Several years ago, as a skunkworks team of engineers inside Rivian set out to develop an electric micromobility vehicle, one question loomed: “What do we build in-house?” Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said in an interview recounting the early days of Also, which spun out of Rivian earlier this year.
“We realized the only way to do this well is to build everything,” said Scaringe, who sits on Also’s board.
The result, which was revealed Wednesday at an event in Oakland, is a pedal-assist electric bike called the TM-B that is more than just a bike, according to Scaringe and Also president Chris Yu. “This is a whole platform of products we’re going to build in the microspace,” Scaringe said. And Scaringe wasn’t kidding. During the Wednesday event, Also revealed two quad vehicles as well, one of which will be supplied to Amazon.
At a passing glance, this “more than a bike” looks like a bike, albeit a sleekly designed one that has a few hidden-in-plain-sight features. But Yu contends that what lies beneath the surface is what makes the TM-B special and compelling enough to break into a crowded e-bike market.
The TM-B will come in several trims, including a launch edition, and performance and base versions.
The launch edition has identical specs with the performance trim, including a battery that has an estimated 100-mile range, 10 assistive levels, air shocks and air fork for the suspension, and two ride modes, including “sport” that zips the rider down the road. The launch edition, which costs $4,500, is sprinkled with special “launch” colors of a purple ube and blue and will come to market this spring.
The performance trim, which also retails at $4,500, is expected to come to market in the first half of 2026. The base version, which has a battery with up to 60 miles of range, five assistive levels, an air shock and coil fork for the suspension, and one standard ride mode, is expected to cost less than $4,000 when it hits the market in the second half of next year, according to Yu.
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All of the bikes are equipped with front and rear LED lighting with integrated turn signals and have a top speed of 20 miles per hour. Biomotion design illuminates rider’s legs as they pedal on the TM-B, which has 24-inch wheels. The TM-B can also be outfitted with all-terrain tires, pedals, and a trail ride mode that gives riders more manual control over the ride.
The battery is removable and comes with USB-C fast charging up to 240 watts that lets users power up devices.
There is an integrated security feature to keep the battery and the bike safe as well. The security system is engaged once the rider walks away from the bike and automatically locks the battery, wheels, and frame. If it is tampered with, the rider will receive an alert via the Also app and the bike will emit a loud honking sound.
As a side note: That honking sound can be deployed by the rider as they navigate city streets.
“You get a push notification in the unfortunate case when it starts moving away because we have LTE and GPS, and we have a real time, location,” Yu said onstage Wednesday. In a worse-case scenario, if the bike is physically picked up and placed in a vehicle, the e-bike owner can remotely disable it.
“You can brick it,” Yu said. “And this is key, because since we own every board, every piece of software, every part of the bike, that means that no part of this is usable.”
The tech inside the TM-B
Everything was developed by the Also and Rivian team, including the removable battery pack, power electronics, software, firmware, and a pedal-by-wire propulsion system that has no mechanical connection between a rider’s pedaling and the movement of the bike. Notably, the system allows for regenerative braking, which means power is sent back into the battery.
Even the tools to build these elements were designed here, according to Also CTO Jonathan Hall, who spoke to TechCrunch ahead of the event.
All of the trims have several standout design and functional features, including a central touchscreen display that is integrated between the handlebars. Perhaps the most interesting is the modular top frame that allows the user to change from a solo, bench, or utility cargo setup within a few seconds.
The standard solo seat comes with two water bottle cages. The utility setup has an integrated rear rack and one water bottle cage mount and can carry about additional 77 pounds of cargo. Also is offering a third bench option as well. And all of these can be swapped out in a few seconds and without tools.
Notably, the software of each setup is aligned with that user and syncs with the central touchscreen.
Like over at Rivian, Also’s software is a central figure of its electric bike and will continue to be used to roll out new features, Yu told TechCrunch. For instance, software is used to provide accurate navigation and ETA to the rider by tightly integrating with the motion and speed of the ebike.
“Because we know so much about your experience, we know what assist level you’re in, we know what ride load you’re in, we know the average speed that you’ve been going — we can give you a really, really precise ETA,” Yu said while showing off the TM-B onstage. “It sounds simple, but you’re using this as a vehicle to get somewhere. It kind of matters to know when you’re going to get there.”
The helmet
The company also developed a helmet in-house called the Alpha Wave Helmet that uses a newly developed technology to improve rotational impact protection and a redesigned strap so the user can tighten it — no snapping — with one hand.
The helmet has numerous tech features beyond protecting your brain, including integrated lights and an audio system with four wind-shielded speakers and two noise-canceling microphones. The helmet syncs with the bike’s central “portal” touchscreen or the rider’s phone so they can listen to music, take calls, and receive turn-by-turn navigation.
