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Seth Weintraub

llsethj

Founder, Publisher, and Editorial Director of the 925, LLC publications.

Seth Weintraub is an award-winning journalist and engineer who won back-to-back Neal Awards from 20072010 during his three plus years covering Apple and Google at IDG’s Computerworld.  From 2010-2011, Weintraub covered all things Google for Fortune Magazine, amassing an impressive rolodex of Google contacts and a love for Silicon Valley tech culture.

It turns out that his hobby – the 9to5Mac blog – was always his favorite, and in 2011, he went full time adding his Fortune Google followers to 9to5Google, in addition to adding the style and commerce component of 9to5Toys gear and deals site. In 2013, Weintraub bought one of the Tesla’s first Model S EVs off of the assembly line, which began his love affair with electric vehicles and green energy — this, in turn, became electrek in 2014. To cover the burgeoning world of drones and UAV’s led by China’s DJI, DroneDJ was born in 2018, and then more recently, Connectthewatts, SpaceExplored, and Blocktalk were all launched to cover connected fitness, space, and Blockchain/Crypto.

From 1997-2007, Weintraub was a Global IT director and Web Developer for a number of companies with stints at multimedia and branding agencies in Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, Madrid, and London before becoming a publisher/blogger.

Seth received a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California with a minor in Multimedia and Creative Technology in 1997. In 2004, he received a Masters from NYU’s Tisch School of the Art’s ITP program.

Weintraub is a licensed single engine private pilot, a certified open water scuba diver, and he spent over a year traveling to 60 cities in 23 countries. Whatever free time exists is now guaranteed to his lovely wife and two amazing sons.

More at About.me. BI 2014 profile.

Tips: seth@9to5mac.com, or llsethj on Twitter or link at top of page.

Connect with Seth Weintraub

Chevy Bolt cheap? This Chinese knockoff is a third the price, readying for export

BYD Seagull

The BYD Seagull looks a lot like the venerable Chevy Bolt EV, but comes in at a literal fraction of the price… but with a fraction of the specs as well. As BYD expects to pass Tesla in Global EV sales this year by expanding its markets with significantly lower-priced vehicles, will we start seeing these hyper-cheap products outside of BYD’s home market of China?

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Kia’s EV6 GT is a 576hp supercar in a handsome $60K CUV package

Kia EV6 GT

When Kias are beating Ferraris and Lambos off the line and priced lower than premium sedans, you know something special is happening.

Kia flew us out to the desert landscape outside of Las Vegas to drive the new GT version of the popular EV6. We’ve been anxiously waiting on this one for a while and finally got to sample the delicious speed and handling of Kia’s new flagship vehicle.

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Electrek’s vehicle of the year is the svelte $25K Chevy Bolt

Chevy Bolt 2023 Electrek

The lowest-priced EV in the US is somehow also one of the best. Now in its sixth year, the Bolt EV is also seasoned, having worked through a battery fiasco/recall and significant lapses by GM’s decision-makers while receiving modest but significant updates.

With a clean bill of health, the Bolt is now a huge outlier in bang-for-buck. But the 2023 Bolt is also quick, fun to drive, useful, and often more so than cars twice its price. In fact, I think we should be looking to the diminutive Bolt as the future of transportation.

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I bought my mom a Chevy Bolt EV – Here’s how it went

Chevy Bolt EV Mom

When Chevy announced it was dropping the price of the Chevy Bolt EV by $6,000 earlier this year to $25,600, it went from a good EV option to a great one. This is a 5-star-safety-rated sporty hatchback EV with 259 miles of real range, lots of space inside, and a great interior.

So good, in fact, I decided to do the unthinkable: buy one for my 70-something mom. Here’s how it went.

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Mainstream news doesn’t understand mainstream EV range

ID.4 range

I was excited to read today’s NYTimes piece on mainstreaming of electric vehicles. The story with two separate author bylines could theoretically convince middle America that it was OK to consider buying an EV, even if there were places like “North Dakota, for example, [where] there are just 19 fast chargers.” But I found myself cringing because of incomplete reporting and a strong desire to set the record straight.

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Review: Pedego’s City Commuter Platinum rides dreamy, but the best part isn’t even the bike

Pedego City Commuter Platinum

Normally when we get review e-bikes here at Electrek, they are pushed off the back of a FedEx truck in a beat up box for us to assemble ourselves. That’s the typical e-bike introduction, unfortunately.

The experience at Pedego with the City Commuter Platinum that I’ve been riding for the past few months couldn’t be more different and less daunting – and I think that’s one of the biggest differentiators about Pedego bikes. So, let’s talk not just about how impressive the bike is but also acknowledge the whole experience.

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Review: Hollywood Destination E-Bike Rack easily carries 140lbs for $700

e-bike rack hollywood

One thing I love about e-bikes is that you have to put them on bike racks less often. Since they propel you significantly faster and farther than an acoustic bike, you are more likely to just ride to the bike path rather than carry the bike there on your car.

That being said, there are definitely times when taking an e-bike on a car rack is needed, and the extra weight and different geometries of an e-bike make them impossible or dangerous to mount with traditional bike racks. That’s where a new breed of bike racks that blur the lines between bike carriers and motorcycle carriers come in. Today we are looking at the Hollywood Destination E-Bike Rack which comes in at a solid $699.99 price point.

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Ford F-150 Lightning winter towing tests and engineer interview

F-150 Lightning Towing

Ford has been taking some hits in the media on the F-150 Lightning towing range, so we thought it would be good to test it ourselves and then get the background from the people who built the Lightning, especially as we head into winter. Along with Ford’s PR team, we were joined by:

  •  Dapo Adewusi, F-150 Lightning Engineering Manager
  •  Gitanjli McRoy, Chief Engineer, EV Energy Management Systems

Here’s the discussion along with firsthand towing impressions below in both New York and Detroit.

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Review: 2023 Range Rover’s PHEVs double EV range to 50 miles, ahead of full BEV in 2024

Range Rover PHEV

Range Rover brought us to Madrid’s swanky city center, local mountain roads, and nearby off-road tracks to test the new Range Rover PHEVs – the Land Rover Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. The result? A new appreciation for the over-the-top luxury and off-road capabilities of the British vehicles, but also, what could be waiting in the electric future of Range Rover.

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Mercedes EQS review: You can no longer call internal combustion vehicles ‘luxury’

mercedes EQS review

I got to spend almost a week with the Mercedes EQS as my daily driver and it sure was interesting to see what it was like owning a $130,000 car. One thing’s for certain and stood out however, electric propulsion takes luxury to a new level. In fact, at this point, I’d be reluctant to call anything with an internal combustion engine a luxury vehicle. Here’s why:

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The Electrek Review: BMW i4 eDrive40 is low effort but still highly enjoyable experience

BMW i4

The BMW i4 eDrive40 delivered to my door by BMW looks almost indiscernible from a 4-series internal combustion engine vehicle. It even has what appear to be exhaust pipes out the back.

I imagine the pitch for this car in some Bavarian BMW corporate office was something like:

Look, Tesla is eating our lunch, let’s please just make an EV version of the 4 series to take on the Model 3. It will take almost no effort, we’ll just rip out the ICE components and throw in a battery and some electric motors. It will barely appear on the balance sheet. How bad could that be?

Yet somehow this is still a very compelling EV, and I’d argue a lot better than the 4-series it is masquerading as. It is even better than the Model 3 in a bunch of ways…

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2023 Chevy Bolt EV is still the best value EV in America, by far

Chevy Bolt EUV Review

Long time Electrek readers will know that I leased a Chevy Bolt EV from 2017 until the pandemic and really loved that electric blue “Micro-SUV” EV; we’ve already taken a look at its younger sibling, the EUV with Super Cruise. But considering recent events GM has cleaned up the battery “issue” and lowered the price by $6000, and introduced 2023 model year – as well as a tax rebate refresh opportunity – I thought it would be fun to take another look at the now sub-$30,000 Bolt EUV.

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Mercedes EQB first drive: $55K small 3rd row SUV doesn’t have to go fast or far to impress

Mercedes EQB Tesla Y

The most accessible and likely most popular Mercedes EV, the EQB, is soon going to be hitting dealerships in the US, joining Europe and Canada. And it might seem a little lot familiar if you’ve experienced the Mercedes GLB ICE vehicle, yet far improved because of the electric powertrain. Mercedes flew us to its proving grounds outside of Stuttgart to find out more…

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Mercedes EQXX drive, hypermiling the 750-mile solar prototype engineers want to build

Mercedes EQXX review

There’s exactly one Mercedes EQXX in existence, and we had the good fortune to be able to drive it around a test track in Southern Germany this week. This is a special car for a number of reasons, but in a nutshell, it is a 100kWh ultra high efficiency EV with a slippery .17 coefficient of drag and 600W of solar panels on top.

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Rivian R1S review and 1st drive: The best SUV ever made?

Rivian R1S Review

One simple fact is going to tell you more than all of the Rivian R1S Review words, images, and video below: I’m in line to buy a Rivian R1S, and after a few days on and off the roads of upstate NY, I’m more excited than ever to get my hands on it.

But if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to tell you about this mighty, electric seven-seat off-road SUV and why it is on my, and many many others’ dream car list – from the perspective of someone who is test-driving their next vehicle.

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