The new Addmotor M-340 electric trike puts a new spin on the dated electric tricycle design.
Addmotor, a direct-to-consumer e-bike company with a wide range of models from electric mopeds to full-size fat tire e-bikes, is back again with an interesting new electric tricycle design.
The new Addmotor M-340 uses a standard delta trike configuration with two rear wheels, but swaps those wheels for big ol’ 4″ fat tires.
Up front there’s a larger diameter wheel housing a 750W continuous and 1,000W peak-rated geared hub motor mounted in a spring suspension fork. In the rear are two smaller diameter 20″ fat tires on either side of a large 48L cargo basket.
The saddle is a generously-sized padded seat with included back rest similar to saddles we’ve seen on other comfort-oriented e-bikes in the past.
A 48V and 16Ah battery with 768Wh of capacity can be found behind the seat tube.
It looks like the bike can be powered by a hand throttle or pedal assist, and there’s a Shimano 7-speed transmission tucked in there for anyone who wants to make ample use of the pedal assist.
In terms of performance, Addmotor claims the M-340 can hit a top speed of 20 mph (32 km/h) and has a maximum range of 50 miles (80 km) when used in the lowest pedal assist mode.
If I had to guess, I’d wager you can cut that range by a factor of three if you’re cruising at top speed with throttle only riding.
While trikes can be fun, that extra wheel doesn’t do the battery any favors (and nor do those big ol’ fat tires).
If you plan on sticking to throttle-only operation, Adddmotor gives you a cool little wooden platform to rest your feet, or you could use it as extra storage for carrying cargo. Though with the large rear cargo basket and another smaller front basket, the M-340 already appears to offer plenty of storage space.
The e-trike sports a maximum payload of 350 lb (158 kg) and can fit riders from 5’2″ to 6’4″ (157 to 193 cm), so it should support a fairly large range of riders.
Electrek’s Take
The trike looks fun and decently powered, but the devil is in the details and the biggest detail we still don’t have is the price.
Addmotor will be opening pre-orders for the e-trike in the coming weeks, so we should know then. While it looks like it’d be a trip to toot around on, I can’t really say whether or not the M-340 will be worth it until I know the price.
They’ll have to compete against other offerings in the field, such as Pedego’s $3,000 and 250W electric tricycles, though I think it’s fair to say that Addmotor has a serious spec advantage there.
In terms of quality, Addmotor is one of those middle-of-the-road companies. No one has ever said Addmotor makes the best bikes. But they also aren’t an el-cheapo e-bike company either.
They’ve been around for nearly a decade and so they’re definitely not a startup or a fly-by-night company.
We’ve got an M-340 with our name on it though, so we’ll be back to let you know how it rides as soon we can get one in the Electrek garage and put some miles on it.
Until then, you can bide your time by checking out our last cargo trike review.
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