Do You Need the 1500W Dual Motor Rickshaw? An Honest Guide to Hills, Loads, and Terrain

The Question Almost Every Rickshaw Shopper Asks

I’ve spent twenty years in the bike and e-bike industry, and few questions land in my inbox as often as this one: do I really need the dual motor rickshaw, or will the single motor do the job? It’s a fair thing to ask. The dual motor, dual battery version of our EVRYjourney rickshaw is a bigger investment, and nobody wants to pay for power they’ll never touch. At the same time, nobody wants to buy the single motor, discover their neighborhood is steeper than they remembered, and spend the next few years grinding uphill with a full back seat.

So I want to give you the answer I’d give a friend standing next to me in our showroom. It isn’t a pitch for the more expensive version, and it isn’t a blanket “the base model is fine for everyone” either. The honest answer depends on two things: the terrain you ride, and how much weight you’ll be carrying behind you. Once you’re clear on those two, the decision usually makes itself.

If you’d like to have the options open in another tab while you read, both versions live in our electric rickshaw collection.

Where my answer comes from

I’m not working from theory here. I live at the top of a hill. When we first launched the rickshaw, I rode the single motor version, and I rode it a lot. I have three children, and when all three of them are on the back bench they weigh about 140 pounds combined. Add me in the front seat, and that’s a real load to haul up a real grade at the end of every ride.

Could the single motor get us home? Yes. I want to be clear about that, because it’s true and it matters for this whole conversation. I made that climb many, many times on the single motor. But I had to pedal, and I mean genuinely work. It wasn’t a relaxed cruise to the front door. It was the last hard push of the day, every day, with three kids chatting away behind me while I put my legs into it.

When we came out with the dual motor version, I switched. Now I put it in pedal assist level five, keep my legs moving, and get up that same hill without breaking a sweat whatsoever. Same hill. Same three kids. Same rider. The only thing that changed was the power underneath us.

That experience is the backbone of everything in this article. I’ve lived on both sides of this decision, on the exact kind of terrain that makes it a real decision, with the exact kind of load most rickshaw owners carry. So when I tell you where the single motor is plenty and where the dual motor starts to make life a lot easier, that’s where it’s coming from.

What “dual motor” means on this rickshaw

Our standard rickshaw drives from one motor. The dual motor version adds a second, so you’ve got power coming from both the front and the rear of the trike. On our site it’s listed as a dual 750W setup with a 1500W maximum, and it runs on two batteries instead of one.

Here’s the way I’d explain it to anyone who doesn’t live and breathe e-bike specs. On a solo trike, one motor is moving one person. On a rickshaw, the whole point of the machine is that it moves other people too, and sometimes a trailer or an extra row of seats on top of that. The more weight you ask the trike to move, the more it matters how much pulling power you have when the road turns upward. Having that power come from both ends of the rickshaw is what makes the difference on a climb.

I want to separate this from the idea of raw speed, because people sometimes assume the dual motor is about going faster. That’s not really the story. On flat ground, both versions roll along happily. What the second motor gives you is torque, that extra shove that keeps a loaded rickshaw climbing steadily instead of slowing down and asking your legs to make up the difference. If you never climb anything with weight on the back, you won’t feel much of that difference. If you climb all the time, you’ll feel it on every single ride.

The two questions that decide it

Keep these two questions in your head for the rest of this article, because everything comes back to them.

First: what does the ground look like where you’ll actually ride? Not where you might ride someday, but the routes you’ll take week in and week out. The school run. The trip to the park. The loop around the neighborhood. And, just as important, the last stretch home. Is it flat? Rolling with small bumps? A few short inclines? Or a real hill you can’t avoid?

Second: how much weight will be behind you on a typical ride? An empty back seat is a very different machine from a back seat carrying 100 to 200 pounds of passengers. And if you plan to use the hitch for a trailer or an extra row of seating, that’s another layer on top.

If you’re still deciding whether a rickshaw is even the right shape of trike for your household, it’s worth looking at our wider range of e-trikes built for carrying passengers and our full electric tricycle lineup first. But if you’ve already landed on the rickshaw and you’re stuck between one motor and two, keep reading. The rest of this guide is for you.

Let’s start with the scenario where I’ll tell you plainly to go with the dual motor, because it’s the one I lived through.

If you’re going to be taking on a lot of hills, the dual motor is going to make your life much easier. That applies whether you have one big hill you face every day, like I do, or a route full of smaller climbs that add up over the course of a ride. Either way, you’re asking the rickshaw to work against gravity again and again, and that’s exactly the job the second motor was built for.

Why weight on the back changes everything

Hills on their own are one thing. Hills with passengers are another. If you’re going to have somewhere in the range of 100 to 200 pounds on that back seat, you’re going to want the extra power to get up those hills. My three kids at around 140 pounds sit right in the middle of that range, which is why my own experience lines up so neatly with this advice.

Think about what happens on a climb with the single motor and a loaded bench. The motor is giving you everything it has, and the remaining work comes from your legs. On a short incline, that’s no big deal. On a long or steep one, you’ll feel it. You can absolutely get there, as I did for a long time, but you’ll be working quite a bit harder than you would with power coming from both ends. If you’re a heavier rider yourself, or you regularly carry a lot of weight, it’s also worth browsing our e-trikes with high weight capacity to get a feel for how load affects the whole category.

With the dual motor, that same climb turns into something you barely think about. That’s what I mean when I say it makes life easier. It isn’t about bragging rights or a number on a spec sheet. It’s about whether you arrive home relaxed or arrive home tired.

What “a lot of hills” actually looks like

People sometimes ask me how hilly is hilly enough. Here’s how I’d frame it. If you have big hills to take on, or a lot of hills spread throughout your ride, that’s dual motor territory. If you’re picturing a specific climb right now while you read this, and you’re already wincing a little, that’s probably your answer.

It also helps to think about where the hills fall in your ride. A hill at the start, when you’re fresh, feels very different from a hill at the end, when you’ve been out for a while and you just want to get home. My hill is at the very end of every ride, because I live at the top of it. That placement matters more than most people realize, and I’ll come back to it later, because it ended up changing how often my family used the rickshaw at all.

The hitch changes the math

Our rickshaw has a hitch on the back, and it opens up a lot of possibilities. You can attach a trailer, or you can attach an additional row of seats. That’s a big part of what makes the rickshaw so useful for families and groups. It goes from carrying a couple of passengers to carrying more people or more gear, all from the same trike.

But every time you add something to that hitch, you’re adding weight and length to what the motor has to pull. So here’s my straightforward guidance: if you’re going to max that back seat out at 100 pounds or more, and then add riders on an extra row of seats behind it, the dual motor is going to be a great option. You’re stacking load on load, and the more you stack, the more you’ll appreciate power from the front and the rear.

The same thinking applies if your plan is more about gear than people. If you picture the rickshaw hauling a trailer full of beach things, sports bags, or groceries for a big family, that’s added weight just the same. If cargo is the main job rather than passengers, take a look at our cargo e-trikes too, just so you’re comparing the right tools for the work you have in mind.

Be honest about your typical ride

Here’s where I’d encourage you to be realistic rather than optimistic. A lot of shoppers picture their lightest ride when they’re deciding, the one where it’s just them and a single small passenger on a calm afternoon. Then the rickshaw arrives and the real use kicks in: three kids, a trailer, the hill on the way back from school.

Picture your typical ride instead. Who’s on the back most days? Will you use the hitch regularly or occasionally? Are the hills on your normal routes, or only on the occasional adventure? If the honest answer to those questions points toward heavy loads and regular climbing, the dual motor isn’t a luxury. It’s the version that matches how you’ll actually use it.

And if the honest answer points the other way, toward flat ground and light loads, that’s good news too, because it means you can save yourself the extra investment. That’s what the next section is about.

Now for the other side of this, because I don’t want anyone walking away thinking the single motor is underpowered. It isn’t. On the right terrain, it’s plenty.

If you’re primarily riding on flat ground, you don’t need the dual motor. And I mean that even with the hitch in use. You can have the extra seat or the trailer attached and the single motor will handle it. Honestly, I’ve done it a lot. On flat ground, the single motor is enough power, full stop.

Why flat ground is so forgiving

The reason comes down to momentum. Getting a loaded rickshaw rolling takes some effort, but once it’s moving on level ground, it tends to keep moving very easily on its own. The motor isn’t fighting gravity anymore. It’s just keeping you going. That’s why flat ground is fine all day, even with a full back seat and the hitch or trailer attached.

This is something you only really appreciate after riding one. People sometimes assume that because a rickshaw is carrying a lot of weight, it must always be straining. On a hill, sure, the weight shows up. On flat ground, once you’ve got that momentum going, the weight mostly just comes along for the ride.

Riding the single motor in a low assist level

Here’s a detail that surprises people. Even in a low assistance level with the single motor, say level two or three, I find I can ride comfortably on flat ground with the hitch attached. I don’t need to crank it to the top of the range just because there’s extra seating or a trailer on the back.

That matters because it tells you how much headroom the single motor has on level terrain. If it can handle a loaded rickshaw with a hitch attachment in a low assist level, it isn’t working anywhere near its limit. You’ve got room to spare.

The throttle tells the same story. I can press the throttle and go throttle-only with the additional seating or the trailer on the back, no problem. If throttle riding is a big part of how you picture using your trike, our e-trikes with throttle control are worth a look so you can see how common that feature is across the range.

Bumps versus minor hills: where the line falls

This is the part of the decision that trips people up, so I want to be precise.

If the hills on your route are very small, more like bumps in the road, short rises and dips, the single motor is fine. Your momentum carries you over them and you hardly notice.

But minor hills are a different story once you’ve got the hitch in use. If you’re going to take on even modest hills with the hitch, the trailer, or the extra seat attached, it’s going to be really nice to have the dual motor. I say minor hills on purpose. Even slight upgrades or gentle inclines, with a hitch attachment behind you, really pull things back. You feel the rickshaw slow, and you feel yourself working to keep it going.

That’s where having power coming from the rear and the front makes it so much easier. The second motor picks up exactly the slack that the hitch load creates on an incline. On flat ground you didn’t need it. On a gentle grade with a trailer behind you, you’ll be glad it’s there.

A quick way to sort your own routes

If you’re trying to place your rides into one of these buckets, here’s how I’d think about it, using only what I’ve described above:

• Flat ground, with or without the hitch: the single motor is enough power, all day.
• Very small hills that feel more like bumps: the single motor is fine.
• Minor inclines with the hitch, trailer, or extra seat attached: the dual motor is really nice to have.
• Big hills, lots of hills, or a heavy back seat on hilly routes: I recommend the dual motor.

Most people find they land pretty clearly in one of those lines once they think about their actual routes. If you find yourself straddling two of them, read the next section, because there’s one more factor that tipped the balance for my family, and it has nothing to do with motor specs.

What I’d tell a flat-ground family

If you live somewhere level, here’s the picture I’d want you to have. You can fill the back bench, attach the hitch, put a trailer or an extra row of seats behind it, and still ride comfortably on the single motor. You can sit in a low assist level and let momentum carry you, or ride on the throttle alone when you just want to cruise. That’s not a compromise. That’s the single motor doing exactly what it was designed to do.

In that situation, the extra investment in the dual motor would mostly be buying you power you won’t call on. I’d much rather you put that toward the setup that fits your life, whether that’s accessories for your passengers or simply keeping the money in your pocket. I’d only nudge you toward two motors if your flat routes have a few gentle inclines and you know you’ll be pulling something on the hitch over them, because that’s the specific combination where things start to drag.

One more thought for flat-ground riders: think about where you might ride in the future, not just today. If you’re planning to move, or your kids’ school is across town on the other side of a rise, factor that in. But don’t buy for a hypothetical hill you may never climb. Buy for the riding you’ll actually do.

There’s a part of this decision that doesn’t show up in any comparison chart, and for me, it turned out to be the most important part of all.

When I had the single motor and lived at the top of the hill, I didn’t want to use the rickshaw as much. I hated coming home to that climb. I knew it was waiting for me at the end of every ride, and that knowledge quietly changed how often I took the rickshaw out at all. A quick trip to the park started to feel less quick when I pictured the last few minutes of it.

Once I got the dual motor, that changed completely. Now we’re using it all the time.

Why the hardest part of the ride shapes the whole ride

I think a lot of people underestimate this. We tend to judge a ride by its average, but we decide whether to go based on its hardest moment. If the hardest moment is a climb you dread, you’ll find reasons to take the car instead. If the hardest moment is easy, the rickshaw becomes the default.

For my family, the switch to the dual motor made the school run something I actually look forward to. I can take the kids to school much more easily, and I don’t have to worry or be stressed about getting up that hill at the end of a ride in particular. That stress was real, and it’s gone. It’s hard to put a number on that, but I can tell you it’s the reason the rickshaw is part of our everyday life now instead of an occasional weekend thing.

So when you’re weighing the two versions, don’t only ask whether the single motor can make your climb. Ask whether you’ll want to make that climb on it, regularly, with the kids on the back. Those are two different questions, and the second one is the one that decides how much you’ll actually ride.

Getting the most out of either version

Whichever motor you choose, how you use the assist levels makes a difference to how the ride feels. On the dual motor, I run level five on my hill and just keep my legs moving. That’s the setting that turns the climb into a non-event for me. On the single motor, I found that levels two or three were enough on flat ground even with the hitch attached, and the throttle handled things fine too.

In other words, you have options on both. The single motor gives you real flexibility on level terrain. The dual motor gives you that same flexibility on terrain that would otherwise ask a lot of your legs.

Questions to ask yourself before you order

Before you click buy on either version, run through these with your real routes in mind:

• Is there a hill at the end of my most common ride, the one I’ll face every time I head home?
• On a typical day, will there be somewhere around 100 to 200 pounds of passengers on the back seat?
• Will I use the hitch for a trailer or an extra row of seats, and will those routes include any inclines at all, even gentle ones?
• When I picture the hardest part of my ride on the single motor, do I feel fine about it, or do I feel a little dread?

If you answered yes to most of those, the dual motor is the version I’d point you toward. If you answered no to most of them, the single motor will very likely serve you well, and you’ll enjoy it for years. And if your answers are split, that’s exactly the situation where getting a second opinion is worth it, which brings me to the last section.

Putting it all together

Let me boil the whole thing down the way I would if you called me up and asked for a straight answer.

Choose the dual motor if you live at the top of a hill, ride routes with big hills or lots of hills, regularly carry 100 to 200 pounds on the back seat, or plan to use the hitch with a trailer or an extra row of seats on anything other than flat ground. Those are the situations where extra torque makes all the difference in the world, and they’re the situations where I’ve felt that difference myself.

The single motor will serve you well if you ride mostly flat ground, even with a full seat and the hitch attached, or if the only hills you face are small enough to feel like bumps. You’ll have plenty of power, momentum will do a lot of the work, and you can ride in a low assist level or on the throttle alone without any trouble.

If you’re in between, think hard about the last stretch of your typical ride and whether you’ll look forward to it or dread it. That one question pushed me from the single motor to the dual motor, and I haven’t looked back.

At the end of the day, think about your terrain, think about who and what you’ll be carrying, and think about what you believe is best for you. If you’d like a broader framework for weighing features like this across any bike or trike, our ultimate bike buyer’s guide is a good companion to this article.

If you’ve read this far and you’re still not sure, that’s completely normal. Everyone’s terrain, load, and household are a little different, and sometimes it helps to have someone look at your specific situation.

Send me your details and I’ll take a look

We offer a custom fitting process that I personally review. You can send in videos or photos of your routes, your riders, and your setup, and give us more specific details than you would through a standard online quiz. Once you submit it, it comes to me, and I’ll give you my best assessment based on what you share. That extra detail is exactly why we ask for more than a quick questionnaire. You can start on our get fitted page.

If you have any other questions at all, reach out to us through our contact page or give us a call at (310) 982-2877. We’re happy to talk it through.

Try it without the risk

We also offer a 30-day test ride. If you don’t love your rickshaw in the first 30 days, send it back. No questions asked, and no money out of your pocket. That’s a good safety net if you’re torn between one motor and two, because you get to ride your actual routes, with your actual passengers, before you commit.

And we stand behind what we sell. If anything goes wrong, we’ll take care of it, parts and labor. You can read the full details on our warranty page.

Come ride both versions in person

If you’re anywhere near Southern California, come see us in San Clemente and test ride any of our e-bikes and e-trikes before you buy. Riding the single motor and the dual motor back to back is the fastest way to feel the difference I’ve been describing. Everything you need to plan a trip is on our visit our store page.

Talk to riders who’ve already made this choice

Before you purchase, join our community. We have a Facebook group for sixthreezero riders with thousands of members, and it’s a great place to ask existing rickshaw owners which motor they chose and why. Hearing from someone whose terrain looks like yours can be just as useful as anything I can tell you.

Then, once your rickshaw arrives, post in the group, make some friends, and download our riding app to track your rides and compete on the leaderboard.

Thanks for sticking with me through this one. Whichever motor ends up on your rickshaw, it’s your journey, so enjoy the ride.