Green News

Ride a Hybrid Electric Tricycle: the Trikke Tribred Pon-e

You may be green, and you may be cool, but are you brave enough to ride a hybrid electric tricycle?  That’s right…. this electric powered scooter is not what you might ordinarily see zipping along the streets.  Trikke (pronounced “Trike”) has created a 3-wheeled hybrid electric tricycle, called the “Tribred Pon-e.”  This is most definitely not your toddler’s trike!

Similar to an electric bike, the hybrid electric tricycle can be powered both by human effort and an electric motor that will give you the extra push you may need going up a hill, or simply when you get tired.  And, the Tribred Pon-e can travel at an impressive 18 miles per hour.

No driver’s license is required, although you may want to check local helmet laws….

Just watch this video to see what all the excitement is about!

Would you ride a Trikke?

The exercise factor alone is building my interest in the Trikke electric hybrid.  The rider propels the scooter by shifting his or her weight from side-to-side on the wishbone-shaped platform.  You don’t ride the Trikke, you actively move your core muscles while standing on the platform to get it to move.  Talk about a waist-whittling commute!

Even the battery is cutting edge.  Original Trikee models employed lead-acid batteries, but the Tribred Pon-e has a powerful lithium-ion battery that can help you go between 20-100 miles per day on a single charge (the more human effort you put into it, the farther you go – obviously!)  It takes about 5 hours to charge the battery, simply by plugging it into a regular outlet.

All this fun does come at a price, however.  The Tribred Pon-e costs about $1700.  Or, you could take another Trikke scooter model (retailing at about $850) and motorize it with an E-Kit (costing about $490).

Grab a helmet, and perhaps some elbow and knee pads and have some fun getting around town on a hybrid electric tricycle.  You may be too old for a trike, but not a Trikke!