There’d been a bit of a lull after Yamaha launched a raft of new e-bikes a year or so ago and we’d begun to wonder how committed it was to the e-bike market. However, the firm has now agreed to buy Brose’s e-bike drive business and in so doing established a new European company, Yamaha Motor eBike Systems, which will begin operating in June.

Here at ebiketips, we tested Yamaha’s Wabash RT, Booster Easy and Crosscore RC and found they were all decent bikes (in the case of the Crosscore, really very decent indeed). We get the sense the Booster Easy might have fallen by the wayside, but the other two have been updated for 2025.

Yamaha Crosscore side on 1.jpg
Yamaha Crosscore side on 1 (Image Credit: Rebecca Bland)

All three of those bikes are built around Yamaha’s own motors. However, Brose motors regularly feature on this site too, as they’re found on bikes by all sorts of manufacturers – everyone from BMW to Specialized to Lidl.

Electric bikes represent only a small part of Brose’s business, however. It’s chiefly an automotive supplier, specialising in door systems.

> Brose has beefed up its cyber security to prevent people hacking its e-bike motors for more speed

Announcing the decision to sell off its e-bike drive business, a spokesperson said it was, “part of Brose’s strategic realignment with a focus on its core business areas.”

Brose 48V system.jpg
Brose 48V system (Image Credit: Brose)

For its part, Yamaha seems keen to establish a development base in Europe and this is clearly a big step towards that. The acquisition also gives it access to Brose’s service network, which extends to over 600 locations.

> Yamaha launches significantly smaller and lighter multi-purpose e-bike mid-motor

Quite how this new company fits with Yamaha Motor Europe, which opened an assembly line for the PWseries S2 e-bike motor in Saint Quentin, France last year, isn’t immediately clear

According to Velotech’s estimates of the European e-drive market, as reported last year by Bike Europe, Brose currently accounts for about 7 per cent and Yamaha around 5 per cent.