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Rad Power Bikes, a leading US-based electric bicycle retailer, has just announced that it is closing its New York City retail store.

The company didn’t give an exact date for the closure but confirmed yesterday that the Brooklyn-based Rad store would be sunsetted.

The retail location has operated for over a year and was part of Rad’s expansion into brick-and-mortar stores. That strategy sought to expand Rad’s US retail presence to provide prospective customers with local shopping, servicing, and test ride opportunities. It was seen as a power move that smaller brands wouldn’t be able to match, helping Rad maintain an edge over the wave of low-cost yet lower-quality brands entering the US market.

Other Rad Power Bikes retail locations have opened in Seattle, Denver, Salt Lake City, St. Petersburg, Berkeley, Santa Barbara, Huntington Beach, and San Diego, according to Geekwire.

radrunner 3 plus

The news also comes after several rounds of layoffs at the company and the announcement of the closure of Rad’s European operations by the end of this year.

Those successive cost-cutting rounds have been seen as belt-tightening measures in the post-Covid years, when high electric bike sales have fallen off and left some e-bike makers overextended.

Most e-bike companies have reported overstock situations and have been left with larger teams after hiring sprees during the post-pandemic bike boom.

The company confirmed that its New York City store closure is intended to help it operate more efficiently:

“The Rad Power Bikes team has worked diligently to ensure the company is in the best position possible to navigate the realities of the current market and become a sustainable, enduring business. While we have made some difficult decisions over the last several months, it has become necessary to make organizational changes to drive further efficiency in our business.”

rad power bikes radtrike e-trike

Rad Power Bikes has more e-bikes on the road in the US than any other company, but that large ridership also comes with its own challenges. The company is facing multiple lawsuits relating to safety concerns of its e-bikes and has also been forced to address issues with its customer service team being able to respond to its vast ridership quickly.

The company is currently running early Black Friday sales, competing against a saturated market of e-bikes in an attempt to retain its large market share against smaller encroaching e-bike brands.

Rad Power Bikes’ current financial position is not clear as the company is privately funded by large VC funds and private firms. However, the several rounds of layoffs over the last few years, as well as pullbacks in Europe and the NYC store, speak to Rad’s focus on tightening up its operations.

rad power bikes radexpand 5 electric bicycle

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Go West, young brand – GreenPower Motor Company sells 11 more BEAST buses

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Go West, young brand – GreenPower Motor Company sells 11 more BEAST buses

GreenPower Motor Company says it’s received three orders for 11 of its BEAST electric Type D school buses for western state school districts in Arizona, California, and Oregon.

GreenPower hasn’t made the sort of headline-grabbing promises or big-money commitments that companies like Nikola and Lion Electric have, but while those companies are floundering GPM seems to be plugging away, taking orders where it can and actually delivering buses to schools. Late last year, the company scored 11 more orders for its flagship BEAST electric school bus.

As far as these latest orders go, the breakdown is:

  • seven to Los Banos Unified School District in Los Banos, California
  • two for the Hood River County School District in Hood River, Oregon
  • two for the Casa Grande Elementary School District in Casa Grande, Arizona

Those two BEAST electric school buses for Arizona will join another 90-passenger BEAST that was delivered to Phoenix Elementary School District #1, which operates 15 schools in the center of Phoenix, late last year.

“As school districts continue to make the change from NOx emitting diesel school buses to a cleaner, healthier means of transporting students, school district transportation departments are pursuing the gold standard of the industry – the GreenPower all-electric, purpose-built (BEAST) school buses,” said Paul Start, GreenPower’s Vice President of Sales, School Bus Group. “(The) GreenPower school bus order pipeline and production schedule are both at record levels with sales projections for (2025) set to eclipse the 2024 calendar year.”

GreenPower moved into an 80,000-square-foot production facility in South Charleston, West Virigina in August 2022, and delivered its first buses to that state the following year.

Electrek’s Take

GreenPower electric school buses
BEAST and NanoBEAST; via GreenPower Motor Company.

Since the first horseless carriage companies started operating 100 years ago (give or take), at least 1,900 different companies have been formed in the US, producing over 3,000 brands of American automobiles. By the mid 1980s, that had distilled down to “the big 3.”

All of which is to say: don’t let the recent round of bankruptcies fool you – startups in the car and truck industry is business as usual, but some of these companies will stick around. If you’re wondering which ones, look to the ones that are making units, not promises.

SOURCE | IMAGES: GreenPower Motors.

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Harbinger electric truck brand gets real with $100M Series B funding raise

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Harbinger electric truck brand gets real with 0M Series B funding raise

While some recent high-profile bankruptcies have cast doubt on the EV startup space recently, medium-duty electric truck maker Harbinger got a shot of credibility this week with a massive $100 million Series B funding round co-led by Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for fledgling EV brands like Lion Electric and Canoo, but box van builder Harbinger is bucking the trend, fueling its latest funding round with an order book of 4,690 vehicles that’s valued at nearly $500 million. Some of the company’s more notable customers including Bimbo Bakeries (which owns brands like Sara Lee, Thomas’, and Entenmann’s) and THOR Industries (Airstream, Jayco, Thor), which is also one of the investors in the Series B.

Other prominent investors include Tiger Global, the Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund, and ArcTern Ventures.

As for what makes Harbinger such an attractive investment prospect, Dipender Saluja, Managing Partner of Capricorn Investment Group’s Technology Impact Fund explains that, “Harbinger has demonstrated a remarkable ability to reach significant milestones far quicker than other EV companies … the market has been impressed by their ability to develop large portions of the vehicle in-house to drive down unit costs, while remaining capital efficient.”

The company plans to use the funds to ramp up to higher-volume production capacity and deliver on existing orders, as well as build-out of the company’s sales, customer support, and service operations.

“Harbinger is entering a rapid growth phase where we are focused on scaling production of our customer-ready platform,” said John Harris, co-founder and CEO. “These funds catalyze significant revenue generation. We’ve developed a vehicle for a segment that is ripe for electrification, and there is a strong product/market fit that will help fuel our upward trajectory through 2025 and beyond.”

The company has raised $200 million since its inception in 2021.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Harbinger.

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Michigan State Police deploy their first electric patrol vehicle

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Michigan State Police deploy their first electric patrol vehicle

There is no state more associated with cars and car culture than Michigan – and the state that’s home to the Motor City has just taken a huge step into the future with the deployment of its first-ever all electric police vehicle.

The 2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E patrol vehicle is assigned to the Michigan State Police State Security Operations Section, and will be to be used by armed, uniformed members of the MSP specializing in general law enforcement and security services at state-owned facilities in the Lansing, MI area.

“This is an exciting opportunity for us to research, in real time, how a battery electric vehicle performs on patrol,” says Col. James F. Grady II, director of the MSP. “Our state properties security officers patrol a substantially smaller number of miles per day than our troopers and motor carrier officers, within city limits and at lower speeds, coupled with the availability of charging infrastructure in downtown Lansing, making this the ideal environment to test the capabilities of a police-package battery electric vehicle.”

The MSP’s Precision Driving Unit is nationally renowned for its annual Police Vehicle Evaluation, which our own Scooter Doll participated in last year, driving the then-new Chevy Blazer EV Police Pursuit Vehicles in a game of “cops and robbers.”

In those tests, the EVs have impressed – but the MSP has been hesitant to commit to a BEV until now. “We began testing battery electric vehicles in 2022, but up until now hybrids were the only alternative fuel vehicle in our fleet,” said Lt. Nicholas Darlington, commander of the Precision Driving Unit. “Adding this battery electric vehicle to our patrol fleet will allow us to study the vehicle’s performance long-term to determine if there is a potential for cost savings and broader applicability within our fleet.”

Michigan joins other states like Wisconsin and California in deploying electric patrol cars and saving big money on fuel and maintenance, with many more out there and many more to come.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Michigan State Police.

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