Mate X: The Tesla of Electric Bikes | Inverse

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Julie Kronstrøm Carton has become a key player in a transport revolution. She’s the Danish co-founder of Mate, the team behind the most crowdfunded electric bike in history. Long dismissed as obscure health machinery, e-bikes are increasingly rolling out of the shadows as an eco-friendly alternative form of transportation that’s easier on the legs than a conventional bicycle.

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“We want to be the Tesla of e-bikes,” Kronstrøm told me in the lobby of a London hotel near the Olympic Park, as we waited to take the foldable bike out for a spin on the rain-soaked streets. “We want to be the brand you would think about, and I think compared to our size, we have managed quite well.”

Quite well is perhaps an understatement. The team posted its original Mate Indiegogo campaign two years ago, ending on October 10, 2016 with $6.8 million in funding, a staggering 4,320 percent of its original goal. The company has since sold over 8,000 of these bikes. The second campaign for the Mate X ended on September 29 this year and far surpassed all expectations, scoring just under $13 million in funding and reaching over 25,000 percent of its original goal. It’s the largest-ever European crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.

With fundraising totals like that, it’s no wonder at all that electric bikes in particular are having something of a moment right now. Bike-EU, citing Cycleurope statistics, saw double-digit growth in European electric bike sales, with French sales jumping 50 percent in part thanks to a €200 ($231) government incentive. British folding bike maker Brompton recently released its own version after three years of development, declaring to The Guardian this month that “we’ve cracked it.”

Mate could find itself in a good position to ride this wave. At present, there’s three models of bike: the $2,199 Mate X 250, the $2,399 Mate X 250+, and the $2,699 Mate X 750, with special Indiegogo pricing at $899, $999 and $1,099. The first two come with a 250-watt motor, the latter with a 750-watt motor. While the cheapest has a 48-volt 11 amp-hour battery with a 35-mile range, the latter two come with a beefier 14 amp-hour pack capable of 55 miles, plus a quick charger.

As with other electric bikes, the aim is more about ride comfort than super-fast speed. The 250-watt models can reach 25 mph and the 750-watt models 30 mph, but they ship with speed limiters switched on by default to abide by regulations. In the United Kingdom, where Inverse tested the Mate X on the rain-soaked streets of London, the law limits e-bikes to 15.5 mph.

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