This feature was produced in association with Mahle
Palencia, a city in the Castilla y León region in the northeast of Spain, is a place that has not been immune to the challenges of depopulation over the years; however, it is also home to a real Spanish treasure. Palencia is where Mahle SmartBike Systems are based. Mahle is a breath of fresh air in Palencia, a benchmark in the development of motors for e-bikes.
The company employs more than 150 people, brilliant minds that include all kinds of engineers, from software and quality specialists to production experts and 3D designers. And so while Mahle may be in the middle of nowhere, it has made Palencia a cycling paradise, mainly undiscovered.
The company’s latest major milestone is the launch of the X30 system, a new combination of motor, battery, Human Machine Interface (HMI) and other components that take the experience of riding an e-bike to a new level. The e-bike market is booming, and Mahle is exporting its wares to all five continents. The reputation that the company has built up over the last nine years has meant that, today, there are more than 100 bike brands that work with Mahle systems, and it’s easy to find a Mahle eBike almost anywhere in the world.
From Palencia to the world
The Mahle project was born in 2014 and it initially focused on automotive software. Marco Antonio de la Serna, the company’s head of strategy and business development, says that it was in 2015 that the e-bike spin-off was created and things got serious in that sector. “Today, the big picture is that a German automotive multinational, Mahle, owns a company with Spanish DNA and roots, which is based in Palencia, in the middle of nowhere. That company works with more than 100 bicycle brands, including the biggest ones, and each have at least one, two, three or four models that are working with our systems.”
The company boasts that it employs more than 150 engineers and manufactures products in Spain and around Europe. “From here we export to five continents,” says De la Serna. All the work is coordinated from Palencia with Mahle’s vast network of research and development centres in other regions, such as Munich and Stuttgart. The marketing, sales and R&D departments are also located in Palencia and the German cities.
“In Palencia, we design the engines and batteries that are then manufactured in Mahle’s production centres in more than 160 factories around the world,” says De la Serna.
Since its inception, the company has grown rapidly, but has encountered several obstacles along the way. De la Serna says: “The first cycle we went through was that of a spin-off. The actual start-up was very complex, because the difference between a spin-off and a start-up is that the former is a development of a project that already exists.”
He goes on to talk about the exhilaration and the fears that come with a new start-up. “You draw on the team you have, but you quickly run out of steam. Then you have massive growth, because it turns out to be a successful project, and you fear that you can ‘die of success.’”
When Mahle bought them out, things were still complicated. “When Mahle acquired us, we had medium growth, because the technical resources still made it difficult for us to grow. In October 2018 we reached a strong moment of growth.”
Then the pandemic arrived in 2020, in what had been the middle of a boom for the company. “We found all our customers cancelling orders overnight, then there was a boom where everybody was buying systems. It’s like a whiplash, and the market is reactive,” he says.
Light, sporty and smart
The e-bike market has changed a lot over the years. The first e-bikes skewed towards being unwieldy, because the power of the motor took centre stage and turned the vehicle into something that bore little resemblance to a regular bike.
This was something Mahle SmartBike Systems was shocked by and wanted to address. Hence the brand’s current slogan, “light, sporty and smart”, was born – a declaration of intent to revolutionise the electric bike scene. Mahle realised that bicycles had become too heavy. They had very powerful batteries, true, but also large batteries that even at first glance were a clash with the normally elegant design of a bike. “In 2014 or 2015, a bike weighed 30 kilos and that wasn’t mobility,” says De la Serna.
Thinking about how they could break with the status quo, Mahle set out to create a motor for road bikes. The aim was to complement the bicycle, which should be as light as possible, and also to change the thinking that to ride a bike, one has to suffer and sweat.
“In 2015 it was very disruptive to make motors for road bikes,” says De la Serna. “We were thinking about making a lightweight system, and it was interesting because that sector of the market just didn’t exist. We launched a system weighing 3.5 kilos that was also barely noticeable on the bike.”
They also opted for lightness in their urban e-bikes. Mahle’s idea was that a bike for the city needed to be manoeuvrable in and around the user’s home, which is why they now have city bikes weighing 14 kilogrammes. “Lightness has to be related to efficiency, so we wanted to make products that were both lightweight and highly efficient. We wanted them to be perfect for what the user needs; that’s what has defined our mission for the last nine years,” says De la Serna.
The new X30
With nine years of experience in the e-bike market, Mahle recently launched the X30 system, which stands out above all for its robustness and resilience. Consisting of an engine, battery, HMI and other experience-enhancing features, the motor retains the Mahle DNA of being light, sporty and smart, with balanced and versatile assistance. It consists of a new rear hub motor, Mahle’s speciality, with a torque of 45 Newton-metres and weighing in at 1.9Kg, which puts it at the light end of the market. With an output of 250 watts, the motor and components are also compatible with the previous X20 system, and share the same ecosystem. The X30 offers a range of around 190 kilometres, extending a rider’s range while conserving battery life.
Mahle’s aim is that the user does not notice too much that they are riding an e-bike. The system is integrated in such a way that the experience is smooth and pleasant, and that there is not a big difference when the speed rises above 25 kilometres per hour, the maximum for providing assistance.
“If you have a motor with a lot of power or weight, you lose control and hand over control to the bike. It’s an adulterated version of what you want,” says De la Serna. “The bike gives you the power you need. The important thing is that over 25 kilometres per hour, it’s a normal bike that doesn’t weigh you down. When you do a climb, it feels like it is being done in a natural way. It is not natural, for example, to climb 10 per cent slopes at 25 kilometres per hour.”
Mahle’s digital tech product manager explains how rider and e-bike are integrated with their systems: “The bicycle is a sum of factors. In a car, you are a small percentage of the vehicle, but on a bicycle, you can be 80 per cent of the vehicle. So we include the cyclist in our equations and adapt. This way we can define how the bike behaves according to three different profiles. If you have a light rider, the bike is going to behave differently than if you have a heavier rider. Understanding who is riding the bike makes the system work better.”
Meanwhile, the system programme manager at Mahle, Gonzalo García, says, “The X30 doesn’t affect pedalling so much. It’s much less intrusive. The X20, for example, has more reactivity – up to 10 or 12 kilometres per hour it gives you much more impulse and is more sporty. But this motor feels like somebody is putting their hand behind you and pushing you. The power comes from the rear wheel, no interference, no chains. The X range is being used a lot in urban situations and on the road because it’s an engine that pushes the rider in a natural way.”
The drive comes from the rear wheel, not a central motor, which means that the bike’s life is extended. The drive system is exposed to less stress, making it more efficient in that respect.
Testing the X30
Mahle has applied the X30 across a range of bikes. It works not only on road bikes, but also gravel, city and even children’s e-bikes. We tested the characteristics of the X30 on different terrains, and found it to be adaptable across all these different models. Riding a Gravel bike on a 24-kilometre gravel route, we found that the three levels of assistance were enriching to the ride, and the Smart Assist offers a much more complete ride. Smart Assist brings into the equation factors such as the rider’s weight and height and the gradient so that, depending on the power the rider is applying to the pedals, it gives more or less assistance. On steep or sandy terrain, the X30’s boost is really appreciated.
In the road test, everything is smoother. Mahle has had its system integrated in some of the most illustrious bike brands in the world, so on a Bianchi eOltre, the riding experience is spectacular. The X30 democratises cycling because it allows group rides which are inclusive of participants of different levels.
The experience changes when riding an urban eBike, whose launch partner is Stevens. More reactive, it offers that extra boost a rider needs to absorb the changes of pace that city riding and heavy traffic demand. However, it still feels like riding a lightweight bike that you are in control of at all times, and reduces fatigue.
“The most important thing about switching to an electric bike is to try it out without any preconceptions. Clear your head, enjoy it, go for a ride on your own and see the sensations you get,” says Marco Antonio de la Serna. And he’s not wrong
