Chinese budget e-bike brand, Engwe, is making an unlikely move for its upcoming MapFour commuter line. Both the N1 Air rear hub motor model and the N1 Pro mid-motor model will have lightweight carbon fibre frames. Engwe being Engwe, even the more expensive model of the two will cost under £2,500.
Engwe already offer a pretty wide range of electric bikes, but all in a pretty narrow price band. We’ve tested a whole bunch of them, ranging from the £949 C20 Pro to the unusually-designed P275 ST – which was £1,499 discounted from £2,500 when we reviewed it, but is currently listed at £1,199, discounted from £1,899.
It’s also worth mentioning that the brand isn’t averse to selling a couple of models that are too powerful to qualify as road legal in the UK.
The bikes we’ve had in for review have been a bit of a mixed bag, in all honesty. We really didn’t think much of the Engine X, for example, while others have had some admirable qualities, such as the high torque Ananda mid-motor on the P275. Dave had a look at the brand's £1,699 LE20 e-cargo bike recently and concluded that it was hard to argue with the value it offered.
Engwe hasn't yet publicly committed to pricing for the MapFour models. When we first heard about them, it sounded like they weren't going to cost much more than a grand - pretty eyebrow-raising, but given what they're selling the LE20 for, not impossible.
This has since been revised to a somewhat less ambitious sounding "under €3,000" which would be less than £2,500 at the time of writing. We'll get a clearer idea when they're officially launched on February 24.
So what are the bikes like then?
The MapFour N1 Pro gets an Ananda motor, which should provide plenty of oomph for an e-bike that is said to weigh just 19kg.
A relatively small 360Wh battery helps keeps the weight down, while other noteworthy features include “customisable ambient lights” and a solar-powered rear light.
There’s only one frame option for the mid-motor bike, whereas the cheaper N1 Air will be available with either a step-over or step-through frame.
Again there’s a 360Wh battery, but a lighter rear hub motor - specifically, the Mivice M070 seen on the Tenways CGO600 - means this bike is supposedly just 15.6kg.
There’s not much else to report on at this point (although we were amused by a promise that the bike will offer, “abnormal bike alerts”).
The urban hybrid e-bike market seems to be getting more and more competitive at the minute and it remains to be seen how these bikes will measure up. Given Engwe's rather hit-and-miss record, they could honestly go either way. We've got one in for testing anyway, so we'll be back with a full review before too long.
