More Power Isn't the Point: The Case for Bicycle-Like Electric Trikes

The electric bike industry is having an identity crisis, and it finally said so out loud. This month, the e-bike press put it bluntly: much of the North American industry, in Electrek's words, "seems obsessed with adding more motor power, bigger batteries, throttles, and increasingly motorcycle-ish designs." Meanwhile, at least one premium European brand is walking the other way — back toward machines that feel like bicycles.

Two directions. One label. And right in the middle of it, California just passed a law to sort out which is which.

We build electric trikes, so we have a rooting interest here — and we're going to state it plainly. But first, let's look at what's actually happening.

Direction one: the spec-sheet arms race

Scroll through e-bike listings long enough and you'll notice a pattern. Motors measured in the thousands of watts. Batteries the size of carry-on luggage. Top speeds that would get you a ticket on most bike paths. Throttles that let you ride without pedaling at all. Some of these machines have more in common with a dirt bike than with the bicycle in your garage — foot pegs, motorcycle-style frames, the works.

There's a market for that. Some riders genuinely want maximum power and speed, and for private-property or off-road use, that's their business. We're not here to tell anyone what to enjoy.

But here's the problem: a lot of these machines are sold — and ridden — as if they were bicycles. On bike paths. In parks. Around pedestrians, kids, and dogs. The label on the box says "e-bike," so riders assume the rules of bicycles apply. Often, legally, they don't.

Direction two: the bicycle, but better

The counter-trend is quieter but real. Some manufacturers are deliberately going the other way: pedal-first designs where you pedal and the motor helps, machines built to feel like a really nice bicycle rather than a small motorcycle wearing a bicycle costume.

The appeal is obvious once you say it out loud. A bicycle-like e-bike goes anywhere a bicycle goes — bike lanes, paths, parks — without legal gray areas or dirty looks. It's lighter, simpler, and easier to handle. The motor is there to flatten hills and extend range, not to replace pedaling entirely.

For most riders, most of the time, that's the whole job.

California just made the distinction official

On September 30, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1167, which draws a legal line between electric bicycles and the more powerful electric motorcycles — e-motos — often sold alongside them. Starting January 1, 2027, sellers in California must state in advertising that e-motos are motor vehicles requiring registration, a motorcycle license, and insurance.

Importantly, the law doesn't change what an e-bike is. California still defines an electric bicycle as having fully operable pedals and a motor of no more than 750 watts, within the familiar Class 1, 2, and 3 speed limits. What SB 1167 does is require manufacturers and sellers to clearly identify the machines that fall outside that definition — and to strengthen labeling, disclosure, and crash-data requirements around them.

In other words: if it looks like a motorcycle and performs like a motorcycle, you can no longer sell it as a bicycle. Other states — New Jersey, Washington, Illinois, New York — are moving in the same direction.

Whatever you think of regulation, the trend is unmistakable. The legal world is catching up to what riders have been sensing for years: "e-bike" has been stretched to cover two very different things, and the stretch is snapping back.

What trike riders actually want

Now let's talk about our riders, because they're the reason we have a strong opinion about this.

The typical ElectricTrike.com customer isn't shopping for adrenaline. They're shopping for stability — three wheels that don't tip, a low step-through frame that's easy to mount, a machine that feels secure at neighborhood speeds. They're shopping for simplicity — controls that make sense the first time, no engineering degree required. And they're shopping for legality — something they can ride on the local trail without wondering whether they're breaking a rule they haven't read.

Ask a roomful of trike riders whether they'd trade any of that for another thousand watts, and you'll get a roomful of blank stares. Power was never the point. Confidence is the point. Independence is the point. Getting to the park under your own power — with a little help on the hills — is the point.

Exhibit A: a trike that stays in its lane

Take our Baja Trike. It runs a 500-watt front hub motor with 1,000 watts of peak power — squarely inside the legal definition of an electric bicycle in all fifty states. That's not an accident or a limitation. It's a choice.

Five hundred watts, on three stable wheels, with torque-sensing pedal assist, is plenty to climb a hill, cruise a trail, or carry groceries home. What it won't do is blur the line between your trike and a motor vehicle. You can ride it on bike paths, park trails, and neighborhood streets with the same legal standing as any bicycle — because that's what it is: a bicycle, electrified.

That's the philosophy across our lineup. Every trike we build lives comfortably inside the e-bike definition — no gray areas, no asterisks, no hoping the local ordinance doesn't notice you.

Our position, stated plainly

We think the industry's power creep is a dead end for the riders we serve — and, frankly, a risk to the whole category. Every overpowered machine ridden like a bicycle on a mixed-use path is an incident waiting to happen, and every incident becomes ammunition for the next round of restrictions that land on responsible riders too. California's new law is the first shoe; it won't be the last.

The future we want is one where electric trikes are as unremarkable — and as welcome — as bicycles: on every path, in every park, for every rider who needs three wheels instead of two. You don't get there with motorcycle cosplay. You get there by building machines that respect the bicycle's social contract: quiet, safe, human-paced, and legal everywhere bicycles are welcome.

More power isn't the point. The ride is the point. And the ride is better when everyone — riders, pedestrians, and lawmakers — agrees on what it is you're riding.