A key player in e-bikes, too
Are you a keen cyclist? From now on, you could find a MAHLE drive in your new SMART bike! At the end of October last year, MAHLE took over the Spanish company ebikemotion® Technologies S.L. This strengthens MAHLE’s activities in the area of electrically powered bikes and is setting a course for the future: soon, half of all new bicycles bought in central Europe are expected to be e-bikes. MAHLE has set itself the goal of further developing e-bikes into SMART bikes. You can find out what this means in this article.
The E-Bike: A lifestyle product
You’ll have already noticed that pedelecs and e-bikes have been a big trend for some time. According to market research, this is set to continue for the foreseeable future. Initially dismissed as a “bike for senior citizens,” wider target groups soon discovered the advantages of electric city bikes.
Nowadays, even ultra-sporty electric mountain bikes can be found tearing up the trails: the e-bike has become a lifestyle product! Electric cargo bikes, racing bikes with electric support, electric bikes for children: the e-bike covers all niches.
This is reason enough for MAHLE to apply its electric drive systems competence to two-wheeled as well as four-wheeled vehicles.
Systems competence and connectivity in focus
Rear wheel hub motors and mid-drive motor applications
The strengths of ebikemotion® lie in its compact and lightweight rear wheel hub motors, batteries, electronic control units, and other pedelec components that can be integrated unobtrusively into the bicycle. The ebikemotion® system is therefore particularly suitable for use in lightweight racing bikes, gravel bikes, and city bikes—where a rear wheel hub motor is the ideal solution.
But for mountain bikes and similar applications, mid-drive motors are more appropriate. This expertise is what MAHLE brings to the table. Together, we can position ourselves as an integrated systems provider for pedelec drives in a wide variety of applications.
Going beyond the standard: the right app for your smartphone
The real highlight for you as a cyclist is the connectivity system from ebikemotion®. SMART bikes from MAHLE are equipped with an app for use on smartphones and online—which not only provides route analysis and a navigation system, but also shows the remaining battery power or the rider’s heart rate.
A useful service: if you register, the manufacturer can call up the status of your SMART bike and address any faults, if necessary.
The formula for a perfect smart bike
“A pleasant cycling experience combined with a powerful drive and high connectivity make a good pedelec, and these factors are crucial if we want to be successful on the market,” states Wilhelm Emperhoff, Member of the Management Board at MAHLE.
We are therefore concentrating on a performance-oriented approach—the drive unit must be as small and light as possible while offering a high specific output.
If the cruising range of the battery is insufficient because longer journeys are planned, our range extender battery offers an attractive and simple way of increasing the range. With its systems, MAHLE thus offers the optimal basis for the next generation of SMART bikes.
Leading premium bicycles, such as the Orbea Gain, the Bianchi Aria e-Road, the Pinarello Dyodo, or the Schindelhauer Adam already rely on the MAHLE ebikemotion® system—and we’re sure that many more will follow!
In cooperation with MAHLE Powertrain, a mid-drive motor unit has been developed for a very well-known premium manufacturer, which will go into series production soon.
We are also supplying the electric motor for the mid-drive motor units of one of the largest bicycle component and e-bike systems manufacturers in Asia—more than a million motors over the next three years. And MAHLE is already working on future models.
Interested in smart bikes?
Find out more at www.ebikemotion.com.