In the beginning was the Big Bang? Or creation? That's debatable, depending on your world view. You can also argue about the beginning of e-mountain biking, back in 2010, and which manufacturer gave the starting signal for the most rapid (r)evolution of mountain biking since the invention of full suspension. Flyer or Haibike? The Swiss or the Germans? Was the Haibike eQ XDuro the beginning of e-bike motors? Or was it the Flyer X-series?
Gruber drive: a true pioneer for e-bikes
Flyer or Haibike then? Or perhaps neither? A small bike manufacturer from the Black Forest caused a sensation at the 2009 Eurobike trade fair. Solid Bikes took the plunge with the first fully functional, full-suspension production enduro bike with an electric drive from Gruber from cover. The Gruber drive had already been around for four years, but had not yet been installed in a mountain bike.
The Gruber drive never managed to achieve any significant market importance. But one thing is certain: never again in the history of the e-bike has there been better "cheating" than with the Gruber drive. This is because the miniature Gruber drive was located directly in the seat tube and was therefore practically invisible. The seat tube in turn led directly into the bottom bracket, where the unit drove a bottom bracket shaft. In contrast to the usual rear wheel hub motors of the time, this had the advantage that the entire system was part of the suspension mass. An important prerequisite for off-road use - which is why rear hub motors never made the breakthrough in the E-MTB market.
In 2013, Gruber Antrieb GmbH und Co KG was renamed - from then on, the drive ran under the name Vivax Assist. 2020 then saw the final demise of Vivax Drive GmbH: the coronavirus crisis had put an end to the small, medium-sized company from Austria.
Nevertheless, the adaptive Gruber or Vivax drive made an important contribution to the development of e-mountainbikes. Until then, e-bikes had been reserved exclusively for use on paved roads: slender hardtails with heavy motors and no off-road capability. With the Gruber drive, electrically assisted mountain bike fullys rode off-road for the first time. However, opinions differ as to whether the solid enduro can really be counted as the first e-MTB. After all, the Gruber e-bike motor was just an adaptive drive that had a modest market significance as a retrofit kit. What's more, it really only provided its rider with a gentle tailwind. The motor provided just 200 watts of power. last generation of the mini engine free, the tiny battery fitted into a saddle bag. At the time, the manufacturer did not specify the battery capacity in watt hours. They spoke in general terms of 45 minutes of battery life. If you think about it carefully, the Gruber drive was something like the ancestor of the modern Fazua-Motors and thus the forerunner of the current minimal-assist trend. What's more, as the motor was designed to be switched on only when required via a red "turbo" button (otherwise you should pedal the Solid like a non-motorised bike), it can even be called a pioneer of the current down-country trend. The latest ultra-light eMTBs such as the brand new Scott Lumen are designed to be ridden without motor assistance.
2010 - the first Bosch e-bike motor: The Swabians dominate the market right from the start
Nevertheless, the Gruber drive was only a brief episode - the power unit was too weak for the needs of the time and the battery too small. If at all, then at all, was the motto when e-bikes made their way off-road. And one manufacturer in particular lived up to this motto: Bosch. The German tech group also entered the e-bike motor business at Eurobike 2010 with the Bosch Drive Unit. The Bosch unit already had four support levels and offered bike manufacturers the option of a variable battery position - the 288 Wh battery could be mounted either on the down tube or on the luggage rack. The 36V motor unit contained a brushless DC motor, a gearbox, a power and cadence sensor and a speed sensor on the rear wheel. The motor also impressed some traditional mountain bikers with its powerful 50 Newton metres of torque and good modulation. With the Classic Plus, Bosch established the mid-motor system and was able to set itself apart from the competition from BionX, Panasonic and Impulse right from the start.
With the first Drive Unit, Bosch also supplied the centrepiece for the Haibike eQ XDuro. The stylish E-Fully stole the show from its motorless relatives at Eurobike 2010, and many competitors were left in a cold sweat. This was because the dealers were racing to get their hands on the Haibike creation, with which the Schweinfurt-based company laid the foundations for years of market dominance. The highlight: As the designers had anchored the Bosch motor rotated in the frame, the first XDuro already had an astonishingly sporty geometry.
2015 - the Bosch CX: the perennial favourite from Stuttgart
When in summer 2014 Brose presented its first electric motor for sporty e-bikes, it was clear: Bosch had to react. Of course, the Swabians already had an ace up their sleeve at this point. Otherwise they would not have been able to present the successor to their Drive Unit just one year after the Brose première. The Performance Line CX was to become the flagship with which Bosch wanted to underpin its claim to superpower status in the bike industry. And in a modified form, this unit still dominates the motor market today, with all competitors still having to be measured against this system. The 2015 drive achieved a maximum torque of 75 newtons. At lower pedalling frequencies, the drive was extremely powerful - a full 300 percent of its own muscle power was delivered by the most powerful of the four support levels: turbo mode. It also set standards in terms of stability. Long, steep climbs literally left the powerful unit cold. The external batteries were available with 500 or 400 watt hours. They were quite light and compact, making them easy to stow in a rucksack. The Performance CX had disadvantages for manufacturers who were restricted in the design of their bikes due to the large installation space. There was already a choice of three displays: Purion, Intuvia and Nyon.
The CX rolled off the production line virtually unchanged for five years. Bosch then presented a successor in the summer of 2019: the Performance CX Generation 4 was smaller, lighter, much easier to modulate and also more powerful with 340 per cent pedal assistance. The more compact design was essential for the E-MTB designers in order to finally achieve with the Bosch unit what had long been possible with the Shimano Steps E8000 at the time: modern geometries with shorter chainstays. The scales also spoke a clear language: a whole kilo had been saved compared to the predecessor. This put the new Bosch on a par with the Shimano drive.
2021 saw a change of a different kind: the Bosch Performance CX was expanded to include the Smart add-on. The Smart system symbolises the Swabian company's entry into the connective age. To pave the way for this future, Bosch had to rethink the entire e-bike drive and create a completely new technical infrastructure. Since then, the eBike Flow app has been the centrepiece of the smart system. It enables over-the-air updates, i.e. the installation of new software versions from home. In this way, the system can be successively expanded with new features, the drive can grow and learn completely new functions. On the hardware side, Bosch introduced a 750 Wh Intube battery as well as the new Kiox 300 display and an LED remote as part of the Smart upgrade.
Bosch presented the final expansion stage on the motor side in autumn 2022: the CX Race. Bosch is addressing a special target group with this bike: Racers and uphill freaks who want to conquer climbs in a sprint with the power unit. The CX motor has been given a new interior and is 200 grams lighter. However, the most important features of the CX Race are in the software. A new mode above the turbo, called "Race", now offers up to 400 per cent support instead of the usual 340 per cent. In other words, the maximum engine power is available earlier with the CX Race. In addition, the new mode is even more responsive and pushes even longer with strong rider input. Bosch calls this feature Extended Boost, which was introduced in E-MTB mode in 2020 and helps the rider over difficult key sections. Since then, this has been a strong argument in favour of the Swabian drive system when riding uphill in difficult terrain.
The first Panasonic e-bike motor: didn't have the sports spirit of the Bosch
Back to the big bang in the bike industry, the beginnings of the e-mountain bike: In the hype surrounding the first Haibike, another premiere at the same Eurobike trade fair was somewhat overlooked. Kurt Schär - mountain biker, businessman, visionary - founded the first pure e-bike company in 2001: Flyer. The Swiss soon became the benchmark when it came to city and trekking e-bikes. At Eurobike 2010, the time had also come for Flyer, and Schär presented its X series, which was designed for off-road use. With full suspension, a 250-watt Panasonic drive and a 15 Ah battery, the bike was intended to set new standards in terms of comfort and off-road capability. However, with its super-long chainstays, it was less off-road capable and less sporty than the Haibike. This is why the Haibike rightly went down in history as the forefather of modern e-mountainbikes.
The Panasonic motor was unable to stop Bosch's triumphant advance. Panasonic's 26-volt drive system gradually lost market share to the mid-drive motors from the Swabians. On the one hand, the Bosch e-bike motor allowed for more compact frame shapes, on the other hand, the Panasonic also had technical disadvantages: For example, no speed sensor was used, instead the 25 km/h assistance limit was determined via the cadence. The 25 km/h threshold could therefore only be reached in the highest gear; in lower gears, the assistance speed was correspondingly lower.
E-bike manufacturer Flyer has remained loyal to the Japanese motor supplier to this day, and for good reason. Of course, the Panasonic drive unit has also been consistently developed over the years. The current power unit from the Japanese company, the GX Ultimate Pro, is fully up to date. It achieved top performance in EMTB magazine's big motor test - and that with absolutely competitive weight, good modulation and unobtrusive noise development.
The first Brose e-bike motor: with standard technology from the automotive sector
In July 2014, a new player came onto the scene to break Bosch's market dominance. The automotive supplier had quietly Brose Brose brought an electric motor for e-mountainbikes to series production. And the Berlin-based company's ambitions were set high right from the start: "We want to be the clear number 1 in the premium segment," announced Brose CEO Michael Stoschek at the launch of the unit. Within three years, the engineers had developed an e-MTB drive system based on a steering motor for cars that had been produced millions of times over and was intended to give the competition a run for its money. The ingredients: At 90 Nm, the Brose was very powerful, but at the same time compact, light and quiet. And: The e-MTB manufacturers were able to customise all other components - from the display to the cable sets to the motor mount in the frame. The batteries were supplied by BMZ GmbH Karlstein. Together with Europe's largest battery manufacturer, Brose also provided the service for the bicycle dealers.
However, this did little to change Bosch's dominance: the Swabian company provided everything from a single source - this all-round carefree package with a convincing service concept won over customers and retailers alike. Nevertheless, the Brose e-bike motor continued to have its place in the market, especially when the Berlin-based company presented an expansion stage in 2018: the Brose Drive S. The automotive experts continued to offer the industry an open system. They could intervene in the motor control and had freedom in the choice of battery. The teething troubles (inconsistent support with low pedalling impulse in the original model) had been solved with flying colours. In addition, the Drive S drive did its job very unobtrusively - you didn't have to put up with any whining or rattling like some of its competitors.
In summer 2018, the Berliners will go one better. With the Brose Drive S Mag, a real lightweight was sent into the race. It was 15 per cent smaller than the Drive S Alu, 500 grams lighter thanks to its magnesium housing and yet even slightly more powerful than its predecessor: the maximum power of 90 Newton metres could be called up over an even wider speed range. E-mountain bikers were also given an additional support level: Flex Power Mode, which delivers its power depending on the torque and speed. Bike manufacturers were also offered a complete arrangement consisting of drive, battery and display for the first time. The battery was designed for integration in the down tube and had 630 watt hours.
The first Shimano e-bike motor: what goes around comes around...
But neither Bosch nor Brose could rest on their laurels. Because another industry heavyweight also entered the ring in 2016. Since the start of the E-MTB trend, many manufacturers in the bike industry had been waiting for Shimano finally gets out of the starting block. If you're already buying gears and other components from the Japanese, then it's best to put the motor and battery in the same shopping basket. But the component giant took its time. The first rumours emerged in 2015, but it wasn't until a year later that the Japanese company became concrete and presented the Steps E8000 in May. Smaller and weighing less than three kilos, the first Steps was significantly lighter than the rival motor from Bosch, the Performance CX. However, at 70 Nm, the Shimano motor was also somewhat weaker than the Swabian unit. Three levels of support, good feel of the step shifters, small, easy-to-read display - the Japanese had taken their time, but made good use of it. Shimano scored a hit with the E8000 and within a year had overtaken Bosch for supremacy in the high-end E-MTB segment. With its compact design and low weight, the Steps drive also laid the foundation for a new, more manoeuvrable generation of e-mountainbikes.
In 202o, things went from strength to strength: first Bosch presented its new Performance CX Gen4, then Shimano followed suit just a few months later with the EP8 e-bike motor. And the Japanese bike scored over the Bosch in several categories: It was smaller and, at just under 2.6 kilos, also a lot lighter than the CX. It was also remarkable that Shimano was able to clearly improve the power and stability despite the significant weight reduction. In many duels with the Bosch, the two top dogs have been on an equal footing ever since: while the Shimano scores points in terms of installation space and weight, the Bosch is superior in terms of power development, modulation and stability.
The first Yamaha e-bike motor: built on tradition
Yamaha has a long tradition as an e-bike motor manufacturer. The first prototypes for use in bicycles were built at the end of the 1980s. In 1994, the Japanese presented the first mid-motor drive system. They really got serious in 2013 with the PW series, which was specially developed for use in sporty e-bikes, especially e-mountainbikes. At its core: the triple sensor system. The Yamaha unit was quiet and light by the standards of the time, but still very powerful. Two chainrings could be fitted at the front, making up to 22 gears possible. With its 70 Nm, the PW was one of the most powerful electric motors on the market, with four support levels available. Thanks to "zero-cadence support", the full torque was available immediately after pedalling - particularly helpful when setting off on steep terrain. At 3.5 kilos, the unit weighed between Bosch and Shimano. Giant adapted and modified the Yamaha PW to create its own Syncdrive motor. With its latest E-MTB motor model, the PW-X3, the Japanese company is fully in tune with the timesIn terms of weight, installation space, noise level and power development, the unit can keep up with the best on the market.
Rocky Mountain Powerplay: the great adventure of the small Canadian forge
North American bike companies have always had a penchant for exciting productions. August 2016, Eurobike. A back room at the Rocky Mountain stand. Subdued lighting, spherical sounds and the Altitude Powerplay on a shrine. A mountain bike with an aesthetic design language and inconspicuously integrated drive. No Bosch, no Shimano, no Panasonic, no Yamaha - an e-drive made by Rocky Mountain is set to fuel the Altitude trail bike. A brief rendezvous with the future for a small handful of journalists. Just five minutes, then they had to leave the room again. But only if they signed a confidentiality agreement. Eight months later, the time had come. The small Canadian forge dared to take to the big stage with Powerplay. The real venture: a completely unique, totally unconventional e-bike motor.
In terms of power, the Rocky drive was a real beast, with 108 Newton metres of torque. The response behaviour of the Powerplay engine was somewhat more robust. In any case, the Canadian unit was a real character head: due to the complex chain deflection, the engine ran a little rough, and at low rider power, the system added a little less power than some of its competitors. At high cadence, however, the Dyname was one of the most powerful on the market. The drive ran on 48 volts, which was intended to reduce possible heat development and also shorten the battery charging time. The battery was available with either 632 Wh or 500 Wh. The disadvantage: the battery could not be removed for charging. However, the system was supposed to be 80 per cent charged in two hours and fully charged in four hours. Although three support levels were a little sparse, the bottom line was that both the bike and the motor were convincing and subsequently established themselves on the market.
In autumn 2021, the Canadians then presented a new Altitude Powerplay. And, oh wonder: the bottom bracket also contained a new electric motor, the Dyname 4.0. The unit had become 750 grams lighter and now weighed just 3.2 kilos. There was also a modern display integrated into the top tube and a compact remote. The special design of the Rocky motor remained the same: As before, the motor transmits power to the chain via a separate cogwheel, so the crank sits on a standard bottom bracket for easy maintenance. An important new feature for all Rocky riders: the battery could finally be removed and charged externally. The character of the Dyname 4.0 had changed little compared to its predecessor: The current Rocky Mountain power unit is also very powerful, but only delivers its full performance when the rider puts in a lot of effort.
Conclusion from Josh Welz, EMTB editor-in-chief
For me, one thing is certain: Haibike built the first real e-mountainbike with the eQ XDuro, and Bosch supplied the matching electric motor with its Drive Unit. Presented at the 2010 Eurobike trade fair in Friedrichshafen. Since this big bang, the E-MTB has evolved like a beach buggy into a Paris-Dakar racer. Always at the centre of this rapid (r)evolution: the e-bike drives from the numerous motor manufacturers. Bosch still sets the benchmark today. But the market is tighter than ever before. The requirements are as clear as they are difficult to reconcile: Modern e-MTB motors have to be light, compact, powerful, intuitive and connective. Well then, good luck!
Josh Welz
Editor-in-Chief
