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Urtopia: Dashing Into the Future with Polished Designs and ChatGPT Integration

With all the recent buzz around AI in general and ChatGPT in particular, we were highly intrigued by the idea of integrating such functionality into an e-bike. In addition to offering stylish, futuristic designs for their three unique e-bikes, Urtopia grabbed our attention by being the first to do so.

The brand’s flashy carbon fiber flagship, the Carbon Pro 1, features an unexpected design with a seamless, floating top tube/seat tube/seat stay element. The bike houses a 4G eSIM card that allows it to track the bike’s location for phone-free navigation and security, play music through an integrated bluetooth speaker, and connect to ChatGPT.

Our contact said that the GPT integration can do such things as helping riders set up custom routes, find the nearest coffee shop, or simply ask about the weather forecast. Our personal experiences with ChatGPT lead us to question the reliability of its information (at least in the technology’s current state), but we hope to be able to test the Carbon Pro 1 for ourselves in the near future!

Utopia also offers a more entry-level – but still impressively feature-saturated – alloy-frame city/commuter called the Chord. While it does not integrate with ChatGPT, this e-bike still offers navigation, music, etc. and pairs with the Urtopia app. The bike uses a 350W rear-hub motor with a torque sensor paired with a 353 Wh battery.

A currently unreleased model, the Fusion, features a carbon fiber step-thru frame, dual 350W front and rear hub motors, and dual batteries (one main and one auxiliary/range extender) with a total of 860 Wh and a max range of 120 miles.

A second version of the Fusion was offered for European cyclists; in addition to a flashier paint job, this model featured a 250W Bafang mid-drive motor that will not (currently) be available in the US.

Vanpowers: Affordable Adventure Bikes with Integrated Security Tech

After being pleasantly surprised during our review of the UrbanGlide Ultra, we were excited to see the latest developments from Vanpowers. With two new offerings including a carbon fiber gravel bike and a beefy fat tire touring bike, the brand is clearly interested in diversifying their lineup and proving their competence in off-road environments.

The Ultra version of the fat tire GrandTeton features a 500W Bafang mid-drive and 692 Wh battery, while the more budget-friendly Pro version uses a rear-hub motor. Both have a “smart box” integrated into the top tube with 4G and GPS functionality for navigation and theft protection, but also an SOS feature that can alert a pre-selected contact in the event of a hard impact.

The 39-lb UrbanCross also features the smart hub, and is available in an Ultra version with 46cm flared drop bars or a Pro version with flat bars; both will be offered in three frame sizes. Regardless of tier, the bike uses a 250W rear hub motor with a torque sensor, a 345.6 Wh battery, a stem-integrated display, and Bluetooth connectivity with the Vanpowers app.

Heybike: Taking a Chance with Crowdfunded Carbon Fiber

Heybike made an appearance with three new models, including a full-suspension version of the Ranger S called the Horizon, a cargo e-bike called the Hauler, and a full-suspension, carbon fiber fat tire bike called the Hero.

While details were scarce, the Hero was the star of the show with its unique step-thru frame and flashy orange-and-grey paint job. The bike uses custom carbon fiber handlebars with an integrated display, and is set to be crowdfunded through an indiegogo campaign later this spring.

Okai: Clean Design and LEDs Are the Future of Commuting

As a relative newcomer to the e-bike market, Okai was a behind-the-scenes manufacturer for prominent e-bike and e-scooter brands such as Bird and Lime. Okai launched three new commuter-focused e-bike models after a year of development, all with tech at the forefront.

The EB60, also referred to as the Traverse, puts a huge focus on minimalistic design. The bike features an LED light bar that stretches across the full length of the handlebars for visibility, but its color and pattern can be customized to suit the rider through the Okai app. The bike uses a 350W rear hub motor with a torque sensor and an integrated 345.6 Wh battery.

We were impressed by the 440 lb weight capacity of the brand’s utility e-bike called the EB70. Another step-thru commuter called the EB80 uses an integrated battery with LED light bars that change color to reflect battery charge.

Looking Ahead: Design Trends for 2024

Battery Breakthroughs?

It was back in 1991 that lithium-ion batteries entered the mainstream market in a Sony camcorder. That was the catalyst that has seen lithium chemistry batteries dominate so many consumer electronics areas including e-bikes. Whilst new wonder battery chemistries are announced on a regular basis they always seem to fade quickly from the headlines – but there are signs, especially in the world of electric cars that things may be about to change.

A typical e-bike lithium ion battery uses a lithium oxide cathode (there are various chemistries) and a graphite anode with an electrolyte of lithium salt. There are developments in all areas of these component parts, some of which seem like they could soon come of age.

Making the electrolyte itself ‘solid’ would make it more energy dense and as we reported back in July it would offer tremendous range, lightning-fast charging, and improved safety. Swiss speed pedelec (or s-pedelec) brand Stromer is on the leading edge of electric bike battery development, having teamed up with TD Hitech Energy to produce a ceramic solid-state battery with the aforementioned goals – but mass production still seems a way off.

That’s not to say solid state batteries won’t appear in electric cars in the near future if Electrive is to be believed: ‘In China, battery specialist WeLion has delivered its first semi-solid-state battery cells to electric car manufacturer Nio. Nio will use the cells in its 150 kWh battery pack and is aiming for the first deliveries of e-cars with these battery packs before the end of July.’

Whilst the promised energy density looks highly impressive at 360Wh/kg – to put that into context, if your e-bike battery manages over 200Wh/kg that is pretty good going. Those figures suggest you might get an 80% increase in range using a semi-solid state battery compared to a conventional one of the same size.

Perhaps more promising in the short term are developments of replacing lithium chemistry altogether – with sodium ion. On the plus side sodium is safe and cheap and needs no nickel, copper or cobalt. It can also be safely discharged to zero volts for safer, cheaper shipping. On the downside sodium ions are bigger than lithium ions making the chemistry less power dense.

Certainly the chemistry is now being commercialised – China is a powerhouse of electric car battery production and Medium notes ‘Chinese EV maker BYD Co. signed a deal to build a $1.4 billion sodium-ion battery plant. China’s CATL already said in April that its sodium-based batteries will be used in some vehicles from this year.’

China’s TAILG appear to be a pioneer in the use of sodium ion batteries in e-bikes – PRN Asia calls reports that their ‘luxury e-bikes’ will feature the chemistry but not surprisingly it looks to be on heavier, low cost moped style e-bikes that might suit the less power dense batteries.

Sodium Ion batteries in what PRN Asia calls ‘luxury e-bikes’ – by the looks of TAILG’s website these appear to be from the moped with pedals school of e-bike design.

Replacing graphite anodes with silicon would allow more lithium to be stored and increase energy density – theoretically a huge improvement on graphite – but the issue is that silicon expands up to 300% during charging. Solutions include sprinkling it on graphite (as now used in some Tesla batteries) or using a ‘graphene corset’. Theoretical densities of 450kWh per kilo bandied about and that’s the density quoted as being needed for flight. Flying e-bike anyone?

Indeed, Electrive tells us that Panasonic – whose batteries are widely used in e-bikes and electric cars – will start to manufacture silicone based anodes in Kansas from 2025.

Battery Certification & Recycling

Given the publicity and industry concern around battery fires (statistically rare as they may be) it’s pretty nailed on that 2024 will see more UL certified batteries (UL2271) and even the more involved and expensive UL2849 certification for the whole e-bike.

So expect more companies to follow in the steps of Rad Power Bikes and Aventon on 2024. And if you want to know more about the distinction between the two UL standards mentioned above Electric Bike Report has recently looked at the distinction between these two standards in detail.

It’s also good to see progress is being made with dealing with the potential problem of end-of-life e-bike batteries, with BRAIN reporting ‘The industry’s e-bike battery recycling program has collected and recycled more than 43,000 pounds of batteries since the program began in November 2021. Expect more recycling than ever in 2024 and beyond.

Will AI E-bikes Really be a Thing?

AI – or artificial intelligence has been much in the news in 2023 and has even made it’s way onto e-bikes. Hong Kong based Urtopia certainly seem signed up to the AI e-bike agenda, and it may be their promised Fusion e-bike -l ‘the world’s first dual motor, dual battery e-bike with fully integrated AI’ appears in 2024.

If it does get ready for a host of tech including fingerprint sensor, GPS module, gyroscope and the torque sensor – ‘communicating via CAN bus with a central control unit, which itself has the corresponding computing chips. The user will tap into all this with a ‘Smart ring’ (should they find smartphone to e-bike integration too cumbersome).

Smalo E-Bikes, is a new e-bike brand, produced by BESV which also claims to use AI – using computer power to learn from the rider’s behaviour and riding style – to produce an automated but smooth ride. The two models, the LX2 and the PX2 will feature Smalo’s proprietary G2 AI technology. According to Smalo, G2 will analyze a rider’s riding style, including gear selection and pedal-assist levels and will automatically make those selections for the rider when activated.

Will E-bikes Soon ‘Talk’ to Other Vehicles?

The enhanced safety benefits of V2X wireless tech – vehicle to vehicle communication – have long interested both auto and e-bike manufacturers and 2023 saw Bosch, Trek, Shimano, Gazelle and BMC among 19 companies ‘commit to an ecosystem of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2X) communication technology.’

How would this help e-bike safety? As an example of what a bicyclist or driver might gain, a bicycle approaching a junction will become an alert to a driver also approaching but unable to physically see the rider. The bike rider will likewise be alerted, typically on the e-bike’s dashboard or another device. Think Garmin Varia, but with both parties able to visualise the road positioning, trajectory and speed of others.

There are many sceptics about though, based on the recent history of driverless cars. which is a technology that also seeks to predict road users behaviour so there is certainly a broad analogy here with the ‘machine learning’ approach of AI: as Reuters points out, “Making robot cars that can drive more safely than people is immensely tough because self-driving software systems simply lack humans’ ability to predict and assess risk quickly, especially when encountering unexpected incidents.”

It’s point made more forcibly by UK transport guru Christian Wolmar when he comments ‘Developing driverless cars has been AI’s greatest test. And it has failed miserably, despite the expenditure of tens of billions of dollars in attempts to produce a viable commercial vehicle. Moreover, the recent withdrawal from the market of a leading provider of robotaxis in the US, coupled with the introduction of strict legislation in the UK, suggests that the developers’ hopes of monetising the concept are even more remote than before. The very future of the idea hangs in the balance.’

In other words, don’t expect to be riding your AI e-bike in total, wirelessly-secured safety along a street filled with robotaxis any time soon.

More E-bike Cars…and More Microcars?

Standout Premium E-bikes

Every year brings its own crop of e-bikes that, despite their higher price tags, leave you admiring the design and just wanting to hop on for a ride. Here’s our pick of those premium priced e-bikes that caught our eye in the last 12 months.

As you might expect, premium e-mtbs remained hugely popular and one that really caught our eye for high-end spec, value for money and aggressive downhill style performance was the Canyon Torque:ON.

Over in Europe Yamaha launched the Booster series with their own PW-S2 mid-drive plus a removable 630Wh battery and 20” x 4” tyres. There are 15.5mph and 28mph versions available.

Cube are a major player in the European e-bike scene and their Trike Hybrid model finally made it into European shops after a lot of advance PR. It comes in both family and cargo models, was co-developed with BMW and also uses the Bosch Cargoline mid-drive system.

One of the most innovative e-fat bikes from 2023 was the Quietkat Lynx with its dual-speed rear hub motor.

It was also notable that kids’ versions of premium e-bikes made more of an appearance in 2023. Specialized’s Turbo Levo SL Kids is a hardtail e-mtb with 100mm of travel and parent configurable speed and assist settings. It features Specialized’s own SL 1.2 mid-drive that parents can tune through the Specialized Mission Control app.

Spanish e-mtb specialist Mondraker also aimed high quality rides at younger riders by introducing The Play and F-Play (the latter being the full-sus version) lines are aimed at older kids – 6- to 14-year-olds say Mondraker. Both lines are equipped with the Mahle Ebikemotion X35 rear-wheel drive.

2023 was the year premium e-bike manufacturers also got in on the throttle and hub motor market. Trek’s Electra brand launched the Ponto Go!, a moped-style machine with a bench seat and footpegs, turn indicators, 20mph capable throttle, rear hub motor and a 350lb carrying capacity.

Trek further expanded their hub-based offering with the highly capable looking Haul LT, a sequel to the ST short tail version. As with many of these premium manufacturers expanding into hub motor e-bikes, the Hail LT looks to occupy a mid-price point between the cheaper budget hub models and the premium mi-drive models – this bike features a powerful rear hub motor and a 772Wh battery for $3500.

Momentum is Giant’s lifestyle brand and late 2023 saw them launch the Cito E+ following the trend of premium brands occupying the middle priced ground with hub geared motors. The Cito Plus also featured a throttle – again unusual for a premium brand – and a large 780Wh battery.

The continued success of Upway is good news for those who want a premium quality e-bike at a good price. They began life as a French company offering overstock and used (refurbished) e-bikes at between 20 and 60 percent off retail. And now, according to Time Out, they are in the US. A quick scan around the Upway website reveals they only deal in e-bikes with a great reputation. Once the e-bikes have been received they are refurbed (if already used) and once sold will be given a pre-delivery inspection before being delivered to a customer in a matter of days, complete with a one year warranty.

Subsidy Success

Note subsidies are also deemed a success making e-bikes more affordable for many more than ever before. Introduced at the start of 2023, California’s generous subsidy program is generally regarded as one of the most successful along with Denver’s sell out scheme. There was a notable emphasis on simpler point of sale incentives rather than tax rebate schemes.

As Electrek noted, ‘There are over a hundred state and city-level incentives around the US, and that number is growing every week. Micromobility Industries has helpfully compiled the various e-bike incentive programs, even those from outside the US, to make it easier to find one in your area.’

Battery Fires and E-bike Bans

You couldn’t really fail to notice how ithium-ion battery fires (including e-bike battery fires) hit the headlines in 2023 – although it’s a concerning trend you shouldn’t be overly worried as education is the best form of defence.

Patrick Brady’s excellent article on EBR gives you plenty of tips that should pretty much guarantee that you stay safe as far as e-bike batteries are concerned. In short, looking for UL standards (or their equivalent), selecting an e-bike positively-reviewed by EBR (especially one from our best e-bikes article) and following safe maintenance and charging practices should see you right.

Clearly not everyone follows this advice and – as Patrick points out in his article – densely populated New York City has proved a hotbed for such fires whose root cause is cheaply produced or badly assembled / repaired electric micromobility devices. The situation clearly worsened in NYC in 2023 as this comparison for the same period in 2022 showed (figures from NYFD).

Given the way these figures are heading it’s not surprising that NYC Council legislated that e-bikes sold within its jurisdiction would need to meet UL 2849 or similar certification and batteries would have to meet UL 2271.Tis law has teeth as repeated failure to comply could mean fines up to $1,000 per violation.

Following this an emergency $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation aimed to enable NYC to set up outdoor e-mobility battery charging and storage stations at 53 city Housing Authority developments and New York’s City Council also approved a battery trade-in program for e-bikes and batteries that lack UL certification. 2023 Also saw moves in NYC to require third-party delivery app companies like DoorDash to provide workers access to certified e-bikes and batteries and another that would require workers taking an e-bike safety course developed by the Department of Transportation.

Gears and mid-drives combine – but Automatic Gears Stuttering?

One of the highlights of the year in terms of e-bike technology was undoubtedly the Pinion announcement of its MGU system – a combined motor and bike gear system. There are 9 and 12 gear options plus a ‘speed’ variant for speed pedelecs with relative gear ranges of 568% and 600%. It claims 600W of peak power (though they are legally rated as e-bike motors at 250W continuous output) and the speed pedelec variant has a peak power rating of 800W. E-bike manufacturers that have already taken up the system include Rotwild, Simplon and Tout Terrain.

SRAM’s Eagle Powertrain was an interesting development aimed at making derailleur gears change automatically in harmony with a Brose-based motor – it seemed like a bold attempt but one that met with some reservations during real world testing.

Nicolai are a high end German e-bike brand and 2023 saw them introduce ‘conventional’ hub gears – the Nine 3×3 gear hub with Gates belt drive – but aimed at the larger steps more suited to e-bikes. The gear ratio of the nine gears is 554% – about what a traditional high end mountain bike has. Thus, the manufacturer covers the complete mountain bike gear spectrum – ideal for the new breed of heavy duty do-it-all SUV style e-bikes that are now a big sector of the e-bike market.

Low Maintenance E-bikes Galore

Low maintenance e-bikes and in particular belt drives seemed to be everywhere in 2023. The start of the year saw Spanish manufacturer Desikinio announce the innovative looking X20, with a lightweight rear hub motor paired with fully enclosed Pinion bottom bracket gears.

We really liked the look of the Priority e-Classic Plus weighing in at just 49 lbs with a 250W front hub motor, Gates Carbon Drive Belt, Shimano Nexus 3 drivetrain.

Other low maintenance highlights of 2023 included the Tenways CGO600 Pro and the Surge Traveller.

Cargo Developments

January saw the release of The Cake Åik cargo e-bike apparently built for US e-bike regulations with a US Class 2 spec of 20mph and 750Wh battery as standard but there is the option to triple this capacity which gives a claimed 224 mile range. But the extra batteries can also be used on the Work edition to power a refrigerated food box on the bike or power tools – a very neat idea!

Rad Power Bikes’ popular RadWagon 4 cargo e-bike returned to Rad Power’s website following a voluntary recall effort in which Rad Power worked with the CPSC to replace faulty rim strips inside the wheels of the RadWagon 4, as well as tires whose ribbed inner surface could cause flats.

Retrofit Kits Developed Further

Hong Kong-based CYC have a track record of producing lightweight retrofit mid-drive kits. 2023 saw them release the Photon which weighs around 7lbs but claims a huge 110Nm of torque – higher than even the top performing Bosch mid-drives. Perhaps best of all it fits a very wide range of bottom bracket sizes, from standard 68mm up 120mm fat bike size. More technical detail is in the video below:

January 2022 saw the launch of the very lightweight but non-electric Brompton T-Line – a non-electric all titanium and carbon version of their legendary folding bike. February 2023 saw Cytronex announce a retrofit kit that produces a four-speed version of the T-Line weighing only 25.7lbs – which includes the 198Wh battery.

Other less costly lightweight kits included the Boost for Brompton kit and the new, even lower-priced Swytch Go – both from the UK. Boost for Brompton conversion kit is now available for pre-order. Unlike established Brompton conversion kits from the likes of Cytronex and Swytch which feature front wheel hub motors, the Boost approach is to replace the rear wheel – a very neat conversion with just a single cable run from the bespoke, non-removable, small capacity battery to the rear hub motor.

Popular kit producer Swytch announced their lowest price kit yet, the Swytch Go – a sub £500 setup with a small removable battery.