This Rivian spinoff is reinventing e-bikes in California with screens, software and swappable seats

1 day ago 8

Rivian Automotive has attracted die-hard fans by gathering a battery-powered motortruck with capable musculus for off-roading arsenic good arsenic the acceleration and suspension to comfortably glide done metropolis streets. Its small member — a institution called Also — is trying to bash the aforesaid for e-bikes.

The Palo Alto institution wants to reinvent the battery-driven bicycle utilizing a almighty generator and bundle to alteration the look, consciousness and capabilities of two-wheelers. Also announced its flagship motorcycle past October and is preparing to statesman deliveries aboriginal this year.

E-bike enthusiasts often request abstracted bikes for antithetic uses. Some bikes are bully for carrying kids and cargo, others for regular metropolis commutes. Another benignant is bully for biking unsmooth upland paths.

Also claims its e-bikes tin bash it each by swapping retired a fewer cardinal components and pressing a button, truthful the motorcycle behaves otherwise depending connected the day’s needs.

“Let’s instrumentality the aforesaid attack arsenic Rivian, the latest and astir modern EV attack successful architecture, but re-optimize it for smaller-than-car modes,” said Chris Yu, president and co-founder of Also. “The champion EVs person caller features and caller capabilities that travel done a bundle update each fewer weeks.”

Also’s e-bike, dubbed the TM-B, starts astatine $3,500 and tin question up to 28 miles per hour. Many e-bikes are disposable for astir $1,000, though immoderate high-end options spell for much than $5,000.

President Chris Yu poses for a representation with an ALSO e-bike.

The institution is betting that the $57-billion planetary e-bike marketplace and $3-billion U.S. marketplace person country for a caller subordinate with a unsocial offering. It’s besides making a four-wheel electrical conveyance with pedals designed to present cargo.

Yu, a Stanford-educated aerodynamics technologist and erstwhile motorcycle racer, had done an internship astatine NASA and 10 years astatine bicycle shaper Specialized earlier helium met Rivian Chief Executive RJ Scaringe successful 2021. The 2 deed it off, and Yu joined Rivian successful 2022 to enactment connected a caller concealed task to make smaller electrical vehicles.

Also divided disconnected from Rivian successful 2025. Irvine-based Rivian owns a number stock successful it.

Also, which employs astir 300 people, would not stock whether it was profitable oregon however galore bikes it plans to nutrient per year. In a promotional video earlier this year, an Also worker said the institution hopes to yet nutrient hundreds of thousands of units per year.

Like Rivian, Also makes each the large parts of its products, from the handlebars to the circuit boards. Also wants to connection e-bike riders the aforesaid software-powered easiness and customization that has go modular successful high-end electrical cars from Rivian and Tesla.

“We tin truly trade an acquisition that mirrors a modern car-like experience,” Yu said. “We’re taking that look and applying it to this truly fast-moving electrification of smaller things.”

Its TM-B e-bike is decked retired with features, including Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi, a built-in touchscreen, and bundle that supports over-the-air updates. Riders tin power retired their bike’s spot and wheels depending connected whether they are riding to work, dropping disconnected kids oregon tackling a upland trail.

A rack of centrifugal and transmission components for e-bikes.

The institution is hitting the marketplace during a rocky play for the e-bike industry. After a pandemic-era roar successful request that led to a proliferation of options, galore e-bike companies person struggled with slowing involvement and rising costs.

Rad Power Bikes, erstwhile a starring marque successful the U.S., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy successful precocious 2025 and was sold to Life Electric Vehicle Holdings successful January for $13.2 million, a 99% driblet from its highest valuation. Its competitor, Juiced Bikes, collapsed successful 2024. Late past year, Porsche scrapped its plans to motorboat its ain e-bikes, citing a cooling marketplace successful its statement.

David Zipper, a micromobility adept and elder chap astatine the MIT Mobility Initiative, said helium isn’t convinced there’s dense request for a merchandise similar the TM-B.

“I person ne'er met anyone who said, ‘I truly privation my motorcycle could instrumentality over-the-air updates,’” helium said. “Part of the quality of the bicycle is its simplicity.”

Yu hopes Also’s bikes volition velocity up the electrification of micromobility, but Zipper said the bikes’ complexity and terms constituent mightiness hinder that mission.

“A batch of radical won’t consciousness similar they tin spend it, and for that reason, I don’t needfully spot it arsenic being transformational,” Zipper said. “They person a batch of absorbing technology, but if we’re trying to truly alteration American transportation, I’m not definite that a luxury, software-enabled e-bike is the archetypal spot I’d look.”

Yu said electrical micromobility is going to surge arsenic much cities prohibition combustion engines from definite areas. Hanoi banned gas-powered two-wheel vehicles successful the metropolis halfway and Paris closed a halfway portion of the metropolis to cars past year.

Also is partnering with Amazon to usage its four-wheel electrical vehicle, called the TM-Q, to grow Amazon’s micromobility transportation fleet crossed Europe and the U.S. Also did not stock erstwhile its transportation vehicles would beryllium deployed.

ALSO president Chris You rides connected an e-bike astatine the ALSO headquarters.

“There are hundreds of millions of smaller-than-car vehicles contiguous that will, astir without debate, electrify implicit the adjacent decade,” Yu said.

The TM-B and TM-Q trust connected the aforesaid underlying technology, but are designed for antithetic usage cases, Yu said. They disagree from different products connected the marketplace successful the mode the pedaling mechanics works — the e-bikes person nary chains.

“There’s nary carnal transportation betwixt your input and the effect of the motorcycle moving,” Yu said. “It’s each software. We crook your limb powerfulness into electrical power, we nonstop that electrical powerfulness to the battery, and past the artillery sends it to the wheel.”

Also’s engineers person worked to mimic the feeling of riding a existent motorcycle and shifting gears adjacent without a concatenation connecting the pedals to the wheels. Riders tin take an electric-assist level that makes pedaling easier oregon harder.

The motorcycle charges to afloat artillery successful a mates of hours and has a scope of 25 to 100 miles, depending connected the level of electrical assistance used.

Its artillery is simply a removable artifact that tin complaint separately from the motorcycle and adjacent beryllium utilized arsenic a powerfulness slope astatine the formation oregon connected camping trips.

A item photograph of the centrifugal and transmission mechanics of an ALSO e-bike.

Using much bundle and less moving parts makes Also’s e-bikes much efficient, durable and easier to handle, the institution says. It besides lets the bikes execute otherwise depending connected need.

Ed Benjamin, president of the Light Electric Vehicle Association, said Also’s attack reflects the absorption the tiny EV manufacture is heading in.

“The aboriginal of electrical two-wheelers is going to beryllium driven by software,” helium said. “In caller cars, the bundle provides information features, comfortableness features and ratio features. The aforesaid happening is going to hap with bikes.”

Read Entire Article