The Luxury Dual Motor eBike Rickshaw: 1,500 Watts, 152 Amp Hours and a Serious Hill Test

A Rickshaw Built to Go Further

Most people picture a rickshaw as something you ride slowly along a boardwalk, a fun way to give a couple of friends a lift to the pier. That picture still fits a lot of our eBike rickshaws, and there is nothing wrong with it. But the newest model in the lineup was built around a different question: what happens when you give a passenger trike enough power and enough battery to act like real transportation?

The answer is the luxury dual motor rickshaw. It pairs a 750 watt motor in the front with a 750 watt motor in the rear, for 1,500 watts of combined power, and it carries 152 amp hours of battery spread across three packs. It has a recumbent driver's seat, an upgraded passenger bench with seat belts, front and rear turn signals, motorcycle style mirrors, a built-in security lock, and a hitch on the back for a trailer.

Dustin, who has spent about 20 years in the bike and eBike business and leads our fitting team, walked through every part of the trike on camera and then took it out with two passengers on board. The route started on paved hills around San Clemente, California, and ended on dirt trails steep enough that he admitted he was a little nervous himself. This article covers everything from that video: how the batteries work, what the passengers get, how the controls are laid out, and how the trike actually handled when the climbing got serious.

If you are shopping for a passenger trike, or wondering whether a rickshaw could replace some of your short car trips, this is the most complete look we have put together at what this model can and can't do.

We make a lot of rickshaw variations, and several of them are well suited to flat towns and easy cruising. This one sits at the top of the range for a few reasons that come up again and again in the video.

First is power. Two motors working together give the trike a kind of pull on hills that a single motor can't match once you add a couple of passengers. Second is range. With 152 amp hours on board, the battery is no longer the thing that decides how far you go in a day. Third is comfort, for the driver and the people in the back. The seating is a step up from our other rickshaws, and the driving position is recumbent, so you sit back and pedal forward rather than perching over the cranks.

Here is the short version of the spec sheet, based on what Dustin covers in the walkthrough:

• Dual 750 watt motors, one in the front wheel and one mid-mounted at the rear, for 1,500 watts total
• 152 amp hours of battery across three packs
• Top speed of 20 mph on throttle alone and 28 mph with pedal assist
• Range of up to 150 miles depending on assist level
• 20 x 4 inch tires front and rear
• Three hydraulic disc brakes plus a parking brake
• Seven speed drivetrain
• Front suspension fork
• Recumbent driver's seat that fits riders from roughly 4'11" to 6'4"
• Passenger bench with two seat belts, which folds down
• Front and rear turn signals, brake light, hazard flashers, and a headlight with high and low beams
• Motor selector switch, security lock, and a rear hitch

It belongs to a few families at once. It is a recumbent electric trike, a trike for passengers, and one of our high weight capacity eTrikes. Most of the decisions in its design come from trying to do all three of those jobs well at the same time.

The battery setup is the first thing Dustin shows, because it is the biggest difference between this trike and nearly anything else in our catalog.

There are three packs. Two of them sit in the frame, one on each side, and they lock in place with a key. The third, and by far the largest, sits under the passenger seat. That rear pack is 112 amp hours on its own, which means the two frame batteries together make up the remaining 40 amp hours. Combined, you are carrying 152 amp hours of capacity.

To put that in perspective, many eBikes and eTrikes ship with a single battery somewhere in the range of 10 to 20 amp hours. A typical rider never thinks twice about that, because a single pack covers a normal ride. The trouble starts when you add weight, hills, and passengers, all of which pull more energy from the battery for every mile. A rickshaw carrying two adults up a steep grade is about the hardest job you can give an electric trike, and that is exactly the situation this battery setup was sized for.

The display handles all three packs together. When everything is charged, the readout shows the range for the whole system, so you are not mentally adding up three separate gauges while you ride. The rear battery also has its own charge indicator built in, so you can glance at it when the trike is parked.

One practical trade-off: the big pack lives where under-seat storage would normally go. If you have ridden one of our other rickshaws and liked tossing a bag under the passenger seat, that space is mostly taken up here. You get the range in exchange, and there are other places to carry things, which we will get to.

Living with three batteries sounds complicated, but in practice it comes down to two simple routines.

The two frame batteries are removable. A twist of the key unlocks each one, and it lifts straight out so you can carry it inside and charge it on a counter or in a garage. If you would rather not bother, each pack also has a charging port that you can reach while it is still mounted. There is an opening in the frame so the charger cable can get to it, which means you can plug in without removing anything. That flexibility matters if you live in an apartment or park the trike somewhere without an outlet nearby: pull the frame batteries and charge them wherever is convenient.

The 112 amp hour rear battery is a different story. It is bolted down, and Dustin is clear that you are not meant to remove it. It charges in place through a plug that looks a lot like a standard computer power cable. So the rear pack needs to be charged with the trike near an outlet, while the frame packs can go wherever you like.

For most owners, that probably settles into a habit of plugging in the rear pack overnight in the garage and charging the frame batteries whenever they get low. Given how slowly this trike uses its total capacity, as you will see in the ride sections below, you may not need to charge all three very often at all.

If you ever need a spare or a replacement charger down the road, those live in our batteries and chargers section, and the eBike display section covers the readout itself.

Behind the passenger seat there is a hitch ball, and it opens up a second row of seating or cargo.

There are two trailer options. The first is a trailer with its own wheel set that you can fit with either a seat or a basket. That is the simpler choice if you mostly want to haul gear or bring along one more passenger on flat ground.

The second option is newer and more interesting. It is a trailer with its own 20 amp hour battery and its own 750 watt motor. Rather than asking the rickshaw to drag extra weight, the trailer pushes itself. Dustin's point here is that if you want a second row of seats and still plan to tackle hills or inclines, the powered trailer makes life a lot easier. With the trailer attached, the full setup starts to resemble what a golf cart does for a family, with more seats and the ability to get around a neighborhood without a car.

At the time of filming, Dustin didn't have the powered trailer on hand yet, so it doesn't appear in this video. A follow-up showing it in action is planned. For now, the important thing to know is that the hitch is there, the trailer connects to it, and you can add it later if your needs grow. That makes the rickshaw something you can start with as a two-passenger trike and expand into a bigger people mover.

It is also worth keeping in mind for steeper areas. Near the end of the ride, after climbing one last paved hill, Dustin notes that the powered trailer would make those hills even easier. If your daily routes include long grades and you plan on carrying a full load, that add-on is worth a look.

Riding in the back of a rickshaw should feel like a treat, not something your passengers put up with. The bench on this model is a clear upgrade over the seats on our other rickshaws.

The cushion is noticeably thick. Dustin points it out early on, and later, out on the trails, he says that with seats this thick you don't really feel the bumps. There are two dedicated seat belts, one for each passenger, which matters a lot if you are carrying kids.

Legroom is better than you might expect. Dustin sits on the bench himself to show that an adult can tuck their legs underneath comfortably. The driver's seat can also slide forward to free up more space in the back. Put the two together and you can fit two adults on the bench, and in his words it is actually more comfortable than the seat on our other models. It also works well for a parent and child, which is exactly how he used it on the test ride, with Amanda and his five year old son Hudson in the back.

The bench folds down too. It doesn't fold completely flat, but it drops enough to reduce the overall height of the trike. That is useful if you ever need to fit the rickshaw into the back of a truck, a trailer, or a lower garage space.

If your main reason for buying is to bring people along, it's worth browsing our full range of eTrikes for passengers to see how this one compares. But for comfort in the back, this is the best bench we've put on a rickshaw so far.

Dustin keeps coming back to one idea throughout the walkthrough: this is meant to be a mode of transportation, not just a toy. The lighting and signaling reflect that.

At the rear, there are turn signals on both sides and a brake light. At the front, there is a headlight with high and low beam settings and another pair of turn signals. When you hit the signal switch on the handlebar, the front and rear blinkers on that side flash together, the way they would on a car or a scooter. Dustin runs a quick check of all four on camera, and it is the kind of thing you will appreciate at dusk, when hand signals from a low seat are hard for drivers to see. There are also hazard flashers for when you need to stop on the side of a road and let people know.

Just behind the passenger seat, you will spot two mounting points. Those are for a canopy. The canopy designed for this rickshaw is a proper roof, with a metal frame, that extends all the way forward to cover both the driver and the passengers. Dustin compares it to the kind of roof you see on a golf cart. In sunny places that means shade on long rides, and anywhere else it means a little protection from a passing shower. You can find canopy options in our canopies section.

Together, the signals, brake light, headlight, flashers and canopy turn the rickshaw into something you can ride on streets with more confidence, and something that holds up for longer days out, not just a quick spin around the block.

Moving to the front of the trike, Dustin covers the parts that do most of the work of keeping you rolling and stopping.

All three wheels run 20 x 4 inch tires. Those wide, fat tires give the trike more grip on loose surfaces and help soak up rough pavement. They are a big reason the rickshaw coped with dirt trails later in the video. If you like that wide-tire feel in general, our fat tire eTrikes use the same idea.

Stopping is handled by three hydraulic disc brakes, one on each wheel, from ZOOM, which Dustin calls one of the best brake brands out there for eBikes. Three brakes rather than two makes sense on a vehicle this heavy, and hydraulic systems give you strong stopping with light pressure on the lever. During the downhill sections of the ride, he says more than once that the brakes are really good and that he had no issues. If braking is high on your list, our eTrikes with disc brakes are worth comparing.

Up front, there is a tray with a couple of bungee cords. It holds more than you might guess. Dustin says he has used it for all of the family's beach gear, water bottles, and anything else that needs a spot, strapped down under the cords. Our own bags will fit there too, so check our bags and panniers for options. Given that the big battery takes over most of the under-seat space, this tray becomes your main storage area.

You can also see the front motor in the front wheel hub. The second motor is mounted at the rear, in the middle of the trike, so power is going to both ends at once. Rounding out the front end are a suspension fork, which helps keep the steering smooth over bumps, and the headlight.

Specs are only useful if they hold up on real roads, so Dustin gives a mix of official numbers and his own experience.

Top speed is 20 mph using the throttle alone, and he describes that as a legitimate 20 that the trike hits every time without strain. With pedal assist, the top speed goes up to 28 mph. For a trike carrying two passengers, that is very quick, and it means you can keep up with traffic on slower neighborhood streets.

Range is where this model really stands out. On paper, you can get up to 150 miles depending on which assist level you use. Lower assist levels stretch that number, and higher ones bring it down, just as with any eBike.

Dustin's own riding gives a better sense of what to expect. He has put roughly 300 miles on the trike around San Clemente, a hilly area, and says he has never run out of battery on any ride. On one round trip of more than 30 miles, using the highest assist level with passengers on board through hilly terrain, he finished with about half the battery left. That is close to a worst case for energy use, and the trike still had plenty in reserve.

The short test ride in the video confirms the pattern. Before the walkthrough, the team had already done a hilly ride of about five miles with passengers, and the display showed 93 percent remaining. After the longer test ride you will read about below, the trike had used about 10 percent of its battery over roughly five miles, almost all of it uphill. For most people, that means the range is not something you plan around. You ride where you want and charge when it's convenient.

Passengers get the thick bench, but the driver gets the best seat on the trike. Dustin describes it as the cushiest seat we have put on a rickshaw, and it is shaped like a bucket seat in a car, with support around your back and sides rather than a flat saddle.

Because the trike is recumbent, you sit back and push the pedals forward. That position takes pressure off your wrists and lower back, and it is a big part of why recumbent trikes are popular with riders who find upright bikes uncomfortable. Dustin is 5'10" and finds the pedal position just right with the seat in his usual spot.

There are several ways to adjust it. You can change the angle of the seat back so you recline more or sit more upright. You can also slide the whole seat forward and backward on a rail underneath. With all of those settings combined, the trike fits riders from about 4'11" to 6'4". Dustin shows how far forward the seat can come for shorter riders, and that range is wider than many people expect from a single frame size.

There is one thing to watch. The further back you slide the driver's seat, the tighter things get for passengers. Taller drivers carrying adults will want to find a balance between their own legroom and the space behind them.

Fit matters a lot on any trike, and more on a recumbent. If you are not sure whether this setup suits your height and body, our fitting quiz is a good starting point, and our most comfortable eTrikes collection gathers the models that put seating first.

The handlebars on this rickshaw look different from a standard bike, and Dustin acknowledges that many people notice it right away. Once you are moving, though, they are comfortable, and he finds them easy to steer with. The stem is adjustable, and the bars can be extended in and out, so you can set your arms at a natural angle relative to the reclined seat.

The mirrors deserve a special mention. These are scooter or motorcycle style mirrors, not the small round ones you sometimes see on trikes. Dustin says many trike mirrors don't show you much, while these are crystal clear and give a real view of what is happening behind you. On a long, wide vehicle with passengers, being able to check behind you without turning around is a real safety feature.

Here is how the controls are laid out:

• Brake levers for the hydraulic discs, with a parking brake you flip on when you stop.
• Thumb throttle that you press down to move without pedaling.
• Assist level buttons and the power button.
• Hazard flashers for when you need to stop and alert others.
• Headlight switch with low and high beam.
• Turn signal switch that runs the front and rear blinkers together.
• Horn.
• Motor selector switch, covered in the next section.

The trike also has seven gears, just as a regular bicycle would. Gears and pedal assist work together, and during the ride you'll see Dustin shift down and adjust his assist level as the grade gets steeper. The phone holder you'll see on the bars in the video was added separately and doesn't come standard. If you like having throttle control, our eTrikes with throttle collection shows the other models that offer it.

One of the smartest features on this rickshaw is a small switch that decides which motors are running. There's a graphic on the display that shows the current mode, so you always know what you are working with.

There are three settings. In the first, both motors run together for the full 1,500 watts. Flip the switch one way and only the rear motor runs. Flip it the other way and only the front motor runs. Back in the middle and you are on dual power again.

Why would you ever want less power? There are two good reasons.

The first is staying within rules. Many places set limits on how powerful an eBike can be, and 750 watts is a common threshold. Running a single motor keeps you at 750 watts, so you can switch modes based on where you are riding. Dustin presents it as a simple way to stay street legal when that matters, and you should check the rules in your own area before riding.

The second is range. One motor draws less energy than two. If you are on flat ground, not carrying passengers, or planning a very long day, running on a single motor stretches an already large battery even further. Then, when you reach a hill or pick up passengers, you switch back to dual power and get the full pull.

In practice, it means you don't have to pick between a powerful trike and an efficient one. You can carry both behind one switch and choose as you go.

Leaving a large, expensive trike parked outside can be stressful, so this model includes a security system built into the controls.

There are lock and unlock buttons. Dustin demonstrates by turning the trike on, pressing lock, and then pressing and holding the power button. Nothing happens. While it is locked, the trike simply won't turn on. When you come back, you press unlock, turn the trike on as usual, and ride away.

Someone could still try to pedal off with it, of course. But Dustin's point is a practical one: a 200 pound, three-wheeled rickshaw with its motors disabled is very difficult to pedal, if not impossible. Combined with keyed frame batteries, that makes it much less appealing to anyone hoping to take it for a quick ride.

It's still worth using a physical lock if you are leaving the trike somewhere public for a while, as you would with any bike. But the electronic lock covers the everyday situations, such as stepping into a shop or grabbing coffee, without much fuss.

Before heading out, Dustin also notes one more small detail. There is a little storage space under the driver's seat. It isn't a lot, but you can tuck a few small items there, which helps make up for the space taken by the rear battery.

With the walkthrough done, Dustin loaded up for the ride. In the back were Amanda and Hudson, his five year old son. Dustin weighs about 230 pounds himself, so the total rider weight was around 400 pounds, on top of a trike that weighs roughly 200 pounds. That is a heavy load, and it's a fair test of the dual motors.

Even before the climbing started, Dustin pointed out two things about how the trike drives. The longer frame makes it stable and easy to steer, and the recumbent pedaling position stays comfortable even when you are working.

The first test was a substantial paved hill. Dustin went throttle only, with no pedaling, and the trike kept cruising up. Partway through, Amanda read out the speed from the display: about 20 mph on the climb. He eased up on his assist level, stopped pedaling again, and the trike was still holding around 18 mph uphill with three people on board.

His comment at this point says a lot about why this model exists. He said plainly that this hill would not be possible without two motors. On a single motor trike with this much weight, you would be pedaling hard in a low gear, likely at a much slower speed.

He did downshift and adjust the assist level as the grade got steeper near the top, which is exactly how the gears and assist are meant to work together. The trike reached the top without any drama, and the battery barely moved. It was the kind of climb that would turn a car trip into a quick, pleasant ride instead.

After the paved climb, Dustin decided to show some light trail riding. It didn't stay light for long.

The early trail sections were easy. The fat tires handled loose dirt and soft patches well, and Dustin noted that the hydraulic brakes had no issue on the downhill bits. He also showed something many people ask about: whether a trike this wide fits through the barriers and gates you often find at trail entrances. It did, with room to spare.

Then came the first serious off-road hill. Dustin built momentum on the approach and then switched to throttle only, holding around 12 mph up a grade he called pretty legitimate. With 400 pounds of riders and about 200 pounds of bike, that's a lot of mass to move up dirt. As the slope steepened, he added some pedaling to help the motors, and the trike made it up.

The trail kept climbing, and so did the trike. When he finally paused, he said it was the steepest off-road trail he had ever done on a rickshaw, and the display still showed 90 percent battery.

Passenger comfort held up well too. Dustin said that with seats this thick, his passengers didn't really feel the bumps, and when he asked how the ride was going, the answer from the back was good. For a family outing on dirt paths, that matters as much as raw power.

A good review should show where a product starts to struggle, and the second half of the trail ride does exactly that.

The trail kept getting steeper. On one severe grade, Dustin said he would have to go at it as fast as he could, and it was clearly hard work. He made it, but it took real muscle on the pedals with passengers on board. On another, he admitted the trike felt like it was losing some power near the top, though it still got there. At one point, he even said he hadn't really known what he was getting into with this trail.

Then they reached a grade where he made a judgment call. He thought the trike could probably make it with everyone on board, but he didn't want to risk rolling backward with his passengers in the back. So Amanda and Hudson hopped out and walked to the top, and Dustin rode up alone. With the weight off, the trike got to the top without trouble. That's a good, sensible choice, and it's the right approach for anyone riding on very steep ground: if you are unsure, lighten the load first.

The trail eventually ended at a locked gate, a fitting end to a climb that just kept going. Looking back, Dustin's view was that the trike gets up hills easily, and it is the steepness of the grade, more than the length of the hill, that slows it down. He also said he doubted a golf cart could have done some of those climbs.

To be clear, he doesn't suggest most owners will be doing this. These were very steep off-road grades, and he says himself that most people won't be taking a rickshaw there. But seeing the trike handle them with 400 pounds of riders gives you a good sense of how much margin you have on ordinary hills.

What goes up has to come down, and descending steep dirt on a loaded trike is where brakes and stability really matter.

Dustin took the downhill sections slowly and kept praising the brakes. With three hydraulic discs, he had steady, controllable stopping even with all that weight pushing him downhill. On one shortcut back toward home, the trail was steep and narrow enough that he told his passengers to hold on, and he slowed down for a cyclist coming the other way.

Several sections had sideways slopes, where the trail leans to one side. Dustin pointed out that this isn't ideal on any trike, since three-wheel designs don't lean into a slope the way a two-wheeled bike does. The right approach is to take it easy whenever the ground tilts. Still, he said the rickshaw felt so stable that the angles didn't really bother him, and it stayed planted throughout.

Back on pavement, the weight of the trike showed up the other way. On a long downhill road, it picked up a lot of speed very quickly. That's where the brakes and mirrors become more than just nice extras. Ride within your comfort level, especially with passengers, and use the brakes early on long descents.

The ride finished with one more paved hill up to the house. Dustin used throttle only as long as he could, and the trike held about 18 mph up the incline, again with no drama. His summary: on pavement, inclines like this are no big deal.

When they got home, the loop came to about five miles, almost all of it uphill on the way out, and it included the steepest off-road climbing Dustin had ever done on a rickshaw. The trike used about 10 percent of its battery.

That number is the clearest takeaway from the whole video. Climbing paved hills at close to 20 mph, crawling up steep dirt with three people on board, and descending carefully back home only used a small slice of the total capacity. On normal routes, with gentler hills and lighter loads, the range will go much further, which lines up with Dustin's experience of over 30 miles with half the battery to spare.

Passenger feedback was positive too. Asked whether he liked it and whether it was comfortable, Hudson said yes. His only complaint was that it was a bit cold, which is a weather problem, not a trike problem, and one a canopy would help with.

Put together, the ride showed that this rickshaw does what it was built to do. It carries two passengers in real comfort, climbs hills that would stall a single motor trike, and has so much battery that you rarely need to think about range. It also showed honest limits on the steepest grades, where a bit of pedaling or a lighter load gets you to the top.

This isn't the right trike for everyone, and that's fine. It's a large, powerful, premium machine, and it makes the most sense for certain kinds of riders.

It suits families who want to bring kids or a partner along on rides without worrying about hills. The seat belts, thick cushion, and stable frame make it a comfortable way to carry passengers, and the dual motors mean the extra weight doesn't slow you down.

It suits people who want to replace short car trips. With signals, a brake light, headlight high and low beams, hazard flashers, good mirrors, a canopy option and a huge battery, it is set up to work as daily transportation around town rather than just a weekend toy.

It suits riders in hilly areas. If your neighborhood is anything like San Clemente, with steep climbs on every route, the two motors are the reason to pick this model over a single motor rickshaw.

And it suits riders who want a comfortable seat. The recumbent position and bucket seat make long rides easier on the body, and the wide fit range covers a lot of heights. Many riders in our eTrikes for seniors collection look for exactly this kind of supported, laid-back seating, and those who want room for passengers will find it here.

On the other hand, if you mostly ride alone on flat paths, a lighter single motor trike will likely suit you better and cost less. Our full electric trike lineup covers plenty of those options.

Because this is a bigger purchase than most bikes, a few things are worth knowing. Every trike comes with our 30 day test ride, so you can live with it for a month and send it back if it isn't right for you. It is also covered by our one year warranty on parts and labor. If spreading out the cost helps, financing is available.

If you are near Southern California, you can visit our store and test ride the rickshaw before you decide. Otherwise, take our fitting quiz, or read through the buyer’s guide to compare it with the rest of the range.

You can see the whole family of passenger trikes in our rickshaw collection, and you will find more walkthroughs and ride tests like this one on our video blog and across Bike Advice. A follow-up video showing the powered trailer is on the way.

Dustin's final word on the trike was simple: it's a lot of fun. With two motors, three batteries, and a comfortable seat for everyone on board, it is the most capable rickshaw we have built so far.