Rivian spinoff Also ships first e-bikes after supply chain and certification delays

First bikes reach customers

Also, the micromobility company spun off from Rivian, has started delivering its first e-bikes to customers. According to The Verge, which interviewed Also president Chris Yu, the initial Launch Edition units of the TM-B are now reaching buyers, with the Standard and Performance versions set to follow.

Yu, a Stanford aeronautics PhD and former CTO of bicycle maker Specialized, runs Also as an independent business in which Rivian holds a minority stake. The startup's first product, the TM-B, is an unusual machine: a modular e-bike with a swappable top frame, a battery that charges over USB-C, a built-in screen, a series hybrid pedal-by-wire drivetrain and proprietary "Dream Ride" software. Also is also preparing the TM-Q, an electric four-wheeler intended for commercial deliveries.

A supply chain squeezed by AI servers

The launch, originally targeted for spring, slipped, and Yu points to an unlikely culprit. As he told The Verge, Also found itself competing directly with AI server manufacturers for components: ICs, compute, memory and raw printed circuit board assembly materials. The company's in-house-designed inverter board needs materials with thermal characteristics similar to those used in AI server farms, and a global shortage of those materials forced Also to find and requalify alternatives.

Yu framed the component squeeze as a three-way overlap between vertically integrated small EV makers, full-size automotive EV manufacturers such as Rivian, and the broader AI hardware world of servers and robotics. He and Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe speak frequently, often about specific parts; when a component cannot be secured, the options are to press suppliers for allocation, find an identical second source, or redesign the system around a replacement part entirely.

The requalification work was unglamorous but unavoidable. High-performance capacitors had to be swapped and then run through full validation testing to confirm durability and lifespan. Base circuit board materials had to meet flammability, thermal cycling and rigidity requirements, and verification cannot be parallelised — components spend weeks in thermal chambers and on shock and vibration rigs before they can be trusted in the field.

Certification ground UL had not covered

Regulation added a second layer of delay. Yu explained to The Verge that Also's battery architecture — high power density, an automotive-style software-defined battery management system with bidirectional flow for regenerative braking, USB-C 3.1 charging at up to 240 watts and a removable pack — does not fit existing e-bike certification guidelines, which assume a conventional pack without USB data connections or such high bidirectional power throughput. Rather than treat the gaps as a gray area and self-certify, Also worked directly with UL to develop a clarification standard for this type of battery, and the company says it is now fully UL certified.

On battery fires, a problem that has plagued the e-bike sector, Yu was blunt: with lithium-ion cells "you can never say never," and across millions of cells a non-zero failure count is basic physics. He argued that Also's pack architecture benefits from generations of automotive EV battery engineering, including passive and active propagation defenses.

Communication stumbles and what comes next

Customers waiting on delayed bikes were vocal about the gaps on Reddit, and Yu acknowledged that the engineering team defaulted to quiet execution — chasing suppliers and passing tests — instead of keeping early supporters regularly updated, calling that a mistake on the company's part.

As for the next trims, Yu said they are coming soon: reservation conversions have opened, the company is prioritising the customers who reserved first and waited longest, and the Performance line will follow shortly.

Why it matters

Two things make this launch worth watching beyond the e-bike market itself. First, it is a concrete example of AI infrastructure demand bleeding into unrelated industries: server-grade thermal materials are now a bottleneck for a consumer vehicle startup, a dynamic few predicted when the product was planned. Second, Also's UL experience shows how regulation lags hardware innovation — when a battery does things no standard anticipated, new rules effectively have to be written before anything can ship. For a startup betting that vertical integration down to individual ICs is a competitive advantage, the past year demonstrates both the cost of that approach, in delays and requalification work, and the fact that it is finally producing bikes on the road.