New Jersey's E-Bike Law Is Emptying Bike Shops

A month into enforcement, New Jersey's e-bike law is emptying bike shops — down as much as 90% in some cases — while Illinois and NYC tried structurally different approaches in response to the same problem. With Accell Group's bankruptcy, a wild Colorado fraud story, and new releases from some notable brands, August was brimming with PEV news.

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Back in July, we covered New Jersey's new e-bike registration and licensing law as the grace period was drawing to a close. A month later, the fallout has a face and an ugly set of numbers attached to it.

Bike shops across the state are reporting e-bike sales declines ranging from 20% to as much as 90% since the law took effect July 19, according to Electrek's reporting. Mike Grotz, who owns Cyclesport in Park Ridge, put it plainly to Electric Bike Report: his shop sold more than 50 Class 1 e-bikes last year. This year, four. Scott Chambers of Zippy's Bike in Wildwood said his sales are off 90% year-to-date, with rentals falling just as hard, and told reporters the perception that e-bikes are "banned" in the state has become its own problem, regardless of what the law actually says. The CEO of Pedego Electric Bikes went further, telling Electrek the company's two New Jersey stores are "on the verge of closing down."

The people getting squeezed hardest may be the ones the law was least aimed at, and least considered. Dealers who specialize in mobility-focused transportation report disabled customers returning newly purchased e-bikes or abandoning planned purchases entirely, afraid they won't qualify for the required licensing or find affordable insurance. This means losing a transportation option that, for some, was replacing driving or conventional cycling that had already stopped being viable. None of this is coming out of nowhere, as it is close to exactly what critics predicted back when we first covered the class-system fight. There's a possible second act here too: PeopleForBikes is reportedly already working with incoming Governor Mikie Sherrill's administration on a follow-up bill aimed at rolling back requirements on conventional e-bikes while refocusing enforcement on the high-speed e-motos that prompted the law in the first place. Nothing's been introduced yet, but we'll be watching.

Illinois Made The Opposite Approach Official

In a nice bit of timing, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed SB 3484 on August 26, finally resolving what was still pending when we wrote last month's roundup. The law takes effect January 1, 2027, and it's in contrast to New Jersey precisely because of what it doesn't do: it keeps the three-class system fully intact for standard e-bikes and instead builds a new high-speed tier on top, requiring licensing and insurance only for devices that actually exceed the class limits. Same underlying problem — fast, unregulated e-motos getting confused with compliant e-bikes — two very different fixes. If you want the fuller context on why states are splitting this way, that's basically the primary focus of our piece on the fraying class system.

NYC Went After The Sellers Instead Of The Riders

New York City tried a third approach entirely this month: rather than regulate e-bike owners, Mayor Mamdani's administration sent cease-and-desist letters to 42 online retailers — including Amazon, Walmart, Target, Temu, Wayfair, and even Segway — accused of selling illegal high-speed e-motos into the city, according to NYC's own announcement. The city gave retailers until August 18 to comply or face fines up to $2,000 per device sold. It's a genuinely mixed result so far: by month's end, Streetsblog reported 19 of the 42 retailers had actually stopped shipping to city addresses, but Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist are still openly defying the order, and the city says it's preparing to take them to court.

Not every jurisdiction is reaching for a stick, though. Orange County's District Attorney is trying the opposite approach: a buyback event at Angel Stadium next month offering riders $200 to $1,000 in gift cards, depending on what illegal e-bike or e-moto they turn in, per Electric Bike Report. Same underlying problem as NYC's crackdown, resolving from the other direction.

The CPSC's Comment Period Closed, Right On Schedule

Quick update on a story we've been tracking closely: the public comment period on CPSC's proposed nationwide mandatory battery-safety standard closed August 24, as originally scheduled. There's no word yet on next steps, which is normal; final rules typically take months to work through after a comment period closes. When there's movement, we will be sure to flag it here.

A Colorado "Free E-Bike" Deal Turned Into An FBI Case

This strange story is relevant if you've read our piece on battery certification and fraud, because it's a real-world example of exactly what we warned about. A Colorado retailer called Bear Trail Bikes advertised "free" e-bikes by stacking the state's e-bike tax credit with a matching company discount, leaving customers paying little more than sales tax. Which sounded great in theory to purchasers, until thousands of them were waiting months, in some cases more than two years, for bikes that never showed up. The state issued a cease-and-desist letter accusing the company of misleading customers about the tax-credit process, and the situation escalated further when the FBI seized the owner's assets — luxury cars and stacks of cash — amid the investigation. Adding insult to injury: some of the bikes that did get delivered reportedly lacked visible UL certification markings, despite Colorado's rebate program specifically requiring UL-certified batteries to qualify. It's a useful cautionary tale for the "if it sounds too good to be true" file.

A Rough Month For One E-Bike Giant, A Good One For Another

Zoom out to the industry level and August delivered a real gut-check. Accell Group — the Dutch conglomerate behind Haibike, Ghost, Lapierre, Raleigh, Winora, Batavus, Sparta, Koga, and the cargo-bike brand Babboe — was declared bankrupt by an Amsterdam court on August 11, according to Velora Cycling, after a proposed takeover by a DuTech subsidiary collapsed despite clearing German antitrust review. Accell markets itself as Europe's e-bike market leader, though research shows its brands sell both traditional and electric bikes, with e-bikes representing the larger and faster-growing share rather than the entire business. Dublin-based Quanta Capital has already emerged as a potential buyer for the whole portfolio, and German subsidiaries have entered a separate self-administered insolvency process while trying to find their own path forward. As it stands, there is real uncertainty, but not necessarily an ending for brands a lot of riders recognize.

New Releases Worth Knowing About

ALSO's TM-B finally started reaching customers. The e-bike company that spun out of Rivian opened pre-orders to reservation holders on August 18, per Electrek, which is a relief after the timeline was delayed from an original Spring 2026 target. The TM-B remains one of the stranger, more ambitious e-bikes on the market: it uses a pedal-by-wire "DreamRide" system where your pedaling powers a generator rather than mechanically driving the wheel, paired with a removable battery, GPS tracking, automatic electronic shifting, and a circular touchscreen display. It's a Class 3 bike (28 mph pedaling, 20 mph throttle-only), priced from $3,500 for the eventual base model up to $4,500 for the Launch and Performance editions available now. In addition to this news, ALSO raised $150 million in new funding this month, a strong showing to indicate their growth trajectory.

Ride1Up refreshed the Portola — this release is notable since we've reviewed a Portola from this brand before. The Portola 02 is a ground-up redesign of one of Ride1Up's best-selling folding e-bikes, adding dual torque- and cadence-sensing pedal assist, a new color display, rear turn signals, and a bigger available battery, all while starting at the same $895 price point as before, per Electric Bike Report's review. Early reviews are strong across the board, with Rider Guide giving it a 96/100 and calling it one of the better budget folders they've tested (similar to our thoughts about the original Portola).

Segway's MAX G3 Plus is the biggest scooter release of the bunch, and we already put it through its paces. Andrew and Jimmy took it out in a Colorado summer rainstorm and came back with few complaints: the motor grew from 2,000W to 2,200W, the battery jumped 20% to 717Wh, and traction control kept the scooter planted on wet pavement even at full speed. The one thing that tripped people up — including us, initially — was the range claim: the G3 Plus doesn't advertise 20% more range despite the bigger battery, but that's because Segway changed its testing methodology to stop counting the last few miles of crawling home at reduced speed. Tested the same way as the old G3, it's actually about 12 miles further. Real gripes were minor: mechanical rather than hydraulic brakes, a fussier boost-mode activation that now requires stopping first, and a body that doesn't visually announce it's the "Plus" model. Our verdict: still the category benchmark for commuter scooters.

Urban Arrow branched out of its own niche. The Dutch cargo-bike brand has spent 14 years known almost exclusively for front-loading family cargo bikes, and this month it launched the Breeze — its first-ever longtail cargo e-bike — for the North American market, per Electrek. It runs a Bosch Cargo Line motor, Enviolo hub, and Gates belt drive, with a low step-through frame aimed at riders who find front-loaders intimidating. Notable timing too, given the Accell news above, reminding us that not every European cargo-bike story this month was bad news.

Bafang unveiled two new high-power eMTB mid-drive motors, the M510RS and M560RS, with peak output as high as 1,700W and 150 Nm of torque in "Boost-to-Limit" mode; Electrek reports that translates to roughly 8x the rider's own pedaling input at peak. They're launching at Italy's International Bike Festival in early September, with production slated for Q4 — worth watching as e-MTB motor power keeps climbing.

Trek launched the District+ in Europe, a Dutch-style step-through commuter cruiser with Bosch mid-drives across seven spec tiers, starting around £2,300, per Electric Bike Report. Europe-only for now, with no word yet on a US release.

Something Lighter

Onewheel's Race for the Rail World Championship ran this August in Hollister Hills, with a $10,000 prize purse on the line, according to Onewheel's own event page. Last month's Battle at the Butte revealed that the Onewheel community shows up in person, and this is more of the same.

Wrapping Up

If July was the month regulation dominated the conversation, August was the month we actually got to see what happens when those regulations land; for better (Illinois's more targeted approach) and for worse (New Jersey's bike shops). Add an industry shakeup in Accell's bankruptcy, a fraud story wild enough to need an FBI subplot, and plenty of notable new releases, it's safe to say this PEV beat isn't slowing down heading into fall.