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Glenn Groves from regional Victoria shares his journey from a V8 Chevrolet IROC-Z Camaro to a fully electric Nissan LEAF via a Toyota Prius hybrid. He contacted me through the Nissan LEAF Facebook page. I have written about people’s love of the V8 Camaro previously. Glenn covers it from a previous owner’s perspective, and now an EV owner’s perspective. The rest of this article is by Glenn Groves (with only minor edits). By Glenn Groves Hi, I saw your post on the Nissan LEAF page. I drove an IROC Chevy Camaro for 15 years; then a comfortable but gutless early…

Harry and Sue have had their Nissan Leaf for over 12 months now and are more than happy with it. In fact, they told me that if they had to replace it, they would definitely buy another Leaf. The Nissan Leaf stands out as one of the early electric pioneers, alongside the BMW i3 and the Renault Zoe. I don’t know why, but I have never gotten around to driving one, so it was refreshing to hear their story. It is wonderful that it is still on the market. My main interest has been the importing of used Leafs from…

The Lectric eBikes XPedition Series represents a step forward for the Phoenix-based company and brings a ton of new capability, power, range, and hauling capacity into the Lectric lineup. We were impressed after our first ride of a few pre-production builds and eager to see what the final version looked like so when they sent one our way, we were eager to get out onto the streets with it. The Build When assembling a bike, you get to know it at a more intimate level. The quality (or lack thereof) is more evident and the amount of thought put into…

Last year, we reviewed the Snapcycle R1, a fat tire e-bike. I’ve been in touch with the company since then working on a minor user-caused issue (I didn’t secure a bike rack properly), and the team offered to send out two more bikes for us to review. One of these new bikes was the Pegasus, a step-thru model with all of the bells and whistles. I know everybody doesn’t read the whole review, so I’ll sum it up real quick here. It’s a pretty decent bike, with good features and parts, but there’s one thing readers should watch out for:…

BioLite is moving into the portable power station business with a range of compact and stylish units. They sent us the BioLite BaseCharge 600, a $699, 622 watt-hour portable power station for us to run through the paces. Right out of the gate, the BioLite BaseCharge 600 comes in a rectangular form factor with a flat top. Outlets on the front of the device sit below a small display. It sports 2 AC outlets, 2 x USB-C outlets, 2 x USB-A outlets, a DC 12 volt automotive outlet, and two DC barrel plug outlets. One of the USB-C ports also…

A couple weeks ago, I was talking with a representative from Snapcycle, the manufacturer of the R1 e-bike we reviewed last year. Aside from an issue that is likely the result of user error, the bike is running strong, so when they asked me if I wanted to review some of their new 2023 models, I was excited to do some more reviews. Among these new models is the Stinger. TL;DR: The bike may appear to be less capable than the R1 at first glance, but it was surprisingly capable and robust. To see why it may look like less…

The folks at HiPeak, an electric bike manufacturer, recently sent us a sample of their ELIAS foldable electric bike. In this article, I want to take a look at the bike’s specifications and cover some of what I like about the bike, as well as where it could be a little better. Overall, I’d say that it’s a pretty decent folding bike, with a couple of features that set it apart from the rest. Features and Specifications The HiPeak ELIAS Step-Thru Fat Tire Folding Electric Bike is a high-performance electric bike that can reach speeds up to around 28 mph.…

Priority Bicycles made a name for itself by bringing the promise of low maintenance, belt-drive bicycles built with higher quality materials to the market, commanding slightly higher price points as a result. This same philosophy informed its move into the world of electric bikes with the Priority Current, and all signs point to the trend continuing to the newest member of the Priority family, the e-Coast. The Priority e-Coast follows behind the impressive mid-drive, belt-driven Current with a simplified approach that translates to a much more affordable bike. At $1,999, the e-Coast is almost half the price of the Current,…

Figure 1: Snow on a roof. All-time biggest snow year on record, approaching 900 inches. Alta, Utah. April 2023. Photo by Elizabeth McDonald. Background (skip these first three paragraphs if you’re familiar with my background): I’m a huge EV fanboy and have been driving electric cars now for 8 years. I also have solar panels on my house, so I can brag that I am driving on sunshine. I previously owned 3 Nissan Leafs. I now own a dual-motor Tesla Model 3 Long Range with 93,920 miles on the odometer. I paid $6000 extra when I bought my car in…

Now that everyone is making e-bikes, prospective buyers have a stunning array of options from which to choose. So, how to choose? Assessing your needs and your budget is a good way to start, but that only knocks a few chips off the block. When you move to the desire stage, that’s where the magic happens. With that, let’s take a ride on this sharp-looking folding e-bike from Blaupunkt. A Sharp-Looking Folding E-Bike From Blaupunkt Any e-bike that stands out in traffic gets a big thumbs-up from me. Blaupunkt introduced three versions of its 20″ standard-tire folding e-bike to the…