Nobody kills this thing.
Podbike was the quirky four-wheel e-bike that shocked the urban mobility world back in 2018. It filed for bankruptcy in May 2025 and left thousands of backers empty-handed. Most products don’t survive that. Phase Energy unveils TwoZero Classic electric bike and changes that narrative entirely.
Phase Energy, a Norwegian firm that bought all of Podbike’s assets after the collapse, has relaunched the vehicle under a new name. Meet the TwoZero Classic. Same vehicle. New owner. And a backstory that makes this one of the most fascinating urban mobility comebacks in recent memory.
If you’re thinking about backing it, there are things you need to know. Let’s get into it.
What Exactly Is the TwoZero Classic?
It’s not a bike. It’s not a car. It’s something the industry hasn’t quite figured out how to categorize yet.
The TwoZero Classic is a fully enclosed, four-wheel pedal vehicle that legally classifies as an e-bike. That means it can ride on cycle paths, public streets, and pedestrian areas where permitted. No car license required. No registration in most jurisdictions. Just climb in and go.
When Podbike first introduced this concept back in 2018, traditional e-bikes were barely finding their footing. The idea of a fully enclosed four-wheeler that rode like a bike but protected you like a car felt almost science fiction. It wasn’t. It was just ahead of its time.
Whether the timing is finally right is the question Phase Energy is betting everything on.
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How Does It Actually Work?
Here’s where the engineering gets clever.
There’s no traditional chain drive on the TwoZero Classic. Instead, you pedal to power a generator, which then drives two electric motors, one on each rear wheel. A separate battery kicks in to provide additional range whenever you need it. It’s a clean, mechanically simple system that keeps maintenance low while delivering a smooth and responsive ride.
Standard spec gives you around 60 km or 37 miles of total range. Top speed is electronically limited to 25 kph or 15.5 mph on public roads. Downhill testing recorded speeds of up to 60 kph or 37 mph, so there’s clearly more performance sitting underneath that limiter when conditions allow.
Disc brakes handle stopping duties. The vehicle measures 2.3 meters long and just 0.84 meters wide. Narrow enough to fit on cycle paths. Compact enough to navigate city streets without becoming an obstacle to everyone around you.
Inside, you get a ventilated bucket seat, a fan for air circulation, and a phone mount replacing the traditional digital gauge. Pedal assist levels are controlled through a dedicated app. A windshield wiper comes standard. That last detail tells you exactly what kind of daily conditions this vehicle is built to handle without flinching.
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The Features That Make It Genuinely Useful
This is the part that surprises most people when they first learn about it.
The TwoZero Classic can access places a standard car cannot. City centers with pollution restrictions. Dedicated cycle lanes. Pedestrian zones where only bikes are permitted. For urban commuters navigating increasingly car-hostile city centers, that level of access is genuinely valuable. As restrictions tighten across major cities worldwide, that advantage only grows.
The full enclosure is the feature that separates it from every traditional e-bike on the market. Rain, wind, cold, light hail. None of it reaches you inside the canopy. Every e-bike rider knows the specific misery of arriving at a meeting completely soaked. The TwoZero Classic makes that a problem of the past. When the sun comes out, the canopy removes completely.
The numbers back it up too. Empty weight is 92 kg or 203 lbs. Maximum load capacity sits at 250 kg or 551 lbs. Lockable storage, optional winter tires and rims, hot swappable batteries, and a 10,000 km two-year warranty are all included. A child seat or cargo configuration is available depending on your daily needs.
No other vehicle on the market right now combines legal bike access, full weather protection, and genuine cargo capacity in one package. That’s not marketing language. That’s just the reality of what this thing offers.
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The Price and How to Get One
Here’s where the conversation gets more complicated.
The TwoZero Classic is on crowdfunding right now with a production run of just 180 units total. The first 20 are leftover stock from the original Podbike inventory and ship immediately after the campaign closes. The remaining 160 units will be built in batches of 40 per month using existing parts, with all deliveries completing by June 2026.
After that, TwoZero Classic goes out of production for good. Phase Energy then plans to launch 15 entirely new light EV models. Five will still classify as bikes. The other ten will be mopeds or light motorcycles. Sport, SUV, Pickup and Cargo configurations are planned across all 15, with pricing expected to stay under €9,000 or around $10,800.
The TwoZero Classic is priced at NOK79,990. That’s approximately $8,180 at current exchange rates. It’s not cheap. But for a fully enclosed, weather-proof, legally street and cycle path ready urban vehicle, the price is at least defensible. There simply isn’t much else like it in this category. Which, to be clear, is almost nothing.
Which, to be clear, is almost nothing.
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The Part Nobody Wants to Talk About
Slow down here. This matters.
When Podbike filed for bankruptcy in May 2025, it had over 4,000 active reservations on its books. Real people who had already paid real money and were waiting for delivery. Those people never received their vehicles. Most never received refunds either.
Phase Energy bought the assets and launched TwoZero Classic as a fresh product for new customers. The original backers who lost money the first time around appear nowhere in the new plan. No compensation scheme. No acknowledgment. Just silence.
The original founders did surface after the bankruptcy to promise ongoing support for existing owners who had already received vehicles. They claimed to hold the full IP and design rights. But for the thousands who paid and got nothing, those promises landed like an empty apology.
The crowdfunding campaign describes TwoZero Classic as “built on the legacy of former Podbike.” That’s one way to put it.
Crowdfunding is always a risk. Backing a startup is always a risk. But backing a relaunched version of something that already left thousands of people out of pocket demands a level of scrutiny that goes well beyond reading a spec sheet. Go in with your eyes fully open or don’t go in at all.
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Should You Back It?
Only you can answer that. But here’s what the evidence actually says.
The vehicle is real, proven, and genuinely useful for a specific kind of urban rider. The technology works. The concept is sound. Phase Energy’s plans for 15 new models suggest genuine long-term ambition rather than a quick exit after collecting crowdfunding money.
But the history is impossible to ignore. Thousands of people backed this before and lost. The new owners have inherited both the vehicle and the trust deficit that came with it. Rebuilding that trust requires more than a new name and a crowdfunding page.
If you’re comfortable with the risk and excited by what the TwoZero Classic genuinely offers, it delivers something no other vehicle on the market currently matches.
If you’re not, wait. See whether Phase Energy delivers on its promises to this round of backers before committing your own money to the next chapter of this story.
The vehicle won’t quit. That much is clear. Whether the company behind it has finally earned the trust to match its ambition is the question that only time and 180 deliveries will answer.