BougeRV’s electric wagon is the uphill king and downhill menace

Not to brag, but I’m somewhat of an expert in folding wagons. Huge flex, I know. But I’ve never tested one with a motor like BougeRV’s new Electric Foldable Wagon.

I have a little surf shack that sits almost exactly 1km (0.6 miles) from the parking lot, where I regularly carry supplies and sports gear back and forth. I’ve used lots of folding carts, with prices starting around $40 for something that will only last a few months, $250 for something from a reputable brand, and closer to $800 for top-of-the-line merch. Nothing I’ve tried can make hauling 200kg (about 440 pounds) over steep inclines as effortless as the new BougeRV electric wagon.

Yeah, it’s $399.99, and not without its quirks, but boy is it worth it if you regularly carry large heavy loads over hills.

BougeRV — the company behind that impressive lantern I recently reviewed — makes luxury glamping gear for vanlifers and outdoorsy people. Its name sounds a bit too similar to the disparaging slang bougie, if you ask me, but maybe they’re in on the joke?

Regardless, this Chinese company’s electric folding wagon has flattened the 5- and 10-percent grade hills (as measured by my Garmin bike computer) that have had me huffing and puffing for years, long before I even entered my wetsuit. At full throttle, the cart follows along under its own power — all I have to do is steer. That alone will justify its price to some.

The wagon has a 180-liter capacity that can be expanded to 250 liters when popping open its tailgate, with plenty of tie-down points for your bungee cords. That expansion is surprisingly useful when carrying oversized items like kiteboards or deflated standup paddle boards, for example. It’s sturdy enough to pull a few small kids, a full-sized human sitting cross-legged, or an aging dog and his supplies.

The two rear-wheel drive motors are nearly silent and produce 11Nm of torque, which is not much. As such, it still relies upon human power to get it rolling at your choice of low, medium, or high speeds. I found medium and high to best match my usual NYC-style (local, not tourist) walking pace on level surfaces. The cart can also be electronically reversed to help back a heavy load into place.

BougeRV says its electric wagons are “typically weather-resistant and can handle light rain or damp conditions, but it’s advisable to avoid prolonged exposure to heavy rain to protect the motor and battery components.” That’s not very reassuring, and the company doesn’t publish an official IP rating against water or dust ingress. I left it outside overnight in light rain and blowing sand and it worked fine the next day. Still, if I were spending $400 on a wagon with such vague assurances, I’d buy a simple cover for it and remove the definitely-not-waterproof battery when storing it outside. Odd that BougeRV doesn’t include a rain cover in the box like wagons that cost 1/10th the price.

Operating the cart is a little peculiar. There are two yellow throttle levers on the handle to control the forward and reverse speed, and two red electric sliders you pull to activate the electronic brake. That redundancy lets you control the cart one-handed with the thumb and forefinger when using either your left or right hand to pull the wagon. When walking, it’s best to peg the throttle to max as there’s too much vibration to do any feathering. It takes a few minutes of practice to get comfortable with everything, so it’s a good idea to test drive it before rolling into a crowded area.

The handle also features a terrible display that isn’t readable at all in sunlight. A few segments on the display of my review unit don’t light up. There’s also an on/off button and a button to change the speed. The cart turns off automatically after a few minutes of idling and emits warning beeps if you fold it up without turning it off — why not just turn it off when seeing this, BougeRV?

Finally, there are — in theory — four braking modes. If you stop walking and naturally push the handle up against the cart, even with the throttle maxed out, the wagon will stop. Drop the handle or pull the red slider, and the wagon stops moving forward. You can also set a mechanical footbrake to prevent it from accidentally rolling away.

Everything works as advertised on flat paved surfaces with the cart empty. But things get squirrely after you load it up and put it on a slope.

For example, even when packed with a relatively light load of about 20kg (44 pounds), that little red slider that’s supposed to activate the electronic brake does nothing to stop the wagon from rolling down a moderate five percent slope. You have to set the footbrakes to prevent it from rolling after you let go.

The throttle can also be unpredictable when rolling downhill, even in the slowest setting. And you have to apply it to move forward or else the motor will brake and add too much drag. It’s so unnatural and jerky that I found it easier to shut it off when going down hills and use the extended handle as a lever to keep the wagon off my heels. That requires stopping and using two hands — one to hold the cart, the other to push the on/off button — which is annoying, but… fine.

The wheels performed well over paved surfaces, cobblestones, packed gravel, and concrete covered in a few millimeters of sand. But if that sand piled up like a snow drift, it would stop the wagon in its tracks even at full throttle. I’d prefer actual tires to cut down on vibration and for easier climbs over stones, but the hard plastic wheels likely keep the cost down and reduce maintenance.

BougeRV claims a max range of 12 miles (over 19km) from the 133Wh rechargeable battery. The removable battery charges over USB-C and doubles as a power bank to charge USB-A (18W max) and USB-C (40W max) devices.

I put 5km on the wagon so far, and the display tries to show what looks like “87” percent when I add back the missing display segments. Indeed, the meter on the battery says it’s over 75 percent full. That’s very good from such a small power source considering the size and weight of the loads I’ve been carrying. My testing over ten days covered 1.2km up and down a 5 percent grade, 0.6km up and down a 10 percent grade, and the rest on hard surfaces as flat as the horizon.

I’m mostly impressed by BougeRV’s Electric Foldable Wagon and can easily work around its faults. It easily flattens steep hills that normally exhaust me, even when carrying large, heavy loads that would trouble many to pull on flat pavement. It also has plenty of range, so it can be used again and again after you collapse the 18kg (40 pound) wagon and hoist it into a car or van. That will make this bougie wagon’s $400 price tag worth it for many.

Photos by Thomas Ricker / The Verge