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

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

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

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

Also claims its e-bikes could do 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 return the aforesaid attack arsenic Rivian, the latest and about 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 package update each fewer weeks.”

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

Also President Chris Yu poses pinch an Also e-bike astatine the company’s office April 13 successful Palo Alto.

(Jess Lynn Goss / For The Times)

The institution is betting that the $57-billion global e-bike market and $3-billion U.S. marketplace person room for a caller subordinate pinch a unsocial offering. It’s besides making a four-wheel electrical conveyance pinch 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 he met Rivian Chief Executive RJ Scaringe successful 2021. The 2 deed it off, and Yu joined Rivian successful 2022 to activity connected a caller concealed task to create smaller electrical vehicles.

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

Also, which employs about 300 people, would not stock whether it was profitable aliases really 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 awesome 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 could really trade an acquisition that mirrors a modern car-like experience,” Yu said. “We’re taking that look and applying it to this really fast-moving electrification of smaller things.”

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

A rack of centrifugal and transmission components for e-bikes and different vehicles astatine Also office successful Palo Alto.

(Jess Lynn Goss / For The Times)

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 pinch slowing liking and rising costs.

Rad Power Bikes, erstwhile a starring marque successful the U.S., revenge 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 master and elder chap astatine the MIT Mobility Initiative, said he isn’t convinced there’s dense request for a merchandise for illustration the TM-B.

“I person ne'er met anyone who said, ‘I really wish my motorcycle could return over-the-air updates,’” he said. “Part of the beauty of the bicycle is its simplicity.”

Yu hopes Also’s bikes will velocity up the electrification of micromobility, but Zipper said the bikes’ complexity and value constituent mightiness inhibit that mission.

“A batch of group won’t consciousness for illustration they could 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 really alteration American transportation, I’m not judge that a luxury, software-enabled e-bike is the first 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 pinch 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.

“We could really trade an acquisition that mirrors a modern car-like experience,” said Also President Chris Yu, pictured astatine the company’s office earlier this month. “We’re taking that look and applying it to this really fast-moving electrification of smaller things.”

(Jess Lynn Goss / For The Times)

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

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

“There’s nary beingness relationship betwixt your input and the consequence of the motorcycle moving,” Yu said. “It’s each software. We move 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 emotion of riding a existent motorcycle and shifting gears moreover without a concatenation connecting the pedals to the wheels. Riders could take an electric-assist level that makes pedaling easier aliases 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 could complaint separately from the motorcycle and moreover beryllium utilized arsenic a powerfulness slope astatine the formation aliases connected camping trips.

A close-up look astatine the centrifugal and transmission system of an Also e-bike, which charges to afloat artillery successful a mates of hours.

(Jess Lynn Goss / For The Times)

Using much package 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 guidance the mini EV manufacture is heading in.

“The early of electrical two-wheelers is going to beryllium driven by software,” he said. “In caller cars, the package provides information features, comfortableness features and ratio features. The aforesaid point is going to hap pinch bikes.”