Eclair is a new electric bike brand coming out of the suddenly bustling French electric bike industry that’s begun to turn heads online this week.
Electric bike production coming back to Europe has been a sustained trend of the past few years, with hotspots in Portugal, Lithuania, Estonia, France and Poland all appearing, not to mention strongholds like Germany continuing to invest. Eclair comes to market with a similar philosophy to many brands reshoring productions from Asia, quite simply it wants to produce as sustainably as possible and it’s here that the limited early signals from the brand are interesting.
On a new website the brand alludes to a patented French battery technology featuring on the electric bikes that can be dismantled, reconditioned or recycled.
We speculated yesterday that this sounded a lot like the brief of Bordeaux-based Goauch, a business that’s been mentioned here on Cycling Electric before as part of our ‘Can I repair or recycle my e-bike battery article‘. Needless to say, in the age of sustainability reporting and a European directive mandating that batteries on EVs use a certain threshold of recycled materials, that’s a big scoop for a brand.
We have since learned from Eclair directly that actually its a battery product from PYMCO Technologies, whose patented technology makes it possible to disassemble and reassemble the pack at any moment of its life cycle. This opens up servicing, or second-life opportunities for the cells, if not recycling.
We’ve also seen it confirmed that the brand is putting to use tech from fellow French ‘bike operating system’ business eBikeLabs. This system, we know, utilises an AI (artificial intelligence) process to enhance the rider’s experience, learn about their cycling habits and adapt in order to provide both longevity to the battery and motor system, as well as reducing maintenance costs. It is said to be able to regulate assistance automatically based on a variety of factors ranging the angle of the bike on a slope, braking force and power put through the pedals. That means the rider need not be engaged with the assistance process at all, leaving them free to enjoy the ride.
The system also builds in anti-theft features, real-time diagnostics and a secure communication with CANopen standard products produced by other manufacturers. Think of it as like an Android operating system for your bike.
We don’t know much more about Eclair at this stage, but on the hardware side we are promised aircraft-grade Chromoly steel and ‘low-carbon’ aluminium construction, all made in Europe. Otherwise it’s evident that this is an e-bike that prefers a user’s mobile phone to be the mounted central display. There’s a Gates belt drive too that appears to be clad to a rear hub motor. The battery, which feeds integrated lighting at the front and rear as well as the pedal-assist, is securely locked inside the seat tube.
We’re in contact with Eclair, so will update this article with more details on the debut electric bike launch and overall brand plan shortly.
Wondering what to do with your electric bike battery? You can now recycle it with a nationwide network of bike shops.