Orbea’s new e-bike incorporates automotive tech

Spanish brand Orbea says it’s borrowed from the automotive and computer industries in the Katu’s design

(Image credit: @ J u a n j O t a z u)

Orbea’s new £1299 Katu e50 e-bike is designed to provide a fit for purpose e-bike for city users. Orbea uses the metaphor of the four-by-four driver going to the supermarket to buy a couple of items to demonstrate its premise that more is not necessarily better. Its electric motor drives the front hub, but it's the new control unit which Orbea highlights.

Its motor control unit has been developed by Ebikemotion Technologies, who also develop motor control technologies for automotive brands like General Motors, Renault and Honda.

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Paul Norman

Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.

He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.