Yamaha

Company

Yamaha Motor Built the First Production E-Bike in 1993 and Has Made More Than 8 Million Drive Units

E-bike drives sit in Yamaha Motor's Smart Power Vehicle (SPV) business, part of its Land Mobility segment, alongside the motorcycles and scooters.

Yamaha built a prototype commuter e-bike in 1989 and put the PAS (Power Assist System) on sale in Japan in 1993, with a motor that matched the rider's pedal force. It added a center-mounted brushless DC drive in 2003 and its first lithium-ion PAS battery in 2004. Export of drive units to overseas bike makers began in 2013 with the PW Series, a 3.5 kg unit rated at 80 Nm peak and 70 Nm continuous; Yamaha had already started supplying one large maker for Europe in 2012.

Drive units are built at Yamaha Motor's Morimachi Manufacturing Division in Morimachi, Shizuoka, and at Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Europe in Saint-Quentin, France, the former MBK Industrie motorcycle plant renamed in January 2024. Production of the 36 V PW-S2 moved from Japan to Saint-Quentin, and the French line is being converted for the 48 V generation. Yamaha also builds drives in Taiwan, and the Berlin team acquired from Brose builds Qore motors in Germany. The PW-XM takes its name from Morimachi, where its magnesium housing is cast at the site that makes parts for the YZF-R1M motorcycle.

The SPV business ran operating losses in 2024 after inventory write-downs and impairments tied to overseas complete-bike sales, and Yamaha's February 2026 results said the deficit narrowed in 2025 on lower overhead while revenue fell. Its 2025-2027 plan shifts resources away from overseas complete bikes and toward e-Kit drive systems and Japanese complete bikes, and forecasts world e-bike demand of about 9 million units in 2027: 6.4 million in Europe, 1 million in the US and 850,000 in Japan.

Lineup

The 48 V PW-Link Motors Replace a 36 V Range That Topped Out at 85 Nm

Figures are Yamaha catalog and launch figures. All units are mid-drives. A dash means the figure was not confirmed.

PW-Link was shown to bike makers at Eurobike in June 2025 and reached shops in June 2026 on the 2027 Raymon Ravor LT, Ravor Pro and Ravor Comp. Yamaha says the PW-X4 and PW-S3 give about 10% more power and 10 Nm more torque at 70 rpm and above than the 36 V generation, and both use Zero Cadence Technology, which starts assist before the crank turns. PW-Link uses CAN communication and an open interface for third-party parts such as Comodule connectivity, Enviolo hubs and ABS. Displays are the handlebar Side Display, a color TFT, and the 1.9-inch Integrated Display set into the stem; both pair over ANT+, and the Yamaha Motor On app connects over Bluetooth from 29 June 2026. The PW-S2 is 0.5 kg lighter than the PW-ST it replaced and has a 22.8 mm shorter bottom bracket.

Bike brands

Giant's SyncDrive Motors Are Yamaha Units Built to Giant's Specification

Yamaha develops and manufactures the SyncDrive drive units; Giant develops the batteries and the rest of the system around them.

The SyncDrive Pro 4 reached the press on the 2027 Trance Advanced E+ in October 2026. Its housing was drawn with Yamaha around Giant's Maestro suspension pivots, and Giant pairs it with the 840 Wh EnergyPak Smart battery and a 280 Wh EnergyPak Plus range extender for 1,120 Wh. Giant credits it with a 0.28-second response from pedal input to drive.

Other brands fitting Yamaha drives include Raymon of Germany, the PW-Link launch partner; Hero Cycles of India on its InSync bikes and Decathlon of France, both with the PW-S3; and Haibike, whose Yamaha-powered models used PW-X and PW-SE motors with Simplo in-frame packs. Yamaha's US e-bike exit in 2024 did not affect this OEM supply, which runs separately from its US bicycle division.

Brose acquisition

Yamaha Bought Brose's Berlin Drive Business in 2025 and Sells Its Motors Under the Qore Name

Yamaha announced the purchase in late March 2025 and completed it in August 2025 after antitrust approval. The price was not disclosed.

Brose Fahrzeugteile, the German automotive supplier, started its e-bike drive business in 2014 and sold it while cutting 700 jobs in Germany after a projected 53 million euro loss for 2024. About 110 employees in Berlin moved to Yamaha, and Brose provided services during the handover. The unit traded as BAT GmbH at closing and now operates as Yamaha Motor eBike Systems GmbH, headquartered in Berlin. Before the deal, electrive ranked Yamaha fifth among e-bike drive makers, behind Bosch, Shimano, Bafang and Brose.

The Berlin team launched the Qore brand at Eurobike 2025. Its first system centers on the Drive3 Peak mid-drive, raised in a late-2025 update from 95 Nm and 600 W to 105 Nm and 800 W, with a 2.9 kg weight, a body about 15% smaller than the Brose Drive S Mag, and up to 600% assist. A software-limited Drive3 Power version gives 90 Nm and 700 W. German brands Waldbike, on the Quercus 2.0, and Campus are the first bike makers to fit it. BIKE Magazin reported in September 2025 that Specialized's motor is built at the Brose plant.

Yamaha now sells two separate premium systems in Europe: the 48 V PW-Link family from Japan and the Qore family from Berlin. Yamaha has said the Berlin business will be folded into its European operation and gives Qore a roadmap that includes new products for 2027, but it has not said whether the two platforms will merge.

Batteries

Yamaha Batteries Moved From 36 V, 500 Wh Packs to 48 V Packs of Up to 842 Wh

Yamaha introduced the in-frame Multi Location Battery in 2018 as a 600 Wh, 3.8 kg pack, 20% larger than packs then on the market, for all model year 2019 drive units. In-frame packs branded Simplo, after the Taiwanese battery maker Simplo Technology, were fitted to Yamaha-powered bikes from Haibike and Raymon in 630 Wh and 720 Wh sizes. Both PW-Link packs carry anti-theft locking and a fire-propagation barrier that Yamaha developed with Panasonic. Yamaha also founded Enyring, a battery-subscription service piloted in Amsterdam and Berlin that sells the bike without a battery.

Markets

Yamaha-Brand E-Bikes Now Sell Only in Japan

Yamaha sells complete PAS bikes in Japan and drive systems to bike makers everywhere else.

In Japan, Yamaha competes with Panasonic and Bridgestone in complete assist bicycles. Japanese rules cap assist at twice the rider's input up to 10 km/h, tapering to zero at 24 km/h. Yamaha forecasts Japanese demand of about 850,000 e-bikes in 2027.

Yamaha entered the US in 2018 with four models from an office in Cypress, California, and added the Wabash RT gravel bike and CrossCore RC in March 2022 as Class 3 bikes with the PW-ST drive, 500 W maximum output and 500 Wh down-tube batteries. In November 2024 Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA told dealers it would stop wholesaling e-bikes at the end of that year, citing post-pandemic oversupply. Its five-year warranty on the drive unit, battery, frame and rigid fork stayed in place. The last US range on Yamaha's site was the CrossCore RC, Wabash RT, Civante, YDX-MORO, YDX-MORO PRO, YDX-MORO 05 and YDX-MORO 07.

In Europe, Yamaha launched the YDX-MORO 07 with the PW-X3, the Wabash RT and the CrossCore RC in 2022 and assembled its e-bike range at Saint-Quentin. Wholesale of Yamaha-brand e-bikes outside Japan ended at the end of 2025, leaving Yamaha in Europe as a motor supplier that avoids competing with its own bike-brand customers. A Yamaha Wabash ridden by Nick Sanders finished a 19,000-mile round-the-world trip in 2024 on a 70 Nm PW-ST and a 500 Wh battery.

Competition

The PW-X4 Matches the Bosch Performance Line CX at 100 Nm

Yamaha caps PW-X4 peak power at 800 W and says 750 W is generally enough, putting ride quality ahead of peak output. It names Avinox at the top of the market and the Chinese makers Motinova and Gobao as fast-growing rivals on power, and says most European volume sells below 3,000 euros. At 2.4 kg, the Yamaha-built SyncDrive Pro 4 weighs less than the Avinox M2S. Bafang and Drive Systems compare the other makers.