E-bike trends 2022 – what’s coming?
There are a number of clear e-bike trends in 2022. More and more people are opting for the e-bike as an affordable and sustainable means of transport, which often allows you to travel faster than the car in the city. And no more parking problems. Meanwhile, technology does not stand still. What can we expect in the coming year?
Engine and gear become one
The years 2020 and 2021 were completely dominated by the corona crisis and the shortages of parts thereafter. 2022 promises to be a better year for the e-bike. This will lead to better and cheaper engines. The Chinese manufacturer Bafang has been banned from the European market until now, but has now invested heavily in factories in the low-wage EU country Poland. Until now, you mainly saw the Bafang motors in cheaper bicycles such as Cortina, but one of the clear e-bike trends in 2022 will be the advancement of Bafang to the better bicycles.
With this, Bafang also wants to provide the more expensive e-bikes with motors, which until now were the exclusive domain of Bosch and Shimano. A smart Bafang innovation, for example, is the combination of motor and gear. This promises lighter, more efficient engines with automatic transmissions that are less prone to failure. With the new Bafang H700, which weighs only 3.2 kg, the Chinese think they can make a big hit on the e-bike market, setting one of the most important e-bike trends in 2022.
But the European competition is of course not standing still either. For speed pedelecs, the French Valeo wants to enter the market with a strong motor of 2 kW and a gear range of an impressive 450 percent. This means that you make 4.5 times fewer pedal movements in the highest gear, compared to the lowest gear.
Cheaper mid-engines as e-bike trends 2022
Another interesting trend is that mid-mounted motors are becoming much cheaper. The arrival of Chinese competition from Bafang, Tongsheng and Ananda promises the advance of cheaper and more affordable mid-engines. The question is whether the Chinese will immediately succeed in making the quality improvement that is needed in the demanding European market.
But we have already seen in the field of mobile telephony that Chinese companies are not only very cost-conscious, but are also becoming more customer-oriented and rapidly improving their products. Chinese consumers also find quality increasingly important and competition between Chinese manufacturers in the domestic market is fierce. Greater Chinese influence here is one of the clear e-bike trends for 2022.
Manufacturers like the unknown Eskute use the new Bafang M200 mid-engine on the Voyager Pro and Wayfarer Pro models. Price-fighters such as Cortina, Sparta and Pegasus will probably also scratch their heads and study whether it is interesting to choose Bafang again in their models. For example, Cortina has switched to Bosch for the E-U4.
Bosch Smart: e-bike trends 2022 to smart?
Meanwhile, market leader Bosch is not sitting still. The Bosch Smart system will roll out in the course of 2022. As the name suggests, this new technology should make Bosch motors even smarter. In addition to a larger battery, always welcome of course, the motor is still the robust, well-known CX and a somewhat smaller Kiox 300 display, which only consults the percentage charged and the power delivered.
The real changes are literally under the hood. The other tasks of the Kiox display are now taken over by an app. The eBike Flow app can be integrated with the Apple Fitness app. With this new system you can not only set the percentage “assist”, but also torque, speed and dynamics. This way you can tailor the engine more to your driving style. For example, if you want to spray like an accomplished sprinter, you can tune the engine accordingly.
In a follow-up article we will look at even more new e-bike trends for 2022 and beyond.
