Virvolt unveils its new rear wheel engine, the virvolt 2000, assembled at the Flins Refactory. Powerful, repairable and made in France, it targets the electric cargo cargo bike market.
In short:
- Launch of the Virvolt 2000 engine: a new powerful rear wheel engine (up to 70 Nm, 1000 W) assembled in France.
- Regenerative brake, smart start in coastal, upsetting sustainability and reparability … Virvolt 2000 has been developed in partnership with Ebikeos (software) and Shwette (Cargo bicycle manufacturer).
- Virvolt wants to reindustrialize locally, with a after -sales service formed in France and the objective of becoming the “French Bosch” of the electric bicycle.
This Monday, April 14, it was in Flins in the Yvelines, in the heart of the Renault Refactory factory, that we were invited to have coffee. For what ? Because it is there that the French company Virvolt has assembled its traction channels for electric bikes, and in particular its pedal engine Virvolt 900 recently crossed during our test of the Fourche II jeans. This is also where the brand new Virvolt 2000 will also be assembled.
Yes, this invitation was to reveal to the press and a part of the industry a new engine block for rear wheel which will complete the virvolt offer. An electric motor called VIRVOLT 2000. The name questions. “It is a provisional name that ended up winning in the development teams, the youngest seeing a nod to the Nimbus 2000 when those who grew up in the 1980s prefer a tribute to Kitt, the smart car from David Hasselhoff in K2000”has fun Yvan de La Baume, co -founder and managing director of the company.
One thing is certain, this engine will be a centerpiece that must help Virvolt “The French Bosch”. Its target? Electric bike manufacturers who are keen to find components assembled in France and need a modern, powerful and intelligent engine block adapted to utility bikes.
“The rear wheel engines are somewhat snubbed on the Cargo bicycle market when they can have very interesting properties. Our bet is that these kinds of engines will gain market share in this segment and even establish themselves as the solution of choice for all mid -range electric cargo bikes and even a little higher ”explains Yvan de la Baume.
Power and intelligence
To demonstrate it, Virvolt 2000 is the result of a partnership mixing the ingenuity and the know-how of four French actors. Virvolt and Renault teams for the design and manufacture of this 4.4 kg engine developing up to 70 nm of torque and allowing power peaks up to 1000 watts. The Grenoble company Ebikeos for engine and assistance software management. And Shwette, manufacturer of the baggy, a compact twin -boring bicycle bike equipped with a clever foldable loading area at the front that we discovered last year.
It was together that they decided to demonstrate the benefits of this virvolt 2000 engine, which – for having been able to try it on several bikes – is undoubtedly one of the best to highlight the qualities of the intelligence brought by Ebikeos and an excellent choice of engine for the Shwette bike.
This powerful engine without clutch (clutchless) is a perfect candidate to offer a convincing engine brake. This is one of the specificities of Ebikeos (which we had already been able to test on other bikes): by retropedlant we can activate the regenerative brake, which saves its platelets while increasing its autonomy, and benefiting from an additional safe brake with the maintenance of the downhill, which can be a very interesting security guarantee when you pilot a well -loaded bike on long. We had rarely seen the system as convincing as with this engine.
Another point on which Ebikeos worked with virvolt: hill start. By associating various sensors (including a slope sensor and a Duratorq torque sensor integrated into the pedal box), the bicycle understands alone that it must provide an instantaneous response and a power boost to help the cyclist, without it being too violent for him to remain master of his trajectory and his bicycle safely.
“While we had a version in the development of the bicycle for a Shimano pedal engine, the supplier explains to us that this reference will be stopped and that it would be preferable to have a framework compatible with the fixings of the new generation. This is where I understood. I don’t want my bike to be disposable. I want that in 10, 15 or 20 years, we can electrify it with another system and that it continues to drive. For me, that’s the real innovation ”says Jean-Marc Seynhaeve, boss of Shwette.
An expected engine?
Yvan de La Baume is convinced of this, with the virvolt 2000 his business arrives with the right product at the right time: “There are a lot of bicycle manufacturers who no longer want to become a prisoners of a closed ecosystem and who are looking for high -performance alternatives, well positioned in terms of price and offering advantages on the side of sustainability and after -sales service. We do all that, and we do it in France ”.
It is too early to give a real opinion on the behavior and qualities of the virvolt 2000 engine. A test in real conditions of the shwette baggy will allow us, for example, to rule more definitively on its case. But it must be recognized that the first impressions are good, between the adaptability of behavior to situations thanks to Ebikeos and an undeniable training power. Our hill start tests and regenerative braking are promising. Enough to compensate for an engine which, on paper, remains quite heavy.
Virvolt, for its part, insists on the whole of its approach which aims to offer a powerful, reassuring, repairable and made in France engine. An engine that incorporates a French ecosystem, with batteries also manufactured in France (720 Wh) and an engine that will be radiated on Mach1 rims in Villeurbanne. The idea is also to reindustrialize step by step the manufacturer of certain engine components in France. The 2 ″ screen will, for example, also made at the Term Refactory, even if it requires reworking skills such as the welding of electronic cards.
And then there is the after -sales service, which must be able to be done locally. “At Virvolt, we don’t think the role of the mechanic is to connect the engine to a diagnostic program and control a new engine if necessary. We set up a whole training of mechanics so that they can intervene themselves ”explains a representative of the brand that sums up a state of mind “Zero planned obsolescence”. “We are constantly adjusting, we adapt to customer feedback, we train mechanics all over the territory with our academy, with the objective of offering a competent, reliable and rapid after -sales service everywhere in France”he adds.
It is a bias which is also explained by the history of Virvolt which arrived on the market with its electrification kits sold and installed by some 350 bikers in France. Today, fifteen brands uses virvolt engines in the first Monte and the company hopes to reach 5,000 engines in 2025, 10,000 in 2026. A sign of the ambitions of this actor in electric traction channels, now also pulled up by the promising Virvolt 2000.
