Market / E-Performance: Design is a hallmark of the e-bike manufacturer Klever Mobility. The other: The technology and the background of a global player. There is a lot to discover.
The unique design catches the eye at first glance: the shimmering matt silver metallic aluminum frame, which runs from the head tube to the rapidly curved rear triangle and back again via the bottom bracket mount, resembles a rhombus. "Loop" is what the designer says about this closed loop. The restrained coloring of the seat tube in between further emphasizes this shape. The whole bike looks like it was made of one piece. In the center, but in the background in terms of color: the battery – the shape is more like a beauty case with electricity instead of make-up.
Asian roots, German thinking, international design: Klever Mobility
The manufacturer Klever Mobility has made a very self-confident appearance with the Model X. The designers from ARTIFACT were commissioned with the design side of the X-Series. Among other things, they are known for the appearance of some Canyon racing bikes and have done a great job here as well. Even before that, Klever had attracted the attention of some bike fans with the design of the B model. But while they tended to “polarize” there – as the managing director of Klever Mobility, Fritz Baumgarten, describes it, the appearance of the X model was received almost entirely positively. Dynamic, powerful, but also simply harmoniously round.
Independent bicycle design needs three things: Good designers, courage - and money. If you don't fall back on standards, you have to invest more - not only in development, but also in production. But behind the company with headquarters in Cologne is a mother who pursued a clear goal with the founding of Klever Mobility in 2011 and was also willing to break new ground and invest quite a bit: Kymco, a Taiwanese company, one of the largest motor scooter manufacturers worldwide. Around 750.000 scooters roll off the assembly line here every year. "Kymco analyzed the European market a few years ago and found that one reason scooters had little chance here was the trend towards e-bikes", Baumgarten begins to tell the story of Klever Mobility. Clear. In northern Europe, people are opting for a different kind of short-distance mobility - and are willing to pay more for a bicycle than for a scooter.
Europe is a completely different place for mobility than Asia
“Kymco wanted to develop new vehicles for northern Europe from scratch, so it founded Klever Mobility Inc., a plant located near its parent company in Taipei. Office, workshop, laboratories.” The unanimous opinion that a prerequisite for success in Europe was that a headquarters was also needed in a core country of the new e-mobility - it was found as Klever Mobility Europe in Cologne, where Baumgarten has been involved in the development for six years. With ten employees now, however, he also takes care of sales, the dealer network and marketing of the young label in Northern Europe.
"Kymco and Klever were clear: If we want to offer something here as a beginner, then we have to be able to determine and develop the essential technology of our bikes ourselves and, ideally, also have the means of production for this." This idea was also implemented in many areas at Klever and parent company Kymco. A hub motor called Biactron was developed for the current X models. Central work, such as the winding of the coils or the control and software, was carried out by Kymco itself. The shortcoming of the supposedly poor mountain suitability of a rear engine is counteracted with the new Bicatron with a few tricks. Among other things, a separate controller is at work in the engine, which ensures that the power output is reduced early in the event of increased load. Only at 135 degrees Celsius does the engine finally shut down. There are now two variants - one with 43 and a stronger one with 54 Newton meters of torque. The latter is the better choice for tours with a lot of altitude difference and for towing trailers.
The sensor technology is sensitive: Even a few degrees of pedal movement leads to thrust from behind, up to the support limit of 27 kilometers per hour, the combination of man and machine appears very harmonious. In addition, thanks to a technical development in the controller, you can continue pedaling like on a normal bike: a minimum voltage that is still present ensures that no motor resistance can be felt. The drive is practically inaudible even on the mountain.
The frame is created according to the development of Klever and ARTIFACT at one of the largest frame builders in Asia. But there are also many synergy effects for Klever and Kymco in the mechanical area - it is not for nothing that the parent company is also one of the largest motorcycle suppliers and also works with aluminum.
The development time of the Model X also shows how structured and goal-oriented the partners worked: "It took just a year from the final drawing of the pedelec to the production model, and the German designers said they had seldom seen design and result so close together!” With the X, one believes that the German e-biker has arrived. The independent design should help to attract attention despite the large range of pedelecs. Even more than the previous models, the bike is aimed at “car converts”, those who switch from the car to other means of transport. "People who are looking for a way out of the mobility collapse primarily find everyday solutions in the commuter area of the e-bike sector", believes Baumgarten.
This variant of the Model X should probably be the best choice here. "The core customers for a pedal-powered car replacement are there, especially in Germany, the country of the automobile!" In Cologne's Dieselstraße - the name of the location sounds almost ironic in this context - one is definitely willing to do so. Among other things, the bikes for the European market are stored in the European headquarters. But in addition to sales, technical customer service, purchasing and marketing are also located here. Klever is currently working on Switzerland: The X-Commuter will also be available as an S-Pedelec version with a speed of 45 kilometers per hour - a much more important market in Switzerland than in Germany, where S-Pedelecs still make up a tiny part of the E - Turn off bikes. But with the turnaround in mobility, which you can already see in full swing in Klever, the corresponding transport infrastructure will also be created here, of that one is sure in Dieselstraße.