Hello dear readers and riders! Did y’all have a relaxing Memorial Day weekend? We hope you got at least a few hours of riding in between the barbecues and other holiday festivities. This week’s EV news roundup includes hospital EV fleets, new fast-charging battery technology, and a pole-to-pole adventure for an electric Nissan. Please send your tips, feedback, and inquiries to stephanie@thevintagent.com. Let’s roll.

H-D’s Serial 1 Unveils an Electric Mountain Bike

To the moon! Harking back to the origins of mountain biking on Mt Tamalpais with single-speed Cruiser bikes, the Serial 1 EMTB is old-school stylee for this new-school brand. [Serial 1]
Harley-Davidson’s e-Bike brand, Serial 1, recently dropped its new electric mountain bike. Dubbed the BASH/MTN, the limited-production, single-speed bike is the perfect fusion of minimalistic styling and off-roading capabilities. The BASH/MTN features a maintenance-free Gates Carbon Drive belt, a mid-mounted Brose S Mag motor, and Serial 1’s 529Wh lithium-ion battery, which was developed in-house.

‘Firefly’ Custom eBike for BSTN

The BTSN-built ‘Firefly’ custom Sur-Ron shows just how simple it can be to ramp up the appeal of a fairly utilitarian machine. [BTSN]
BSTN is a ‘European basketball heritage’ shop in Hamburg and Munich…and yes, there is basketball in Europe!  It’s mostly a clothing and culture shop, and deeply, deeply cool; their website is an excellent rabbit hole to fall down, and no doubt you’ll see a lot of books, magazines, music, clothing, and people you’ve never seen elsewhere.  In short, we dig it!  Even better, they created a custom eBike in partnership with Nike called the Firefly, based on a Sur-Ron lightweight quasi-moto platform.  The Sur-Ron is already big fun, and probably illegal to ride on the streets where you live, but you can buy it anyway: we’ve featured them a bunch on The Current News.  BTSN’s aesthetic remodel of the Sur-Ron just shows how a talented designer can make a motorcycle oh-so-desirable using only color and accessories…the bare-bones basics for a custom build.  The Firefly is blowing up our Instagram feed, which means they have a hit on their hands.  Sadly, they only built one, and back in …March 2020!  Which is why the word is only just getting out.  Build some more, BTSN peeps, it cool.

Nissan Prepares for an Epic EV Expedition

Like the ‘Long Way Up’, but much longer! The Nissan trans-polar EV expedition will test the limits of remote charging. [Nissan]
English actor Chris Ramsey announced this week that he will attempt to drive a modified Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE from the North to the South Pole next spring. The 16,800-mile adventure will include one main vehicle that will be modified with upgraded tires, wheels, and a suspension, along with a support vehicle. Ramsey’s journey will be the first attempt along this specific route in an electric vehicle. “Our mission is to show that electric vehicles can tackle the harshest of environments—from the bitter cold of the poles to the hot and humid jungles of South America, and illustrate that they are exhilarating to drive whilst meeting the daily demands of drivers around the world,” Ramsey stated.

Kia e-Niro to Join British Hospital Fleets

Replacing dirty diesels with EV support vehicles, the NHS is moving into the future. [Kia]
The UK’s East Midlands Ambulance Service put an order in earlier this week to replace 16 diesel models with Kia e-Niro EVs. The electric vehicles will be used for non-emergency patient transport tasks and can cover about 90 miles of ground per day. Here in the U.S., only a handful of ambulance services are considering adding EVs to their fleet. Hopefully, we’ll see the light soon.

 

New Battery Tech

 

Battery improvements are essential to better range on EVs, and while there’s been no radical shift, and solid-state batteries are years away, gradual improvements have made even current battery tech see vast improvements year on year. [Store-Dot]
EV maker Polestar recently invested in StoreDot, an Israeli startup that is developing fast-charging battery tech that promises to add 100 miles of range in just five minutes. The company developed its proprietary battery technology by synthesizing organic and inorganic compounds that will be used in lithium-ion battery production. The “100in5” battery cells are scheduled for production in 2024.

EBikeGo is making moves to improve its battery performance. [eBikeGo]
Meanwhile, eBikeGo has partnered with Log 9 Materials to develop advanced battery technology for its upcoming Velocipedo e-Scooter. The startup’s insta-charge technology will allow the scoot to be fully charged in just 10 minutes.

 

Fresh Funds

French startup Upway secured $25 million in Series A funding. The company will use the funds to sell more refurbished e-Bikes.

Solid-state battery tech startup Natrion raised $2 million in seed funding.

Dutch e-Bike maker Roetz raised $1.9 million.

Hyundai is planning to invest $10 million to support EV and autonomous vehicle tech in the U.S.  Looks like they’re buying in on the plan to divest drivers of autonomy…

 

 

 

Stephanie Weaver is the EV Editor at The Vintagent, and a Philadelphia-based freelance writer. When she’s not locked to her laptop, she can be found riding horses and motorcycles.

 

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