Mahle wants the X30 to be the industry standard for lightweight ebike motors across road, gravel, urban and kids’ bikes

By Stan Portus

Published: Thursday, 13 June 2024 at 14:00 PM

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Mahle has launched the X30, a new electric bike rear-hub drive unit for road, gravel, urban and kids’ bikes. 

Mahle says the X30 is “the perfect system for every type of rider” because of its versatility, robustness and the fact it’s technologically advanced.

The motor is positioned as a new industry standard for lightweight electric bikes that builds on lessons Mahle learnt when developing its previous drive units, the X35 and X20. 

The X30 will form the basis of Mahle’s drive systems moving forward. It is said to turn ebikes into smart bikes, with the digital ecosystem adapting the motor performance to your needs. 

A new industry standard 

Mahle acquired the Spanish ebike company, Ebikemotion, in 2018 a year after it released the X35 ebike motor system. 

Mahle’s ebike business has grown to include more than 100 brands in its portfolio and half a million ebikes on the market. That growth has in part been achieved through Mahle’s scale and resources. The automotive and mobility company has more than 72,000 employees, 148 product locations and 11 tech centres. It made €12.8bn in sales in 2023.

Mahle Smartbike Systems’ head of marketing, Diego Rodríguez, says the X35 changed the ebike game: “This was a system that made people understand that ebikes can be done in a different way.”

In short, they could be light and retain the look of a non-assisted bike, something Mahle maintained with its X20 system, released in 2022 and targeted at performance cyclists. 

The X30 shares this philosophy, but Mahle is keen to frame the X30 ebike system as a new industry standard. “This system was born to be the standard light ebike system for the industry in the upcoming years,” says Rodríguez. 

Marco Antonio De la Serna founded Ebikemotion, but now acts as Mahle Smartbike Systems’ head of strategy and business development. He says the X30 is “what I would have liked to have seven years ago,” when the X35 was released. 

For fans of professional bike racing, Mahle Smartbike Systems’ X Drive product manager, Gonzalo García, says if you imagine the X20 as Grand Tour specialist Jonas Vingegaard, then the X30 is multi-discipline champion Mathieu van der Poel. This may also explain their differences in weight, with the X30 system weighing 500g more than the X30 at a claimed 3.5kg. 

The fact that the X30 can be used across virtually all types of bikes, apart from electric mountain bikes, aids Mahle’s claim that it will be the industry’s standard for lightweight ebikes. So, too, does the backward compatibility with Mahle’s existing components, accessories and the digital ecosystem shared with the X20. 

Efficiency over power

Each of the three X Drive units in Mahle’s range delivers 250W of power, but with 45Nm of torque, the X30 sits between the X35 and the more powerful X20, which delivers 55Nm. 

García stresses that power isn’t everything: “When we’re thinking and choosing a system for our bike, we think of power. But there’s something important that we forget, which is the efficiency of the system. 

“The efficiency helps you to go further with the system’s energy capacity. That means for the same range, if you have an efficient motor you can have a smaller battery.”

Mahle claims the engineering of the X30 rear-hub motor lowers energy loss and increases energy efficiency by 15 per cent compared to similar systems, helping you extend your trip in an “environmentally friendly way”. The smaller battery also helps keep the weight of the system down.

There are three batteries available for the system with different ranges:

• iX3: 130km range
• iX2: 90km range
• eX1: bottle-shaped range extender offering 55km of range 

Motor mapping 

The X30 will deliver more power, up to 12kph, than the X20 and X35 – and slightly less than the X20, up to its top speed of 25kph. 

However, adjusting the performance and behaviour of an ebike motor via motor mapping plays an important role in the X30’s versatility. 

A cyclist on a £10,000 electric road bike will want different ride characteristics from their ebike motor than a gravel rider, commuter or child bombing around a pump track. 

Mahle outlines the following motor characteristics for different disciplines: 

• Road: Smoother response to the rider torque and smoother acceleration at low and high speeds
• Gravel: More reactive to the rider torque with higher acceleration at low speeds and lower acceleration at high speeds
• Urban: More reactive to rider torque with higher acceleration
• Kids: Reactive to rider torque with smooth acceleration across speeds

Beyond these rough guidelines, Mahle says it works with bike brands to customise the motor mapping of their bikes. They can adjust more than 100 parameters for the desired ride quality and feel.

“If you try two different bikes with the same system, you feel there’s a difference in how the bike is behaving. But the system is still the same,” says García. 

A brand’s decision can also be informed by rider behaviour accessible via a virtual dashboard. 

“That’s important because that way they get to know the end users better,” says García, adding that this will help them “boost their business”.  

A customisable system and tech integration

You can customise the X30’s performance – and even let the system adapt to your riding independently.

Mahle’s HMI head unit, located in a bike’s top tube, enables you to turn the ebike on or off and flick through three levels of assistance. 

“This is basically the heart of the system. All the intelligence and decision-making of the system is in this device,” says García.

This intelligence extends to a fourth setting called Smart Assist, available on ebikes fitted with Mahle’s torque sensor.

Mahle says Smart Assist will use the torque reading to adapt the bike’s response to your power input, the conditions and the terrain. The feature uses AI and machine learning and the real-time information processing of the HMI head unit. 

You can customise Smart Assist via Mahle’s MySmartBike cycling app, where the assistance level can be adjusted on a sliding scale.

Furthermore, the app enables you to record your activities and will integrate with Strava. 

Mahle provides an Apple Watch app, too. Like the smartphone app, you can use it to record your rides, and change assistance levels and power. Using the sensor in the Apple Watch, it will monitor your heart rate data to “optimise and track your performance”. 

‘Rich on accessories’

Complementing the customisation offered to brands and end users, Mahle says its ebike platform is “rich on accessories” to “enhance an ebike”.

Alongside the eX1 range extender, there are two shifting button accessories. These mean you can switch between assistance modes from the handlebar rather than reaching down to the HMI head unit on the top tube.

The Duo Remote has two buttons and is suitable for the flat handlebars of electric commuting bikes. The eShifters consist of two separate units that can be fitted to either side of the drop handlebar of an electric gravel bike or road bike. 

Mahle also has a cycling computer called the PulsarONE, which displays information such as assistance mode, speed, battery charge and distance travelled. 

How does the X35 compare to Mahle’s other X Drive units?

The table below provides a general overview of how Mahle X Drive units compare. 

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