How Did ZF Do This? Super Compact, 90Nm Motor 

Surprising that ZF, the best gear company in the world, didnt come out with an integrated gear system like the Pinion

EMTB are heading in an amazing direction

I have a 6-speed ZF automatic transmission in my 2007 3-liter 6 cyllinder diesel BMW, it's currently at 280.000 miles. Good stuff

The industry should start to make a standardized mount

Since ZF is a company that makes high performance automotive transmissions, I'm surprised they didn't go with an integrated gearbox unit. They would of had an upper hand on the Pinion MGU.

If I were Bosch, Shimano, Spesh etc I would be VERY worried! Life time warranty is a massive on its own.

Outstanding work. And can you imagine how good their motor gearbox unit would be? The pace of development is just incredible.

ZF, it looks like a ground breaking product! Would you please bring an integrated gear motor as well?

As interesting as the current and new motor technology is, the one aspect that is never mentioned about ebike motors is the mechanical drag over the assistance cut off. It would be great if this was mentioned in the reviews as well as the other aspects of the motor system!

Dude you are freaking me out dropping all this new tech, keep it coming!

I like Rob's soundtrack choices for an intro

I have a 10 year old BMW 530d with 150,000 miles auto ZF gearbox using similar engineering to this new motor...big auto manufacturer with this much knowledge and background engineering will transform ebike technology and it will work and be reliable like my car 💪🤛

Ebike industry needs to standardise battery and motor integration. Not every frame is proprietary design

Nothing that’s come out over the past two years has looked like next gen ebike tech…until now! This is the motor I’ve been waiting for! Please please tell them to make the controls minimal! They’ve got a killer product but it looks like a massive controller on the bars!

Nice one Rob, best ZF motor review I've seen over the past few days. Exciting times ahead

Rob, you have become Mr EMTB. Great review.

as someone who drove sportscars for 20 years I hope to be able to buy this motor system and continue enjoying ZF parts in a different hobby hopefully not only available on 10'000 bikes >

Well that Was enough for me to stop thinking about replacing my 2 year old Orbea Rise with a newer Fazua system. I love the look of this motor. I’ll wait a season or two now to see how this pans out on new bikes.

Wow, to lift up the front wheel like that without even trying anything, I think this 90nm motor is actually more powerful than 120nm ones.

With all the different motors coming out it’s going to become a nightmare for frame makers. The bike industry needs to decide on some set of standards, otherwise it’s going to be too expensive to make a new frame for each motor every year, and bikes will be impossible to keep going when the manufacturers get bored of making their old designs, and this will affect the second hand market. Bike lemons everywhere in 4 years

How is the motor resistance after you reach the cut-off limit? That was one of the worst things about the early Shimano motors.

Now just put a gearbox and belt drive on it!

Oh wow, this years eurobike is crazy. My wallet already starts screaming

ZF good stuff

i come from a motorbike background and i have said it for years ZF no there shit this in my eyes is more impressive than the dji new release motor

That's pretty incredible. And I thought the DJI motor was innovative!

Amazing. A step up from TQ.

Really good approach to the motor design and the way it mounts. You can swop the motor out for a newer model if they stick with the same dimensions!

I can't wait to see what people do with this, imagine a go kart with two of these motors or even a quad motor atv,🤯🤯🤯

Motor itself is phenomenal in terms of technology, durability, design. What i see is tha the implementation of the associated batteries ad commands, compared to what dji have presented, needs a lot of implementation

Lifetime warranty on the motor. That's a win for the consumer.

ONGosh!😮 Amazing thought & innovation baked into this system! I googled strain wave gear and got educated on it. Brilliant!👌1950’s tech fueling modern innovation!

If they are making auto race gearboxes, why not do a combo drive and gearbox?

No doubt this is the better engineered motor compared to the DJI, ZF make some of the best automotive gearboxes at huge scale, this will be over engineered and bullet proof, amazing tech.

bikes adapting this motor, will be looking slick af

That motor looks tight very promising

such a nice tech!

my second gen Bosch is still kicking strong after all those years, but thos new products launches from so many different brands are making it look ancient..

If ZF are getting into eBikes can they not replace the sodding cassette and derailleur?! Come on get a mini torque converter in there somewhere too!

living in hills im still anti electric MTB but watching actors like ZF coming into the market with such approaches makes me think about it again tbh, just hope for the bike market prices to stabilize and get in a reasonable specter rather than getting as expensive as motorcycles or cars

Neat!

Great video, show us some wheelies!

Good grief, so awesome. Who's on tap for wowing us with a new motor tomorrow? I'm going to start giving my EP801 some serious side-eye.

Like someone said already whats the deal with the down tube then apart from giving room in the triange for suspension etc? you may as well have a traditional shape motor there still

This bike made by „old haibike“ CEOs, who selled haibike and create raymon bikes… zf is in the same town in germany, in Schweinfurt… i Worked at 2017 at this motorsystem at zf in schweinfurt 😊

Looks awesome. I’m surprised there’s no bolt holes though, just a cradle? Is it friction fit or some notches that hold it in place? Seems like an odd choice. What if some grit gets in there and starts squeaking?

Hey Mr ZF please please bring out a combined motor gearbox unit

Their batteries are kind of heavy and outdated though, the 756wh one has a weight of 4,2kg. The one of dji has 800Wh and weighs 3,7kg

amazing I want one for my Creo. What average power can it run at?

Is super awesome motor that’s that we are eating for in ebike for long time minimalist and powerful motor I am in USA but I don’t care travel to Europe to buy this bike

It looks like ZF could easily make a hub motor out of that unit as well. The motor is quiet so you will hear the noise coming from the derailleur system better. 😁

Which one would you like to get your hands on first to test...the ZF or the DGI?

Nice and tight looking motor. What about the controllers? they look err chunky is that a prototype or the final? They seem to also have a similar approach to DJI with the brake disc ring style speed sensor.

KELLYS THEOS F100 with ep801 and 825wh battery is 20.6kg already. This might be their pic for future as it might save some space.

This is even better than dji, all this stuff makes current ebikes obsolete

Lets hope a road/gravel version with a narrow q-factor is on the cards as well..

that cool, they should have bring a gearbox for emtbs as well with their know how

looks very wide, what is the Q-factor? What I really want to see are more Pinion MGU competitors. I think that is the future a motor mounted gear box and not the current derailleur setup.

Very nice - it won't be cheap though

Looks awesome! I like that it is quite stealthy as well. It is a shame that the MTB snobs in the US are so against E-bikes. You can't legally ride them on 95% of the trails here.

GEARBOX GEARBOX GEARBOX! Come on ZF!!! :D

How does it compare to the TQ motor?

This is by far the best looking motor visually

is it me or could I see chains being destroyed by that motor lol.

No sound from the motor mentioned or shown. Is it silent or does it sound like a washing machine on a rinse cycle ?

When can we start seeing in in bikes?

the controller is not embeded into the motor right?

Please show all exciting motors weight, power, torque, and approximate price in comparison when reviewing new motors. Lots of new stuff hitting the market but can’t evaluate without a baseline.

can this engine be bought and connected to most bikes? if so, where can one buy this in Europe, Scandinavia? do you have any discount codes for this? thanks for getting back!

Hi any idea of prices and release dates thanks

i want one

One question remains: What does the thing sound like and how loud is it?

Looks like a high powered TQ motor, and definitely appears to be a generational leap in power to weight/size mid-drive motors! We just need batteriy tech to also make a generational leap to improve the range per Wh.

Ah, the good old chain snapper mode

How do you get this new bike for review?? I want to make review too

I wonder is this mounting design they came with is or will be reliable enough in long term and easy to make for frame manufacturers?

They made motor very compact to acomodate gearbox in parallel shaft soon. For sure they will have a MGU

The design seems very similar to the TQ motor with strain wave gear system. This has a lot more torque

E-bike motor evolution is pretty crazy, how long before Shimano & Bosch start using the strain wave type of motor, my e-bike experience is minimal but the nicest ride was a TQ Trek

I just hope major brands are getting in... I am really tired of bosch and shimano motored bikes eventhough there are already lot of alternatives out there. How come only a hand full of mtbs are using the pinion MGU?

ZF makes Porsche PDK

Given the diminutive size, it looks like it should be a possible retrofit to other ebikes. Aside from battery/electronics, the motor mount should just require laser cut plates, a clamp, bashguard and 3d printed shroud. Will ZF go for that?

I’ve never bought an Ebike before and now I’ve never wanted to buy one so bad.

I run a 6 speed zf6hp in my 1200hp falcon

Man I’m glad I waited to get an ebike because there are some great new setups coming soon!

@Rob not sure you can say that this is the first ZF's emtb motor since ZF owns Sachs and the Sachs RS was released some time ago.

When and how much?

We need motora that comes with aux switches to connect lights t type tranamision or anything else

Did they say what the waterproofing rating was, if I was Bosch, Shimano or specialised/brose I would treat this as a huge wake up call 😮🤯

Nice. This is ZF Germany😊

Well, DJI showed recently 2,82 kg (300 g more) engine with 120 Nm and 1000 W in boost mode. If ZF engine weight would be around 2.0 kg I would be more impressed. For over a year Trek Fuel EXE have 50 Nm with 1,78 weight.

It's a very cool system, but what is the warranty and will it be repairable. That's the information that really can't be missed off if these videos in my opinion Rob.

Since ZF is gearbox oriented I'm expecting gearbox version as the pinion MGU to throw out rear mech.

That bike looks super similar to Transition's design pattern. Copy or partnership?

48 V is awesome hopefully you can use any 48 volt battery.

I keep telling my girlfriend that small and compact can be a good thing.

600Watt for how long ? 20s 30s or more ?

90Nm is just the max torque, at a specific rpm. You need the torque curve, which can be put "on paper". When you don't understand what is "on paper" of course it can feel "different". But the complete behaviour of that motor can be put "on paper", if you understand it.

How reliable is it because the amount of ebike motors that have to be replaced under warranty is staggering. And the cost as well how much will it be exactly

Lightning Rods Smal Block with adequate cooling does 5000W at 100V and weighs 3kg (without a freewheel though)