NIU XQi3 Electrical Dust Bike Assessment

Light two-wheeled machines are hands-down one of the best applications for electric powertrains. Gobs of torque, no shifting, no carb tuning. Just twist and grin. From featherweight mountain e-bikes to the 250-pound 80-horsepower Stark Varg, electric shines in the dirt.

NIU was generous enough to let us thoroughly test its latest XQi3 electric dirt bike for nearly 2 months during prime Pacific Northwest riding season. We had some good fun together!

In short: The XQi3 impresses as a single-quiver e-moto. It’s one of the only street-legal dual-sport electric motorcycles worth your money. For street-only or dirt-only users, there may be better options.

NIU XQi3 Wild Review

Sure it’s good fun, but how much fun is it next to other contenders in a crowded field? New imports from Asia land each week, and startups in the U.S., like our friends at Dust Moto, are developing powerful new offerings.

And, a bike like the XQi3 isn’t new per se, but it’s got similar specs to the Bultaco Brinco — which sadly went out of business in 2018 — I launched in Spain a decade ago. But, I’ll argue that the NIU stacks up well … depending on what you ask of it …

Identical Twins

First, note that there are two XQi3s, both priced at $4,999. One for dirt called “Wild” and one for road called “Street.” They’re the exact same bike, just running different software.

The street version is limited to 30 mph — a tragic loss of speed — but it means that it can be titled as a moped. That opens up the market of buyers who don’t have a motorcycle endorsement. Our “Wild” tester model is not road-legal but easily hits 47 mph.

That doesn’t explain why our dirt model came with turn signals, mirrors, and all the appendages you need for street riding. Chris Ervin, NIU’s USA Key Account Manager, explained that only 2024 models will ship this way. Starting in 2025, dirt models will be stripped down so that hooligans like us can’t flog the indicator lights on our first outing. (Sorry, Chris!)

Another curiosity — the knobby tires come on both Wild and Street models. There are far better — and one might argue safer — tires to run on asphalt. The knobbies feel out of place on pavement and don’t have the stopping power of slicks.

Strong Dealer Network

To my knowledge, the NIU XQi3 Street does qualify as the least expensive street-legal electric motorcycle that you can currently buy at a U.S. dealer. Emphasis on “dealer” — having a network is an important distinction.

It is possible to buy some lower-cost e-motos from importers like CSC who sell direct to consumers online. The value of having a national network of dealers when something goes wrong can’t be understated.

I literally walked into Vespa Portland — my local NIU dealer — last week and asked Matt in parts for a new set of brake pads, because I drive the snot out of my personal NIU GT scooter. The fabulous thing about electric is that there’s almost zero maintenance. No carbs to tune! But when you do need parts and/or service, having a local dealer is key to getting back to riding quickly and without big costs — like shipping.

NIU has 85 dealers in the U.S. and is growing rapidly — especially in powersports, which is a booming market here. But, that’s nothing compared to the rest of the world, as NIU moves half a million units annually.

Charging & Curse Words

Charging is the worst part of the user experience on the NIU XQi3. How the engineering team approved it is beyond me.

First, remove the seat — a two-step process of unlatching a large cam buckle and then releasing an electronic safety latch. Find someplace to stash that banana seat so you can use both your hands to unclip a second small cam-latch that releases the upper battery bracket. Now, with access to the connector, you can finally unplug the pack from the bike and then plug in the charger.

Phew, now just 5.3 hours of charge time ’til we can go play again. That’s a lot of daylight wasted waiting, especially considering the XQi3’s competitors charge in around 3 hours.

Gloves recommended — there’s plenty to bash knuckles on during that process.

Battery Connector

As the current CTO for an electric boat company —and someone who has worked at multiple electric motorcycle companies — I think about connectors a lot. I know, super sexy.

So the first time I saw the NIU connector I froze — how many times can you do this before the contacts fail? Maybe a thousand?

Most EVs — of any size — have separate charge connectors for good reason. It’s expensive to make a contact that can sustain high power output and last thousands of cycles. It’s more sensible to have a serviceable lower-current charging port that costs less and doesn’t involve bashing your knuckles to access the battery.

To its credit, NIU got us a quick answer, just not a comforting one. “400 or more cycles.” That’s it. It might last longer, but no guarantee. After 400 charges, you may have to replace the battery harness — a $100 part —  on the bike, and possibly on the battery as well.

I asked an expert and good friend Carter Marquis of Big Orange Cables, who specializes in EV connectors, for his opinion. Likely, he explained, NIU has only tested for 400 cycles, but that it will last much longer if you’re gentle with it and take care to keep the contacts clean.

The battery sees twice as many cycles since it’s being plugged into the charger and then back into the bike on each cycle. You might then worry that it would be toast after just 200 charge cycles, but since the battery has the solid contacts of the connector pair, it should be much more robust. Your mileage may vary!

Connectivity Challenged

Tesla paved the path to a key-free future, and NIU is trying hard to follow, largely successfully. In theory, my XQi will identify my phone and magically unlock it as I approach. Only it hasn’t worked yet, no matter how many times I reset the dang thing I have pairing issues. It’s likely just my phone, or maybe I need to practice my “alohomora” incantation?

The other way to start the bike is via an NFC tag — simply hold a small fob near the steering tube and the XQi blinks to life with all the bleep-bloop fanfare of an astromech droid. Its sounds are cute but tiring.

The XQi also comes equipped with a theft-prevention setting that gets quite obnoxious if you move the bike around when it’s powered down — you can disable this in the app, however.

I found myself cursing that feature while loading the XQi on a trailer, the bike bleep-blooping in protest. Without access to my phone, I elected to pull the main battery cable and put the seat back on.

Only after doing so did I realize my mistake. The seat was locked in place, the battery disconnected, and now there’s no power to the seat release. The key fob relies on battery power, so there is literally no way to reconnect the battery now.

NIU does ship the bike with a physical key which 99% of the time you won’t use, but don’t lose it. I found one essential use for the key — the manual release of the battery latch.

NIU App

Having owned an NQI-GT electric scooter for 4 years has given me plenty of time to learn the NIU app. It’s outstanding — honestly better than what you find on many cars.

I happily fork over $49 per year for its “smart service.” What does that get you?

Well, if hyper-efficiency metrics are your love language (like me) or you want to show your Rivian driving friends how much closer to Gaia you are than they are, you’ll love the data analytics. It’s easy to review your kWh/mi for every ride. I value the theft-prevention aspect (think Lojack) and being able to check battery status from anywhere.

The XQi3 adds a few neat features to the mix. You can add additional NFC keys or you can authorize other users to unlock the bike with their phone. Very tricky.

Display & Controls

I think NIU also nailed it on the display. It has everything you need in a familiar round interface. Honestly, whether in the city or out on the trail, I rarely look at it.

One fun feature for track riding is a built-in chronograph with trigger switches above the hand grips to time your laps with ease. On road, the included USB-C charger port is handy.

The left thumb switch will let you change the ride mode, to either Sport or Eco. I suggest that unless you’re worried about range, just leave it in Sport, as it’s better to have full acceleration on tap when you need it. Plus, it’s just more fun!

The right side features a magnetic kill-switch you can hook to a lanyard in case you’re separated from the bike. All braking is hand-lever controlled. The left lever is the rear brake (like a normal motorcycle) and the right is the front. This takes some rewiring of brain cells if you’re a cyclist, as normally those brakes are reversed on your pedal bike.

We rode this little machine hard, hard enough that the grips started sliding off. Nothing a little super glue and safety wire couldn’t fix, but regular dirt riders might want to swap these for their grippy compound of choice and some bash guards.

Suspension

For the pricepoint, the XQi3 feels well sorted. You could complain that it’s a bit soft, but I think it’s a great balance for on/off road, and both rebound and preload are adjustable front to rear. Even running street pressures, the NIU felt confident on all aspects of the dirt dirt playground we utilized for testing.

Electric Motorcycle Power

Far from underpowered, the XQi will wheelie on command, especially with a full battery. Off-the-line torque is what you expect from electric — spirited — and it accelerates well up to 47+ mph. I’ve seen 49 on a downhill, but it won’t let you cross 50.

Peak power is listed at 6kW (8 horsepower) but tap the right trigger, and you can enable 8kw (10.7 horsepower) “boost” for up to 10 seconds.

Off-road range impressed. After a couple of hours running hard-charging laps on some single track through the woods with jumps and berms, we only used about 60% of the battery. On road, when limited to 30 mph, it will likely run even longer; I’d believe NIU’s listed 50+ mile range.

I really would love to have the “Wild” speed capability with slick tires. It would make a great urban assault tool. Convenient, fun, and it gets tons of comments. But, in most American cities, you really need to be able to hit 45 mph to keep up with traffic.

The XQi3 doesn’t have any provisions for luggage, but that’s obviously not the reason most folks would buy one. We’d also suspect that NIU might have something in the works.

NIU XQi3 Competitors

The closest equivalent light, electric, off-road-capable bikes are from Talaria and Surron. The Talaria MX5 is yet to hit the market, but the MX4 is a close match. Let’s look at how these three bikes stack up against each other on paper.

All three e-motos offer adjustable suspension, though the Talaria is slightly superior. The NIU and Talaria come stock with better stopping power than the Surron.

Bodywork is shipped with the NIU — which may or may not be a plus to you — but you can swap out fairings with other color and graphic packages. NIU’s cockpit is also full featured with the large color display, trigger switches, and smart key features, which you don’t find on the other bikes.

The NIU and Surron both have a dealer network for service, which Talaria is lacking. A strong aftermarket of upgrades and accessories has grown with the popularity of the Sting and Lightbee Surron models, along with active and passionate online user groups. It is easy to spend three times the sticker price of a Surron on aftermarket parts, but those parts offer impressive performance upgrades.

Riding Next to Elites

We did not test against a Surron or Talaria directly, but we did take the XQi3 out to play with the big kids on the block. Namely, an Alta Redshift (which ended production in 2019) running custom race firmware and the current unchallenged powerhouse in off-road electric motorcycles, the Stark Varg. It was impressive how well the Alta kept up with the Varg which is 10+ years newer.

The XQi3 feels like a Toys-R-Us Huffy in comparison to these powerful dirt bikes. It’s no match in any category — but somehow it left each of us grinning all the same! It’s plenty punchy when you want to speed into a jump. Next to its electrified big brothers, it felt friendly and playful.

Big thanks to race tech Quentin Wilson for bringing the Alta and Bob Simpson of EV Drive for hosting us on his private off-road motorcycle track and giving us a few laps on his Varg.

If I had a big enough garage, I would own them all. But if I had to choose one, it’d be the Varg — no contest.

NIU XQi3 Review Wrapup

In some ways, the XQi3 is an odd duck. Off road, it’s pricier and not quite as capable as a Talaria. The on-road verison is kneecapped with a 30mph top speed, but it has a ton of torque to get you there fast, and it’s gobs of fun — just a bit expensive for a “moped.”

NIU XQi3 Street

If you’re all about practicality, look elsewhere. For a third of the cost, you could get into a quality e-bike that can easily hit 25 mph and doesn’t require title and registration fees. Urbanites on bikes can also beat traffic in bike lanes.

NIU’s own UQI GT scooter for $2,099 is only rated for 30 miles and 28 mph, but is arguably just as practical for most riders and can fit a top case.

If you don’t want to be seen on a “scooter” and want the dirt bike aesthetic, then the XQi3 might be for you. And if you like hitting trails after work, 30 mph is plenty of speed to have fun with.

It’s well documented in forums that there are ways to bypass the Street’s speed restrictions, but to do so on road is unlawful.

NIU XQi3 Wild

If you’re truly spending all your time on singletrack, there are likely better fits for your riding. There are plenty of good reasons to consider the XQi3 Wild, though.

A strong warranty offering and a dealer network are a great comfort. And, the NIU is polished, offering a great display, lap timing, and app connectivity.

If NIU were to remove that speed cap, the XQi3 would be an easy choice as the only street legal dual-sport light electric money can buy. Even in the moped segment, it’s an attractive option. It’s not the perfect machine for everyone, but I would recommend anyone who’s curious to go check it out in person. There’s a lot to love about this odd duck.