Ebike accidents and crashes are on ongoing concern, so an ebike expert and patent agent such as myself took notice of what industry leader Bosch was up to in 2024, both with its patents and its new product releases. With annual revenue of about €91.59 billion, the company dwarfs all others in the bicycle industry.
In 2024, Bosch made notable advancements in bicycle technology, as evidenced by their patent applications and product launches. The company had 1447 US patent applications publish in 2024, with publishing dates typically 18 months after the filing date. Of these, 65 included “bicycle” in the specification/description. A few of the patent highlights:
Method for Operating a Drive Unit of a Vehicle Operable by Muscle Power and/or Motor Power: This patent focuses on optimizing the control of electric drive motors in bicycles, aiming to enhance performance and efficiency.
Bicycle Frame with Integrated and Detachable Battery: This design integrates a detachable battery into the bicycle frame, allowing for operation with or without the battery. The battery is predominantly built into a multiple chamber section of the frame, ensuring structural integrity while facilitating easy removal for charging or replacement.
Besides filings for the expected ebike battery, motor, and related control systems, Bosch has also been working on bicycle brake-wear sensors, wearable sensors for crash detection, and wireless communication from ebike to a central location, presumably for rental/city/fleet bikes.
As Bosch’s products expand the ebike market, the need for technology for avoiding ebike accidents and crashes is growing as well. A sizable portion of Bosch’s bicycle-related patent applications are for technology for sensing of cyclists in automotive systems for crash avoidance. These are outside the realm of the bicycle industry as far as competitive analysis is concerned, but surely a good thing for road safety in-general.
In addition to these patent filings, Bosch introduced the Performance Line SX in 2024, a lightweight drive unit designed for eBikes. Weighing approximately 4.4 lbs, it delivers a peak power of up to 600 W and a maximum torque of 55 Nm, and is intended for light eMTBs, Gravel eBikes, and Urban eBikes. Paired this drive unit is the CompactTube 400 battery, which offers 400 Wh capacity and weighs around 4.4 lbs.
These developments underscore Bosch’s commitment to advancing eBike technology and ideally avoiding ebike accidents and crashes, through both innovative product releases and strategic patent filings.
