Yamaha Motor is responding to the rapidly expanding market of urban mobility by introducing the PWseries CE drive unit and the External Crossover 500 battery to the Model Year 2021 line-up. Yamaha says it has, “created its lightest, quietest and most compact drive unit - and a battery that provides increased versatility and practicality.”
Yamaha’s new PWseries CE drive unit and the External Crossover 500 battery, have been launched to power the new generation of e-bikes. Rated at 250W and producing 50Nm of torque, the new PWseries CE drive unit weighs just 2.9kg*, making it the lightest drive unit ever created by Yamaha. It’s also extremely compact, enabling European e-bike manufacturers to develop next-generation chassis designs with a sharper, slimmer and cleaner profile.
Yamaha’s quietest drive unit
The PWseries CE has been engineered to operate as quietly as possible, and various noise-reducing features have succeeded in making this the company’s quietest ever drive unit. The PWseries CE drive unit also uses Yamaha Motor’s extensive software setting know-how in its Automatic Support Mode. This intelligent system instantly responds to changing riding conditions and selects the most appropriate support mode to give its rider the best-suited support at any time.
Yamaha has refined the Walk Assist function making it much easier to manoeuvre and park a bike that needs to be taken up a slope or may be carrying a load.
External Crossover 500 key features
Designed to be mounted either on the downtube or in front of the seat tube, the External Crossover 500 battery features a simple lock-and-release system that makes it easy to remove and then recharge or store at home.
Weighing just 2.9kg, this 36V Lithium Ion battery has a capacity of 500Wh and can be charged in approximately 4 hours, making it an ideal power source for the new PWseries CE drive unit.
Total support for Europe’s OEM customers
In order to ensure an even faster and more flexible service to European bicycle manufacturers in a rapidly expanding marketplace, Yamaha Motor Co. in Japan transferred the responsibility for distributing its OEM e-Bike systems to Yamaha Motor Europe (YME) from July 1, 2020. From its headquarters in Schiphol-Rijk, the Netherlands, YME’s close proximity to its European customers will enable the company to deliver an even more competitive and efficient service that will benefit manufacturers, dealers and end users alike.
*Coaster brake version
‘In three to five years’ time we will surprise the market with new e-drive technology’
Yamaha’s announcement to start coordinating its European OEM e-bike business from its EU head office in the Netherlands last May was already expected much earlier. In the nineties Yamaha was one of the pioneers on the e-bike market, but after a few less successful attempts in Europe, the company focused on the local market.
Yamaha Motor Europe President Eric de Seynes told Bike Europe that “production relocation to Europe is high on the agenda and only a matter of time. Close to the market production has become an important argument to convince European assemblers. And we want to facilitate them. We are currently discussing which location would suit best as Yamaha already runs two production facilities in Europe, one in Bologna, Italy and a second one in Saint Quentin in France. Both are well located and well equipped to start e-bike component manufacturing.”
Also on a product level, Eric de Seynes announced major developments: “We are in the middle of a consolidation phase in the city and MTB categories. In three to five years’ time we will surprise the market with new e-drive technology and concepts. We aim to offer the user a huge advantage with respect to a full redefinition of the engine delivering more NM with less weight.”
Read the complete interview with Yamaha Motor Europe President Eric de Seynes
