CSC Motorcycles, the southern California motorcycle and scooter (and e-bike) dealer known for its modestly-priced two-wheelers, has just unveiled yet another interesting electric scooter. The CSC E-RT3 comes with highway-capable specs yet at a fraction of the competition’s cost.
The new launch follows on the heels of the recent CSC ES5 unveiling. That electric scooter is designed for city commuting and offers a top speed of up to 52 mph (83 km/h).
The CSC E-RT3, which comes just a couple weeks after it’s smaller cousin, bumps that speed up by nearly 50%. With a peak of 75 mph (120 km/h), it should be plenty fast to get riders onto any highway in the country.
The bike features a mid-mounted motor with a belt drive output. It offers 8 kW (10.7 hp) of continuous power yet has a peak power rating of 17 kW (22.8 hp). The peak power is the true power pulled during acceleration, hill climbing, and other high load scenarios.
That power is supplied by a built-in 72V and 96Ah automotive grade lithium battery with 6.9 kWh of capacity. At a modest speed of 32 mph (50 km/h), the bike is rated for a maximum range of 124 miles (200 km). At the actual speeds you’ll be riding it, though, expect reduced range in the mid to high double digits.
An included 3.3 kW fast charger can fill the battery from 30-80% in just 70 minutes, or give a full charge in less than three hours.
The 456 lb (206 kg) CSC E-RT3 rolls on a 15″ wheel in front and 14″ wheel in the rear. Front and rear hydraulic disc brakes use Bosch’s dual channel ABS and a combined braking system for safety. Other features include a TFT display instrument panel, tire pressure monitoring, large windscreen, keyless start, electronic release seat cushion over storage area, USB charger, integrated speaker for music, reverse gear, cruise control, backlit switches, aluminum alloy rear rack, and elevated pillion seat for your riding partner in life.
The MSRP of US $7,299 is reduced to just $6,999 during the current pre-order period, though there are extra dealer fees to the tune of $410 that include inspection, paperwork for registering, etc.
Riders wishing to grab one of the first bikes can put down a fully-refundable $300 deposit ahead of estimated shipping in October or November of this year.
The CSC E-RT3 is a large scooter that pushes the brand into maxiscooter territory. The bike’s closest competitor in terms of performance is likely to be the BMW CE04. While that scooter has a serious design edge, the performance is surprisingly comparable.
The BMW CE04 is priced at closer to US $13,000, yet offers the same 75 mph (120 km/h) top speed and many of the same features such as tire pressure monitoring, combined braking system, keyless start, USB charging, etc. Sure, it has a USB-C charger instead of USB-A and a fancier 10″ screen, but it also weighs a whopping 509 lb (231 kg).
It does have a 20% larger battery, though it still claims a similar range, perhaps due to having nearly twice the power (and thus drains its larger battery more quickly). So while BMW’s electric scooter will look nicer and be quicker off the line, the rest of the performance is nearly identical. Fit and finish likely won’t be comparable, but saving $6,000 might be worth the tradeoff for many riders.
Electrek’s Take
Technically speaking, CSC rates the E-RT3 with a top speed of 74 mph. But I think that’s because they’re taking the 120 km/h rating, which equates to 74.56 mph, and rounding down. Ugh, that’s just like CSC… underpromising and overdelivering.
But hey, 74 mph is still fine by me. It may not be enough to overtake on the highway, but it’s sufficient to feel like you still belong there. And in practice, most people are probably going to use this as a commuter bike for a mostly urban/suburban riding combined with shorts jaunts on the highway between suburbia and, well, urbia? It’s just that compared to something like the CSC ES5 with its 52 mph top speed, the 74 mph to speed of the E-RT3 actually allows you to take faster roads and not feel like you’re being squeezed into the right shoulder.
It can’t compete with BMW’s pizzazz or design chops, but at a nearly 50% lower price tag than the BMW CE04, it doesn’t need to. Companies like BMW can still tout a much larger dealership presence for support and servicing, but CSC counters with a massive warehouse of spare parts in LA that they can get out to you in 48 hours, meaning that the occasional servicing still comes with fairly local support. Electric motorcycles also need less servicing to begin with, but the company is there when you need them. I had a CSC City Slicker back in 2019 that eventually needed a new rear pulley due to a wearing bearing. They sent me the part and the lead mechanic walked me through the process of swapping it out over the phone. Sure, I could have taken it to a motorcycle shop, too, but doing it myself in my apartment building’s parking garage also helped me better understand the bike and how it worked. Plus, I looked like a badass in front of the girls in my building.
So while the CSC E-RT3 isn’t as flashy as competitors like BMW, they offer good products and support, meaning this is going to be a very interesting new option in the market.
For those that want to go even faster though (or want something a little more impressive looking when rolling up at the bar), I’m currently testing out an 80 mph (130 km/h) CSC RX1E electric motorcycle for a full review coming soon. Here’s a teaser image below.
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Over the next two years, homebuilder Lennar is outfitting more than 1,500 new Colorado homes with Dandelion Energy’s geothermal systems in one of the largest residential geothermal rollouts in the US.
The big draw for homeowners is lower energy bills and cleaner heating and cooling. Dandelion claims Lennar homeowners with geothermal systems will collectively save around $30 million over the next 20 years compared to using air-source heat pumps. Geothermal heat pumps don’t need outdoor AC units or conventional heating systems, either.
Geothermal systems use the sustained temperature of the ground to heat or cool a home. A ground loop system absorbs heat energy (BTUs) from the earth so that it can be transferred to a heat pump and efficiently converted into warmth for a home. Dandelion says its ground loop systems are built to last for over 50 years and should require no maintenance.
Dandelion’s geothermal system uses a vertical ground closed-loop system that is installed using well-boring equipment and trenched back into the house to connect to a heat pump. The pipes circulate a mixture of water and propylene glycol, a food-grade antifreeze, that absorbs the ground’s temperature. A ground source heat pump circulates the liquid through the ground loops and it exchanges its heat energy in the heat pump with liquid refrigerant. The refrigerant is converted to vapor, compressed to increase its temperature, then passed through a heat exchanger to transfer heat to the air, which is circulated through a home’s HVAC ductwork.
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Daniel Yates, Dandelion Energy’s CEO, called the partnership with Lennar a “new benchmark for affordable, energy-efficient, and high-quality home heating and cooling.” By streamlining its installation process, Dandelion is making geothermal systems simpler and cheaper for homebuilders and homeowners to adopt.
This collaboration is happening at a time when Colorado is pushing hard to meet its clean energy targets. Governor Jared Polis is excited about the move, calling it a win for Coloradans’ wallets, air quality, and the state’s leadership on geothermal energy. Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office, said that “ensuring affordable access to geothermal heating and cooling is essential to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, and we’re excited to be part of such a huge effort to bring this technology to so many new Colorado homes.”
And it’s not just about cutting emissions – geothermal heat pumps help reduce peak electric demand. Analysis from the Department of Energy found that widespread adoption of these systems could save the US from needing 24,500 miles of new transmission lines. That’s like crossing the continental US eight times.
Colorado is making this transition a lot more attractive through state tax credits and Xcel Energy’s rebate programs. These incentives slash upfront costs for builders like Lennar, making geothermal installations more financially viable. The utility’s Clean Heat Plan and electrification strategy are working to keep energy bills low while meeting climate goals.
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Polestar has removed the Polestar 2 from its US website header in an early sign of how new tariffs will restrict choice and competition for American consumers, thus increasing prices.
The Polestar 2 is Polestar’s first full EV – the original Polestar 1 was a limited-edition plug-in hybrid.
It started production in 2020 in Luqiao, Zhejiang, China, where Polestar and Volvo’s parent corporation, Geely, was founded.
Unfortunately, that interacts with some news that has been getting a lot of play lately: tariffs.
The US has been gradually getting stupider and stupider on the issue of tariffs, apparently determined to increase prices for Americans and decrease the competitiveness of American manufacturing in a time of change for the auto industry.
It is widely acknowledged (by anyone who has given it a few seconds of thought) that tariffs increase prices and that trade barriers tend to reduce competition, leading to less innovation.
It started with 25% tariffs on various products from China, implemented in the 2018-2020 timeframe. Then, in 2024, President Biden implemented a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs, effectively stopping their sale in the US. These tariffs included some exceptions and credits based on Volvo’s other US manufacturing, which Polestar had used to keep the most expensive versions of the 2 on sale in the US, while restricting the lower-priced versions from sale. Nevertheless, they were a bad idea.
Now, in yet another step to make America less competitive and inflate the prices of goods more for Americans, we got more tariff announcements today from a senile ex-reality TV host who wandered into the White House rose garden (which he does not belong in). These tariffs do not include the same exceptions as the previously-announced Biden tariffs.
Apparently this has all been enough for Polestar, as even in advance of today’s tariff announcements, the company suddenly removed its Polestar 2 from its website header today.
The change can be seen at polestar.com/us, where only the Polestar 3 and 4 are listed in the header area. On other sites, like the company’s Norwegian website or British website, the car is still there. The Polestar 2 page is still up on the US website, but it isn’t linked to elsewhere on the site (we’ll see how long it stays up).
We reached out to Polestar for comment, but didn’t hear anything back before publication. We’ll update if we do.
It makes sense that the Polestar 2 would still be for sale elsewhere, as it only started production in 2020. Most car models are available for at least 7 years, so this is an earlier exit than expected.
So it’s likely that all of the tariff news is what had an effect in killing the Polestar 2.
Then again, this is also just the second day of a new fiscal quarter. Perhaps the timing offers Polestar an opportunity to make a clean break – especially now that the lower-priced version of its Polestar 3 is available.
Despite the lower $67.5k base price of the new Polestar 3 variant, that represents a big increase in price for the brand, which had sold the base model Polestar 2 for around $50k originally, before all of these tariffs.
Update: Polestar got back to us with comment, but understandably, it doesn’t say much:
Polestar is a three-car company and Polestar 2 is available for customers now. There are a select number of Polestar 2s in stock at retailers that can be found on Polestar.com, but Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 will be the priority in the North American market.
Volvo decided to build the car in Belgium and export it to the US, but now that new tariffs apply to the EU as well, maybe that low-priced, awesome, fast, small EV will instead stay in Europe instead of being shipped overseas.
This shows how mercurial tariff fiats from an ignoramus are bad for manufacturing, as they mean that companies can’t make plans – and if they can’t make plans, eventually, they’ll probably just write the country making the random decisions out of their plans so they don’t have to deal with the nonsense.
And we’ve heard this from every businessperson or manufacturer representative we’ve talked to at any level of the automotive industry. Nobody thinks any of this is a good idea, because it objectively is not. All it does is make business harder, make the US less trustworthy, make things more expensive, and overall just harm America.
Yet another way that Americans are getting screwed by this stupid nonsense. 49% of you voted for inflation, and 100% of Americans are now getting it. Happy Inflation Day, everyone.
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Lucid Motors (LCID) has now had six straight quarters with higher deliveries. The delivery record comes just as Lucid prepares to begin delivering its first electric SUV, the Gravity, to customers by the end of this month.
Lucid sets sixth straight delivery record in Q1 2025
Lucid delivered 3,109 vehicles in the first quarter, up 58% from last year and topping its previous record of 3,099 set in Q4 2024.
The company also produced 2,213 vehicles at its Casa Grande, Arizona, plant in the first three months of 2025, an increase of 28% from last year. Another 600 vehicles were in transit to Saudi Arabia, where they will be assembled at its new AMP-2 plant, Lucid’s first international manufacturing facility.
At this pace, Lucid will easily top the roughly 10,200 vehicles it delivered last year in 2025 at around 12,500. Lucid will likely see even more growth this year, with customer deliveries of its first electric SUV starting soon.
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During the Gravity SUV’s “celestial arrival” last week in NYC, Lucid’s interim CEO Marc Winterhoff said the EV maker is “nearly finished building all the vehicles that we wanted to build to put them into our studio and for test drives.”
Q4 2022
Q1 2023
Q2 2023
Q3 2023
Q4 2023
Full-year 2023
Q1 2024
Q2 2024
Q3 2024
Q4 2024
Full-year 2024
Q1 2025
Lucid EV deliveries by quarter
1,932
1,406
1,404
1,457
1,734
6,001
1,967
2,394
2,781
3,099
10,241
3,109
Lucid (LCID) EV deliveries by quarter 2023 to Q1 2025
Winterhoff added, “by the end of April, we will resume customer deliveries of the Gravity.” Lucid delivered the first models in December, but they were for employees, friends, and family.
Lucid calls the Gravity a “no compromise” SUV with a range of up to 450 miles, 120 cubic feet of interior space, advanced technology, and sports car-like performance. The Gravity Grand Touring starts at $94,900, while the Touring model will arrive later this year at $79,900.
Lucid Gravity Grand Touring in Aurora Green (Source: Lucid)
The new delivery record comes after Winterhoff told Fox Business last week that Lucid has seen a “dramatic uptick over the past two months” in orders from former Tesla drivers.
Currently, “50% of all the orders we have are from former Tesla owners,” Lucid’s CEO said. Winterhoff added that many are “looking for an option to not continue having a Tesla.”
Will we see the trend continue? Tesla announced earlier today that it delivered 336,681 vehicles in the first quarter, far less than the 390,000 Wall Street analysts expected.
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