We’ve known for years that the electric truck maker Rivian has been working on smaller, two-wheeled electric vehicles. After spinning out a micromobility startup, ALSO, to develop and market the vehicles, we’ve been counting the days until the company’s apparent unveiling next month. But now the wait may be over early as leaked images reveal the e-bike expected to be unveiled by the new electric startup.
The images come from a behind-the-scenes marketing video released by ALSO, sharing their eclectic, bohemian approach to filming what appears to be their big upcoming launch video. In a cheeky move, they included several scenes with the unreleased model, though they blurred the bike beyond recognition.
Apparently, they weren’t quite cheeky enough, though, as when I scrubbed frame-by-frame through the video, I could see multiple frames with partial images of the bike and at least five frames that fully reveal the bike before the censoring effect was added in the editing stage.
The images show a silver-colored electric bike with appear to be 20″-ish wheels, front and rear suspension, and a large enclosure above the bottom bracket, giving the bike an appearance somewhere between a traditional electric bicycle and a more modern moped or motorbike.
A large rear rack hovers over the rear wheel, seemingly disconnected from the rear, further strengthening the argument that the blurry chainstay is actually a rear swingarm providing full suspension. The front suspension appears to be an inverted fork, which would usually indicate a higher tier of componentry.
It’s unclear if the battery is removable, but if so, it may be the shoe-sized protuberance at the front of the enclosure. A large headlight approximately matching the proportions of one seen in ALSO’s teaser videos can be seen on the bike’s headtube, conveying a bit of the Rivian design theme that still runs through ALSO’s veins.
The images reveal the likely physical design of the bike, speaking to a unique frame and comfort-oriented, higher-end road-worthy components. But what we can’t see from these images is the tech that has gone into the bike, which is likely to be substantial considering the support that ALSO receives from electric automaker Rivian’s engineering prowess.
The current video, now available on the company’s blog page, appears to have the frames in question removed, potentially revealing that the company has since discovered the mistake and updated the video to remove the incriminating frames. Whoops.
Electrek’s Take
Well, this is interesting. I feel a bit bad spoiling the launch, but I don’t work for ALSO, I work for my readers. And the details we get here are fascinating. ALSO, there is so much more to the story of this e-bike.
It definitely looks like ALSO went with an innovative design approach, which we were all expecting. This isn’t some run-of-the-mill electric bike with a pile of parts selected à la carte from a catalog. This looks like a purpose-built commuting machine, which is exactly what ALSO said they were trying to do from the beginning – to build new vehicles.
That being said, I’m a bit worried about the path to profitability for ALSO with a bike like this. Assuming this is a street-legal Class 3 e-bike, which would seem likely as we can see bicycle pedals in multiple frames, then this is going to be a high-end (i.e., expensive) bike that requires pedaling to reach 28 mph (45 km/h), or could perhaps be throttle-limited to 20 mph (32 km/h). The throttle would be a good bet for a bike launched in the US, since if it doesn’t have a throttle, then story over. It’s dead on arrival. Thank you for playing, ALSO. Sorry, Americans just don’t buy throttle-less electric bikes en masse.
The bike’s design shows that it uses a lot of custom componentry, and the fact that it is also likely brimming with neat, innovative technology from ALSO’s engineering team further pushes that price tag up. I love that ALSO has taken their own approach and built something unique. But what scares me is that this smacks of VanMoof, CAKE, and other premium electric two-wheeler companies that ultimately folded. They, too, came in with big funding, tech-forward innovation, and slick-looking designs. None of that prevented their ultimate demise (though yes, I know they are both brands are now clawing their way out of bankruptcy under new ownership).
And it’s not that bikes like those from VanMoof and CAKE weren’t good. They were great – at least with service issues from VanMoof aside. They were full of refreshing innovation. It’s what made them special. But it’s also what made them expensive, pricing them out of accessibility for the masses and leaving them unable to sustain the burn rate of startups carrying large payrolls. And even in those cases, the companies had the advantage of launching in Europe, a market where riders are accustomed to spending thousands of dollars more on their bikes and using them as true car replacements.
But the US isn’t Europe. There’s a reason that the best-selling electric bike in the US is a $999 folding e-bike from a scrappy, lean startup that rose to become the largest e-bike company in the US while carrying a fraction of the workforce of the bigger guys. Lectric eBikes taught Americans that good e-bikes could cost less than a grand and get them anywhere in their city without breaking the bank. Sure, ALSO’s bikes will be nicer. But will they be 4-5x nicer?
It’s impossible to say how much ALSO will charge, but I’d bet we’re looking at a bike that falls somewhere in the $4-5.5k ballpark. The lower end of that range would mean ALSO knows it can’t price out its customers or it won’t succeed. The higher end of that range would mean the company is basically competing against premium e-bike brands like Riese & Müller. But the problem is that premium brands have been leaving the US because the market just isn’t there, at least not for the volume to make them sustainable.
And perhaps that’s ok for ALSO. Perhaps the deep pockets from Daddy Rivian mean that ALSO can float for years without making a profit, helping them roll out more models in wider price ranges across multiple styles and markets. It’s too soon to tell and I’m basing on this conjecture on two pixelated screengrabs from a quirky behind-the-scenes video shoot.
But hey, we’re barely a month away from finding out for sure. I’ll see you guys back here on October 22nd with hopefully as many answers as we still have questions.
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