Up to 145 km (90 miles)
- Weight: 32 kg (70.5 lb.)
- Load capacity: 130 kg (287 lb.)
- Brakes: Mechanical disc brakes
- Extras: Color display with individual battery battery readouts, kickstand, integrated rear rack, LED headlight and tail light, included fenders, internally routed wiring
What makes it different?
There are a lot of new e-bikes out there, with several additional product launches coming seemingly every week. While many are simply rehashed OEM e-bike designs, the NIU BQi-C3 Pro is finally something quite refreshing.
It’s not totally new – we’ve seen low step-through frames before. But it’s an interesting combination of parts and design with a fairly respectable component list, all at a reasonable price. With two batteries, a Gates carbon belt drive, and a top speed of 28 mph (45 km/h), it’s really ticking a lot of my boxes.
That being said, there are also a few areas where I can see some real room for improvement. But let’s start with the positives.
Performance and connectivity
The two biggest advantages of the NIU BQi-C3 Pro are probably the performance and the smart features.
A fast e-bike that can hit 28 mph (45 km/h) is a wonderful commuter tool, especially in North America where sub-par cycling infrastructure often means that cyclists need to share the road with faster moving car traffic. The ability to keep up at city speeds is the difference between owning the lane or getting dangerously passed on the shoulder.
The 750W motor offers plenty of torque to get up to speed quickly, while the dual batteries provide 980 Wh of total capacity. That’s enough for a claimed 90 miles (145 km) of range on pedal assist. And unlike most dual battery e-bikes, it actually looks good! Many dual battery e-bikes look like someone simply tacked on a couple bulky black battery packs wherever they’d fit. The NIU BQi-C3 Pro shows what having a scooter design background can do for a company as it expands into new markets.
Speaking of that design legacy, anyone who is already familiar with NIU’s electric scooters will enjoy seeing many of the same smart features encompassed in the brand’s e-bike as well. It’s more than just a similar design language with recognizable components like that halo headlight. It also comes down to connectivity with an intuitive app giving riders control over the bike’s features, trip planning, data recording, map functions, and more.
The app is great for extra information, but even the bike’s own built-in color display already provides plenty of detail, including separate battery gauges for each of the two packs. I think this is the first time I’ve seen that on an e-bike, as most dual battery e-bikes use a single indicator on the screen to represent both batteries. Knowing if one of your batteries is nearly empty because you forgot to charge it is a big benefit when you’re about to head out on a longer trip.
Highs and lows when it comes to components
The NIU BQi-C3 Pro scores some wins when it comes to component selection. I’ll always drool over a nice Gates carbon belt drive, which is superior to chains in so many ways. From less noise to less maintenance to less mess, it’s truly a “less is more” situation.
The heavy-duty rack is a great addition, as are the grippy street tires and the nicely adjustable handlebars. Even the saddle is surprisingly comfortable.
I can look past the lack of suspension since this is a city e-bike, and it’s designed for riders who are used to non-suspension city bikes. I know some people consider suspension a necessity. And to those people, I say look elsewhere. But at the same time, other people (usually seasoned cyclists) see suspension as a needless waste of extra weight and one more part to eventually break.
So while I can look past the lack of suspension, it’s the lack of hydraulic disc brakes that seems like a major omission to me – at least on an otherwise very nicely designed e-bike like this. There’s nothing inherently wrong with mechanical disc brakes, and the ones included on the BQi-C3 Pro are just fine. But on what feels like a more premium bike, especially one that can hit 28 mph (45 km/h), I would have expected higher quality and lower maintenance hydraulic disc brakes.
And while I’m finding fault with component choices, I have to wonder what is going on with the gear ratio. As a belt drive e-bike, the only way to offer multiple gears is with an internally geared hub (IGH). The BQi-C3 Pro lacks an IGH since the 750W hub motor is mounted in the rear. That means that with a fairly low gear ratio that allows riders to have a fighting chance at getting rolling on a slight incline, there’s no way you’ll be able to add any pedaling support at the bike’s top speed. Even the mid 20s of mph are basically a no-go when your feet are flying like a salad spinner. At that point you’re simply using the cadence sensor in the pedal assist system to trigger the motor to take you up to top speed.
You can see what I mean in the video above, where 28 mph (45 km/h) pedaling looks almost comical.
I understand that NIU was avoiding a mid-drive motor to keep cost down, which meant a hub motor was necessary. But putting it up front would have allowed a simple 3-speed IGH in back. Front hub motors of course have their own disadvantages, but I’d argue that it would have been worth it to allow usable pedaling at higher speeds.
Sum it all up
In conclusion, despite there being a few head scratchers in the design, I’m quite happy with what NIU has built here. It’s not just an attractive e-bike, but also one that packs in fast speeds, long range, high power and smart connectivity, not to mention the joy that is a Gates belt drive system.
The MSRP of US $2,199 is a tad high compared to other commuter e-bikes, but the Gates belt drive contributes to that price tag, as do the smart features, dual batteries, and two-year warranty. You can easily contribute a few hundred bucks to each of those bullet points, and combining them all together results in a more expensive e-bike, unfortunately.
With the price occasionally dropping by several hundreds dollars though depending on current sales (it looks like it’s at US $1,999 right now), you start to get into serious value territory considering everything this e-bike has to offer.
While the NIU BQi-C3 Pro isn’t perfect, there’s enough to love here that I consider it a solid buy for someone looking for a bit more than the average budget e-bike.
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Environment
The global critical minerals race is heating up — and rare earths stocks are skyrocketing
A wheel loader takes ore to a crusher at the MP Materials rare earth mine in Mountain Pass, California, U.S. January 30, 2020.
Steve Marcus | Reuters
The emergence of critical minerals as a new arena of geopolitical competition has coincided with a dizzying rally in U.S.-listed rare earths mining stocks.
Despite paring gains in recent weeks, shares of Critical Metals have advanced 241% over the last three months, while NioCorp Developments, Energy Fuels and Idaho Strategic Resources have all surged well above 100% over the same period.
The eye-watering gains are even more remarkable year-to-date. Energy Fuels’ stock price has quadrupled through the first 10 months of the year, while NioCorp Developments’ shares have nearly quintupled.
Rare earths have come to the fore as a key bargaining chip in the ongoing geopolitical rivalry between the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest economies.
Tony Sage, CEO of Critical Metals, which has one of the world’s largest rare earths deposits in southern Greenland, described the rally of U.S.-listed rare earths miners as evidence of a major market boom.
“I talk of it like this, I mean, there have been four big booms. You had the gold boom in the 19th century, the oil boom in the 20th century, in the early 21st century you had the tech boom — and now you’ve got the rare earths boom,” Sage told CNBC by telephone.
“But the rare earths boom is the future. It will power all of the above.”
We are going from a philosophy of ‘fill the gap’ through imports to ‘mine the gap’ domestically or regionally.
Audun Martinsen
Head of supply chain research at Rystad Energy
Rare earths refer to 17 elements on the periodic table that have an atomic structure that gives them special magnetic properties. These materials are vital components to a vast array of modern technologies, from everyday electronics, such as smartphones, to electric vehicles and military equipment.
China, which has a near-monopoly on rare earths, recently threatened to expand its export controls on the elements to further leverage its dominance of the supply chain. However, following an in-person meeting in South Korea on Thursday between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Beijing agreed to delay the Oct. 9 export controls by one year.
U.S.-listed rare earths stocks rallied on the news, although analysts remain skeptical about whether the apparent trade truce can offer long-term relief.
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping as they hold a bilateral meeting at Gimhae International Airport, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Busan, South Korea, October 30, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
“As in all booms, there were a lot of oil companies that couldn’t find oil and there were a lot of gold companies that couldn’t find gold. And I’m sure there are going to be a lot of rare earths companies that won’t make it either — because when there’s a boom, there’s hype. And when there’s hype, there’s overexuberance in investing,” Critical Metals’ Sage said.
“It’s not a straight rise up. It’s a jagged line, but the trend is in the right direction if you’ve got the right project in the right place, and you’ve got the right partners,” he added.
‘A much bigger and longer supercycle’
Kevin Das, senior technical consultant at New Frontier Minerals, an Australian-based rare earths explorer, agreed with Sage’s description of a rare earths market boom, while acknowledging the likelihood of stock price pullbacks.
“People are saying we’re in an uptrend on what is a bigger supercycle and some of the evidence behind that is there has been low commodity prices for some time, there’s been underinvestment. And now, with the advent of AI … we’re going to see a much bigger and longer supercycle,” Das told CNBC by telephone.
Das drew parallels between the Biden administration’s support of clean energy projects, which coincided with a rally in lithium-related stocks, and the Trump administration’s backing of rare earths.
Shares of Critical Metals over the last three months.
“In the last nine to 10 months that Trump has been in power, he’s talked about annexing Greenland, he’s talked about doing a deal with Ukraine for rare earths and then the real clincher was this equity deal with MP Materials,” Das said.
“So, I think the runway over the next two to three years is going to be very fruitful,” he added.
Not everyone is as bullish on the outlook for rare earths-related stocks, however.
Audun Martinsen, head of supply chain research at Rystad Energy, said the recent surge in equity prices reflected a mix of geopolitical tension, strategic policy support and speculative momentum.
“Rare earths have clearly moved to the center of global industrial strategy, vital for defense, EVs and clean energy, but this looks more like the early stages of a structural shift than a mature ‘fourth boom,'” Martinsen told CNBC by email.
Neodymium is displayed at the Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Co. factory in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China, on Wednesday, May 5, 2010.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
“We are going from a philosophy of ‘fill the gap’ through imports to ‘mine the gap’ domestically or regionally,” he continued. “It will be a lengthy, expensive and rocky path forward as adequate, cost-effective resources and element diversity are complex to get full control over.”
Clean energy transition
Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at Columbia University, said there were two clear factors at work as global competition intensifies to secure the supply of critical minerals — one structural and the other political.
“The structural: Despite whatever political attempts there may be to stop or derail things, the clean-energy transition is happening — and it is accelerating — and yes, it depends on a number of critical minerals, whose prices are bound to jump,” Wagner told CNBC by email.
China, for instance, is the low-cost supplier of many of these minerals, Wagner said, noting that the Asian giant’s mineral dominance is by no means an accident.
“Beijing has invested heavily in green industrial policy for years, focusing on the full, integrated supply chain. That’s where politics enters,” Wagner said.
“Some attempts to onshore supply chains are eminently justified for national security and other reasons, and those attempts will increase prices and stocks of U.S. mining companies. Some of what we see, of course, is merely the current politics or erratic trade wars and the like,” he added.
For the last few weeks, we’ve been running a sidebar survey about how much Electrek readers think it would cost to add EV charging systems to their homes. After receiving over twenty-four hundred responses, here’s what you told us.
In our previous survey, we asked readers why they chose to install solar panels at home. In the recap, many of our commenters mentioned having their systems systems pull double duty — charging home backup batteries and topping off their electric cars. That got us thinking: as more and more first-time EV owners look into the many benefits of home charging, how much do they expect to pay for home charging?
Based on over 2,400 responses, this is what you told us.
What do you expect to pay for home charging?
The most positive surprise was that more than a third of Electrek readers who responded to the poll already had 240V outlets in their garage, so they expected to pay effectively $0 – their homes are EV ready now!
Of the remaining 64%, 44% were fairly evenly split between a relatively straightforward ~$500-1,000 wiring job with a few wiring or panel upgrades while only about 18% expected to spend over $1,000 due to having an older home, a detached garage, or for some other (apparently pricey and/or inconvenient) reason.
Navigating the questions
Just like you would for home solar, we’d recommend getting a quote from several installers before making a decision. One of our trusted partners, Qmerit, offers a quote-sourcing service called PowerHouse. The service scans pricing from thousands of completed electrification installations across North America to provide the best quotes that take regional variability into account and work with homeowners to “bundle” chargers, installation, and even batteries.
America has arrived at an inflection point in which all of the technical, policy and financial elements are in place to support a societal shift toward whole-home electrification. Now what’s needed is a comprehensive way to assemble these complex elements into a simple, financeable, home-energy retrofit that makes it easier to implement.
QMERIT FOUNDER TRACY PRICE
Qmerit says its new bundling program can flag the potential for federal, state, and local utility incentives like the ones we’ve covered from Illinois utility ComEd and others that can reduce or even eliminate the upfront costs of home installations for many.
Original content from Electrek.
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Following a lawsuit brought against the California Air Resources Board (CARB) by major heavy truck manufacturers over California’s emissions requirements, CARB has struck back with fresh lawsuit of its own alleging that the manufacturers violated the terms of the 2023 Clean Truck Partnership agreement to sell cleaner vehicles.
Daimler Truck North America, International Motors, Paccar and Volvo Group North America sued the California Air Resources Board in federal court this past August, seeking to invalidate the Clean Truck Partnership emissions reduction deal they signed with the state in 2023 to move away from traditional trucks and toward zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). The main point of the lawsuit was that, because the incoming Trump Administration rolled back Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) policies that had previously given individual states the right to set their own environmental and emissions laws, the truck makers shouldn’t have to honor the deals signed with individual states.
“Plaintiffs are caught in the crossfire: California demands that OEMs follow preempted laws; the United States maintains such laws are illegal and orders OEMs to disregard them,” the lawsuit reads. “Accordingly, Plaintiff OEMs file this lawsuit to clarify their legal obligations under federal and state law and to enjoin California from enforcing standards preempted by federal law.”
After several weeks of waiting for a response, we finally have one: CARB is suing the OEMs right back, claiming that the initial suit proves the signing manufacturers, “(have) unambiguously stated that they do not intend to comply.”
They want to sell Americans more diesel
In its lawsuit, CARB argues that monetary damages alone would not make the people of the State of California whole as far as damages are concerned, citing that the stated goal of the 2023 Clean Truck Partnership was, “to achieve emissions reductions that cannot be measured strictly in financial terms,” according to ACT-News.
The agency is asking the court to compel the truck companies to perform on their 2023 obligations or, failing that, to allow CARB to rescind the contract and recover its costs. A hearing on the truck makers’ request for a preliminary injunction was held Friday, with another court date set for November 21, when CARB will seek to dismiss the case brought forth by the truck brands. The outcome of these cases could shape how state and federal government agencies cooperation on emissions rules in the future.
You can read the full 22-page lawsuit, below, then let us know what you think of CARB’s response (and their chances of succeeding) in the comments.
SOURCES: CARB; via ACT-News, Trucking Dive.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
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