Rivian Automotive has attracted die-hard fans by building a battery-powered truck with enough muscle for off-roading as well as the acceleration and suspension to comfortably glide through city streets. Its little brother — a company called Also — is trying to do the same for e-bikes.
The Palo Alto company wants to reinvent the battery-driven bicycle using a powerful generator and software to change the look, feel and capabilities of two-wheelers. Also announced its flagship bike last October and is preparing to begin deliveries later this year.
E-bike enthusiasts often need separate bikes for different uses. Some bikes are good for carrying kids and cargo, others for daily city commutes. Another type is good for biking rough mountain paths.
Also claims its e-bikes can do it all by swapping out a few key components and pressing a button, so the bike behaves differently depending on the day’s needs.
“Let’s take the same approach as Rivian, the latest and most modern EV approach in architecture, but re-optimize it for smaller-than-car modes,” said Chris Yu, president and co-founder of Also. “The best EVs have new features and new capabilities that come through a software update every few weeks.”
Also’s e-bike, dubbed the TM-B, starts at $3,500 and can travel up to 28 miles per hour. Many e-bikes are available for around $1,000, though some high-end options go for more than $5,000.
Also President Chris Yu poses with an Also e-bike at the company’s headquarters April 13 in Palo Alto.
(Jess Lynn Goss / For The Times)
The company is betting that the $57-billion global e-bike market and $3-billion U.S. market have room for a new player with a unique offering. It’s also making a four-wheel electric vehicle with pedals designed to deliver cargo.
Yu, a Stanford-educated aerodynamics engineer and former bike racer, had done an internship at NASA and ten years at bicycle manufacturer Specialized before he met Rivian Chief Executive RJ Scaringe in 2021. The two hit it off, and Yu joined Rivian in 2022 to work on a new secret project to develop smaller electric vehicles.
Also split off from Rivian in 2025. Irvine-based Rivian owns a minority share in it.
Also, which employs about 300 people, would not share whether it was profitable or how many bikes it plans to produce per year. In a promotional video earlier this year, an Also employee said the company hopes to eventually produce hundreds of thousands of units per year.
Like Rivian, Also makes all the major parts of its products, from the handlebars to the circuit boards. Also wants to offer e-bike riders the same software-powered ease and customization that has become standard in high-end electric cars from Rivian and Tesla.
“We can really craft an experience that mirrors a modern car-like experience,” Yu said. “We’re taking that recipe and applying it to this really fast-moving electrification of smaller things.”
Its TM-B e-bike is decked out with features, including Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi, a built-in touchscreen, and software that supports over-the-air updates. Riders can switch out their bike’s seat and wheels depending on whether they are riding to work, dropping off kids or tackling a mountain trail.
A rack of motor and transmission components for e-bikes and other vehicles at Also headquarters in Palo Alto.
(Jess Lynn Goss / For The Times)
The company is hitting the market during a rocky period for the e-bike industry. After a pandemic-era boom in demand that led to a proliferation of options, many e-bike companies have struggled with slowing interest and rising costs.
Rad Power Bikes, once a leading brand in the U.S., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2025 and was sold to Life Electric Vehicle Holdings in January for $13.2 million, a 99% drop from its peak valuation. Its competitor, Juiced Bikes, collapsed in 2024. Late last year, Porsche scrapped its plans to launch its own e-bikes, citing a cooling market in its statement.
David Zipper, a micromobility expert and senior fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative, said he isn’t convinced there’s heavy demand for a product like the TM-B.
“I have never met anyone who said, ‘I really wish my bike could take over-the-air updates,’” he said. “Part of the beauty of the bicycle is its simplicity.”
Yu hopes Also’s bikes will speed up the electrification of micromobility, but Zipper said the bikes’ complexity and price point might hinder that mission.
“A lot of people won’t feel like they can afford it, and for that reason, I don’t necessarily see it as being transformational,” Zipper said. “They have a lot of interesting technology, but if we’re trying to really change American transportation, I’m not sure that a luxury, software-enabled e-bike is the first place I’d look.”
Yu said electric micromobility is going to surge as more cities ban combustion engines from certain areas. Hanoi banned gas-powered two-wheel vehicles in the city center and Paris closed a core part of the city to cars last year.
Also is partnering with Amazon to use its four-wheel electric vehicle, called the TM-Q, to expand Amazon’s micromobility delivery fleet across Europe and the U.S. Also did not share when its delivery vehicles would be deployed.
“We can really craft an experience that mirrors a modern car-like experience,” said Also President Chris Yu, pictured at the company’s headquarters earlier this month. “We’re taking that recipe 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 today that will, almost without debate, electrify over the next decade,” Yu said.
The TM-B and TM-Q rely on the same underlying technology, but are designed for different use cases, Yu said. They differ from other products on the market in the way the pedaling mechanism works — the e-bikes have no chains.
“There’s no physical connection between your input and the result of the bike moving,” Yu said. “It’s all software. We turn your leg power into electrical power, we send that electrical power to the battery, and then the battery sends it to the wheel.”
Also’s engineers have worked to mimic the feeling of riding a real bike and shifting gears even without a chain connecting the pedals to the wheels. Riders can choose an electric-assist level that makes pedaling easier or harder.
The bike charges to full battery in a couple of hours and has a range of 25 to 100 miles, depending on the level of electric assist used.
Its battery is a removable block that can charge separately from the bike and even be used as a power bank at the beach or on camping trips.
A close-up look at the motor and transmission mechanism of an Also e-bike, which charges to full battery in a couple of hours.
(Jess Lynn Goss / For The Times)
Using more software and fewer moving parts makes Also’s e-bikes more efficient, durable and easier to handle, the company says. It also lets the bikes perform differently depending on need.
Ed Benjamin, chairman of the Light Electric Vehicle Association, said Also’s approach reflects the direction the small EV industry is heading in.
“The future of electric two-wheelers is going to be driven by software,” he said. “In new cars, the software provides safety features, comfort features and efficiency features. The same thing is going to happen with bikes.”
