H1 2025 and Q2 conclude with Eurobike, which we’ll review next month. The mood going into this year’s event is slighly downbeat to neutral, you might say—the post-Covid downturn continues to weigh heavily on the market.
Hope springs eternal though, as we see from the eclectic, yet progressive, array of products we look at this month.
Contents
Cargo Bike Handbrakes
Last mile delivery is increasingly dominated by e-cargo bikes displaying, in turn, an increasing variety of designs. With delivery riders are jumping on and off bikes contunually through their shifts, the need for a quick and easy method of applying a handbrake while carrying packages the last few meters has generated responses from Taiwan’s Alhonga and Bengal Brake System.
Alhonga scored an IF gong for a new system introduced this year.
They got the award largely due to the lever’s ergonomics. A slight movement of the edge of your hand and finger secures or releases the brake. Impressive.
Bengal had a similar idea except with the lever below the grip. Although the sales rep demonstrated with two hands, it seems you just pull it across in one movement with one hand.
Alhonga’s one finger operation, although a bit tricky to get right, gets the gong. Seems to be a bit more convenient.
Walled-Gardens vs Practical Convenience
Charging cords and dongles/plugs have always been a part of the economic game theory deployed by brands, particularly larger brands—keeping a customer costs much less than gaining a new one. You nudge them towards the inertia of sticking with what they know by increasing the inconvenience of proliferating cords and connectors as they change devices.
With the EU mandating the USB-C standard for a range of devices—and e-bikes arguably now another class of electronic “device” that users have to plug in—the first USB-C e-bike has appeared. Ampler’s Nova (and performance-oriented Nova Pro) can be charged with a laptop charger; 2.5 hrs for a top up; 3.5 hours for a full charge.
The thing is, e-bikes are not listed amongst the included devices, whereas just about everything else is. Another is that such a big purchase is not just “another” device. A brand-specific charging setup makes sense. Will USB-C gain acceptance amongst e-bike brands? Not necessarily. Maybe it doesn’t matter…
E-bike Motors
The big Taiwan electronics manufacturer, Delta, has been working on an e-bike motor for a few years now. It’s due for release into the market later this year. The length of time between the first showing at a trade show and launch is perhaps an indication of how hard it can be to move into a new vertical, even if it is within a company’s area of expertise.
A key reason for them going ahead with this plan to enter the e-bike motor market—enticing for any established electronics behemoth—was that they are a global company with international branches that enable providing a ready-made support network for dealers.
While Delta at this time are yet to make an impact in the market, the OG of e-bikes, Yamaha, have come up with a new e-bike service platform that has one aim—to make e-bike ownership easier and more convenient. It’s one thing to have an e-bike motor; it’s quite another to excel on the support side of things. Newer entrants that do that well may get to be around as long as Yamaha has.
Yamaha e-bike dealerships now benefit from a centralized digital platform, providing them with all the necessary tools to efficiently maintain and repair e-bikes. This integrated system allows them to quickly identify issues, streamline the warranty claim process, order essential replacement parts, and even access comprehensive service manuals and training resources, ensuring smooth operations. Only available in France to start off with, the rest of Europe will be included once the service is proven effective.
In the meantime, the e-bike motor market by one estimate is set to hit $75 billion in seven years which works out at a CAGR of 5.2% from 2024 to 2032.
Luxury, Smart Gravel, Deterring Thieves, & Nostalgia
The UK’s T3 mag has advanced the case for “luxury” e-bikes. That is, models that are lighter, “smarter”, and just look luxurious (assuming we know exactly what we mean by that).
What they appear to mean by that is a move away from the heavy-set, fat tire model with plenty of carrying capacity to something approximating the ideal city/urban commuter
Exhibit A, Ponomarets Bikes EIDOLON. Looks like any other, yet offers 100km range with only the Mahle X20 rear hub to suggest you might be looking at an e-bike. A bespoke ‘monocoque’ hand crafted carbon frame, which is actually saying something these days now that automated carbon frame manufacturing is a thing—all carbon was once ‘hand crafted’, laid up in the mold, one mold per size. This one’s €13,000 after shipping. Cheap for those for whom this constitutes value; and there will be quite a few.
Targeting the urban and gravel niches Lemmo extends its smart urban concept—Lemmo One—into gravel with the limited edition Green Explorer Pro. The urban model is available in a step-through frame or diamond frame with the standard top tube. 40 Nm hub drive motor for the urban model; 56 Nm for the gravel.
This e-bike comes standard with a detachable 531 Watt-hour battery, which also doubles as a power bank and offers GPS tracking with an alarm. A mechanical lock for the rear wheel is also included.
A standout feature is the ability to fully disengage the motor. This allows you to ride the bike like a traditional, non-electric bicycle for training. And the 3 kg battery can be removed for a lighter ride when you don’t need electric assistance.
With theft high on the list of reasons preventing a potential e-bike owner from going ahead with a purchase, the possibility of a theft-proof bike is tantalizing.
The Aventon Pace 4 incorporates the Aventon Control Unit (ACU) which enhances the bike’s intelligence and security functions in the form of GPS tracking, geofencing, and remote locking.
This system enhances bicycle security by offering several features. Users can track their bike’s location in real-time and establish geofences that send alerts if the bike moves outside a designated zone. The rear wheel can be also be remotely locked.
For additional theft deterrence, a startup passcode can be activated, limiting bike operation to authorized users. While remote locking and passcodes can discourage some theft, the integrated GPS tracking facilitates recovery if the bicycle is stolen. Both the GPS functionality and 4G data communication necessitate a 4G data subscription, which is included for the first year after purchase.
So, while 100% theft-proofing is probably unattainable, the bar to deterrence has clearly been raised and will certainly help convince potential e-bike owners to make a move whereas in the past they might have been reluctant due to the fear of loss.
Batteries
Battery repair company, Nowos, is expanding across Europe. A startup in 2019 they repaired a total of over 300,000kg or 90,000 batteries equivalent in 2024. The cost of repairing a battery is now some 55% cheaper than replacing it due to rising storage, raw materials, compliance, and other costs.
They started with micro-mobility (e-bikes, e-mopeds, kick scooters) but they’re not limiting themselves to this sector of course. Other key areas include logistics and manufacturing equipment, such as forklifts and automated guided vehicles, as well as energy storage systems (ESS). Additionally, there are portable power devices, ranging from power tools to garden electronics. The realm of autonomous drones and robotic systems represents another significant category. Finally, healthcare equipment.
The truth is, the e-bike market is a small pool compared to the totality of sectors as the number of devices depending on batteries increases. For e-bike consumers, though, battery cost reduction and convenience are likely to be the payoffs.
“Mobility”—not “bikes” per se
The publication of this post coincides with the latest edition of Eurobike. This year will see three top-level bike shows: Taipei Cycle, Eurobike, and IAA Mobility.
ChatGPT’s summary of these shows displays the centrality of “mobility” and the shifting positions of the players as everything goes electric—from cars, to bikes, to scooters. A potential battleground that may intensify rapidly in the near term concerns Eurobike and IAA Mobility. Eurobike has embraced the more inclusive concept of mobility, clearly shifting their emphasis away from “bikes” per se. IAA Mobility has done the same but from the other direction; once an automotive trade show, their focus is now mobility in all its forms including micromobility ie. e-bikes and e-scooters.
Two sectors which did not directly compete and had nothing to do with each other are now set to compete to get attention from an increasingly homogenous pool of buyers. The outcome will depend on how those buyers evolve over the next 5-10 years. If you were a gambler, banking on the gradual decline of Eurobike and the gradual rise of IAA Mobility would probably turn out well.
Bike-Cars
The “agility and simplicity of a bicycle, with the comfort and convenience of a tiny car” has been a dream for at least the last 50 years.
With electrification, the impetus to combine the efficiency and convenience of cycling and light vehicles has generated a variety of products over the last decade.
Acticycle joins an increasingly long list of attempts, both abandoned and ongoing—we’ll take a detailed look at this niche in a future post. It has room for the driver and two passengers. 170 liters of storage space, a 180 Nm torque motor and two (removable) batteries give a range of 100km.
The difficulties this category has faced include:
- Regulatory—being neither bike nor car puts them in a grey zone
- Production costs and lack of economies of scale
- Their complexity coupled with (understandable but probably unreasonable) user expectations that they are as weather-proof as cars.
Let’s see how this one fares.
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