Every year, thousands descend on the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to see what's new and what's in store for the future in the fast-moving world of technology - and that includes e-bikes! Here are a few of the coolest things that we've picked out from the 2020 edition of CES...
Is it a car, is it a bike? Well, the Wello Family, originating from France, is billed as a bit of both. Costing £6,600 it can carry two adults – one behind the other – or one adult in front plus two kids in the back. It can go either 25 or 40km/h depending on the motor size you choose, and has a range of up to 100km. It also has its own app with plenty of connected features and has comfort and safety at its core.
If you like to mix the old with the new then this bike might just be the ultimate example, with timeless looks and a motor built in seamlessly so you wouldn't know it was there. It's based on the unorthodox 1941 bike created by the legendary metal worker Jean Prouvé.
It has a full carbon frame made in Coleen's Biarritz workshop - which means 85% of the bike is made in the South of France - and 75 specially made components make up the bike in total. It weighs in at an impressive 19kg, and designed to "reinvent the pleasure of urban travel" according to Coleen.
The AO Air Atmos personal air filter was developed after the company’s New Zealand-born chief executive Dan Bowden encountered problems with air pollution during his commute in London: "We were fortunate enough to grow up in one of the most pristine habitats on the planet. There was no shortage of pure air in New Zealand. And we assumed it was like this everywhere", discovered Bowden.
His answer to the problem is this $350 contraption that is claimed to be 50 times more effective than existing facemasks. They're available to pre-order now for a July delivery.
We've already covered this world first in a full article, but no 2020 CES round-up would be complete with mentioning this world first. It's certainly making waves all over the media and can be yours for £5,790, allowing you to pedal across the water with an assisted speed of up to 12mph.
The Benjilock is (you guessed it) a bike lock you can unlock using your fingerprint. Nifty, eh? Well, maybe not if our experience of trying to unlock a smartphone in the rain in the same way is anything to go by! Luckily it comes with a key as a last resort; although given the whole idea is not to have to worry about a key and you’ll have to take one with you just in case, perhaps that should be a first resort?
Bosch 2020 e-bike tech, anti-theft device and smart glasses
A whole host of new e-bike tech has been launched by Bosch for 2020, most of which we saw at their 10th anniversary launch back in June. The latest Kiox computer unit has much more expansive training data displayed such as heart rate, and it also has an anti-theft function which disables the motor when the computer is disconnected.
Bosch announced their AI glasses last month, and we've reason to believe that you will be able to connect them with your e-bike to feed in data from your display. Bosch say Smartglasses Light Drive provides "a highly intuitive user experience" which directs a low-power light beam to the user's eye... Bosch say this "paves the way for a day without digital fatigue"; i.e. you won't get square eyes from staring at a device!
GPS Tuner say they play "an important role in creating a stress-free navigation experience for electric mobility" to reduce your range anxiety. It displays constant variables based on elevation, road surface, weight and your battery's health, and also takes dynamic variables into account such as temperature, tyre pressure and wind. They're also the brains behind the Tahuna navigation app, with on and offline maps, flexible route creations and impressive graphics.
Can you see yourself owning any of these futuristic contraptions? Let us know what your favourite CES innovations are in the comments!
