This week on Electrek’s Wheel-E podcast, we discuss the most popular news stories from the world of electric bikes and other nontraditional electric vehicles. This time, that includes new e-bikes from Segway and Honda, South Park takes on e-bikes, Rivian’s e-bikes are rolling out to everyone except for customers, Royal Enfield’s e-moto gets a Western price, and more.

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Tesla officially launched high-volume production of the Tesla Semi last night at its new dedicated factory in Nevada, a plant it says can build 50,000 electric trucks per year.

The Class 8 truck was unveiled in 2017 with production promised for 2019. Seven years later, Tesla says deliveries “start now,” and it detailed a heavily redesigned truck in a 13-post thread on X.

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Volkswagen’s electric minibus will not return for the 2027 model year as expected, after another delay.

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Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” broke the speed limit in 55% of the 30 km/h segments a Belgian road safety group tested in Brussels, averaging 44 km/h where the legal limit is 30 km/h.

The results land less than two weeks before EU member states vote on approving FSD across the whole bloc. And speeding is exactly the issue Sweden and France have already flagged.

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NHTSA has opened a formal investigation into comma.ai’s aftermarket driver assistance devices after five crashes where cars running openpilot plowed into stopped or slow-moving vehicles in their own lane. Two of those crashes killed three people.

The probe covers an estimated 30,000 comma three, comma 3X, and comma four devices. It’s the biggest regulatory problem for George Hotz’s startup since NHTSA pushed it to cancel its first product back in 2016.

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Being a one-car family works great right up until the moment two people need to be in two different places. Maybe your spouse took the car to work, but you need to grab groceries. Maybe you’ve got to pick up a kid from daycare. Perhaps you’re meeting a friend for coffee, heading to the gym, or just running some mundane errand that happens to require going a few miles across town.

Those are the moments when a second car starts sounding awfully convenient.

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Building on its nearly 10-year history, Mercedes-Benz secured first rights to ProLogium’s latest Gen4 solid-state EV battery cells.

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Following right alongside the early Amazon Prime Day deals that are live, we’ve got two new Prime Day sales leading today’s Green Deals. First, there’s the massive Anker eufy Early Prime Day Sale with up to 46% savings on security and cleaning devices, like the SoloCam S340...

Kia’s off-road electric SUV might be real after all. New patent images reveal what could be the production version of the EV9 ADVNTR.

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Tesla has lined up at least 11 Semi electric trucks wearing customer logos outside its new Nevada factory, a clear sign that the automaker plans to parade its fleet customers at tonight’s Semi launch event.

A drone flyover of the plant shows trucks branded for PepsiCo, US Foods, DHL, WattEV, ABF, Einride, IMC, OK Produce, and a few others parked in a neat row by the factory.

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Waymo has released new crash data which claims not only an 82% reduction in crashes, but for the first time says the number of injuries that have been avoided by its robotaxi operation.

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BMW will open US reservations for the new i3 early, now scheduled for next week.

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Volkswagen launched the new ID. Buzz Cargo with a longer wheelbase, offering more space and updated software. Prices start at about $60,000, but a cheaper version will go on sale soon.

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Bentley has unveiled the Torcal, its first all-electric vehicle, at a global debut in London today. It’s an SUV with up to 888 PS (876 hp), a 113 kWh battery, and up to 375 miles (600 km WLTP) of range.

The Torcal becomes Bentley’s fourth model line, alongside the Continental GT, Flying Spur, and Bentayga. It’s designed, engineered, and built in Crewe, England.

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Leading our midweek Green Deals is the exclusive 5,040Wh Jackery Explorer 5000 Plus Portable Power Station undercutting the brand’s early Prime Day Sale with $1000 savings to the $2,499 annual low. We also have the Bluetti 6th Anniversary Power Week Sale on its last day wit...

The flagship sedan will be among BYD’s most luxurious and advanced vehicles to date, with Rolls-Royce-like coach doors, 5-minute Flash Charging, and possibly solid-state batteries.

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Ford has filed for a new patent showing a multi-use tailgate on the front end of a truck, with the possibility of putting a whole television inside the tailgate. It seems likely to apply to the upcoming Fathom.

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Toyota is preparing to introduce the electric version of its best-selling car of all time, the Corolla.

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The Pixo is back, but this time it’s an all-electric city cruiser set to become Nissan’s most affordable EV starting under $25,000.

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Tesla’s racism trial in California opened Monday with a bad day for the company’s lawyers. The first witness testified that a senior Tesla in-house attorney had called him last week and let him believe he was working for the state, according to Law360 (paywall).

That same morning, Tesla’s outside counsel told the judge the N-word is a “term of respect and endearment” in the Black community. Both happened in front of Judge Peter Borkon, the one person who will decide the case.

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An Intertek lab in the UK found just 3.4 ppm of lithium in a sample of Donut Lab’s “solid-state” battery, and the Finnish startup is now using that result to argue its cell is neither lithium-ion nor sodium-ion.

But the report measured just two elements, on a cell Donut Lab took apart itself. And nine months after CES, there’s still no production vehicle running on the battery.

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General Motors and Pacific Gas and Electric are running a deal to give new EV buyers a free charger, get paid to charge, and save the grid all at the same time. What’s not to love?

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With more than 250 km (~155 miles) of battery-only range, genuine off-road capability, and a range extending ICE motor that pushes total range well past 1,000 km (~620 miles), VinFast’s new VF Wild is shaping up to be an interesting entry in the electrified truck race.

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Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe says the upcoming R3 crossover will come in “materially lower” than the R2 on price, and that a follow-up model, the R4, will push prices down further still.

He didn’t give a number. But it’s the clearest sign yet that Rivian plans to keep walking its lineup down toward the heart of the market after the R2 launch.

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Porsche’s upcoming Boxster EV has been spotted in California, Supercharging at a Tesla Supercharger, adding to speculation over the car’s release timing and details.

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The 2027 iX3 is just arriving at dealerships, and BMW wants to keep drivers with the brand by offering an early loyalty discount.

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Tesla has been named the primary truck supplier for the largest electric Class 8 order in US history: 2,500 battery-electric trucks bought through a new shipper alliance called ZET SCALE.

The order on its own would nearly double the number of electric Class 8 trucks on US roads, and the alliance says it’s targeting more than 10,000 over time.

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The bZ3X is the best-selling EV produced by a joint venture in China. A right-hand drive version was spotted testing overseas, suggesting Toyota will bring the popular electric SUV to global markets.

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Following right along with yesterday’s early Prime Day coverage, we have today’s Green Deals led by the freshly launched Jackery Early Access Prime Big Deal Days Sale with up to 65% power station discounts, like the new 3,584Wh HomePower 3600 Pro Max Power Station down at $...

Volkswagen’s new family of entry-level electric cars is proving to be more popular than its internal combustion engine vehicles.

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