Porsche is the latest motorsport icon to enter in the market of e-mountain bikes, that in general isnot exciting for the core mountain bike community.
Most automotive brands that swing at the target of e-mbk miss horribly. This trend has a few exceptions;take Polestar,for example, and itscollaboration with Allebikelast year. At the other end of the spectrum is the e-bike thatFord announced in conjunction with the re-launch of the Bronco, which quickly became the poster child for hideous e-bikes from car brands.
With a rich motorsport heritage, Porsche is a name that most people are familiar with.Still, many people might not know that Porsche has been investing in the eMTB market for years now with a recent acquisition of the Fazua, a manufacturer oflightweight e-bike motors,batteries, and remotes. Porsche initially bought into this burgeoning brand in January of 2022 with a 20 percent stake but upped that number to a 100 percent stake in June of 2022 in a pivotal move to establish itself in the e-mobility space.
AlthoughPorsche has kept the IP separate from its automotive sector, the German automotive giant’s growing interest in e-bikes is apparent with the launch of P2.
We see great potential for Porsche in the eBike segment. This is why we are consistently expanding our activities in this area –says Lutz Meschke, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG and Member of the Executive Board for Finance and IT.
There is little known about this new startup besides the few details we see on its website. A short blurb on the brand’s landing page offers a brief overview of the project:
We are a start-up that has recently made headlines with the announcement of a collaboration with Porsche. We were founded as a joint venture by PON and Porsche and are based in Stuttgart, Germany. The new eBike drive unit which is currently being developed by Porsche eBike Performance will be the heart of each platform we develop, ranging from e-mountain bikes to e-urban bikes. The collaboration between P2 eBike GmbH and Porsche is an exciting approach in the world of e-mobility. By leveraging Porsche’s expertise in design and combining it with P2’s competence about eBike design, the companies are thrilled to create a new generation of high-performance eBikes –it reads.
This indicates thatPorsche is developing unique e-bike units outside the Fazua brandor the Porsche-branded e-bikes currently offered. If you poke around the Porsche website, you can find a range of e-mountain bikes developed in cooperation with Rotwild, a frame design by Studio.This line of Porsche e-mountain bikes utilizes a Shimano EP801 motor and battery and is available in a wide range of build options,with thetop-end model costing $14,299.
Despite plans for expansion into the e-bike space being announced years ago, there has been very little information on when the products will be consumer-ready. The press release on the Porsche website simply states as follows:
In addition to compact drive systems from Fazua, Porsche eBike Performance GmbH will develop and produce particularly powerful eBike drive systems under the Porsche brand name. Both product categories will be distributed to eBike manufacturers worldwide in the future, with the newly founded joint venture acting as a technology partner. The electric drive systems will be used in Porsche eBikes as well as in the products of other brands.
Although the P2 website is still sparse with information, there have been listings for multiple jobs on Linkedin in the last two months, alluding to progress within the startup.
From what we can tell,the P2 brand is positioned to create impressive tech for the e-mountain bike market and has built a team with strong mountain bike industry backgrounds. After digging, I learned that Fabian Scholz, a former Focus Bikes engineer, is the Product and Development Director for P2,and Christian Vollmer, a former industrial designer at Ergon Bike, has been appointed the senior industrial designer at P2.
Source: Bike Mag
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