CES may have started out as a trade fair for consumer electronics, but it has long since opened up to electronic applications in the broader sense. Ebikes are among them. And so it is that US and Asian manufacturers in particular are using the January event in Las Vegas to draw attention to their latest innovations. At the stand of Hong Kong-based manufacturer Urtopia, there is one of the absolute eye-catchers of the show to marvel at. The Urtopia Titanium Zero is an ebike with an amazingly light mid-mounted motor that draws its power from a solid-state battery and weighs only around ten kilograms.
1. The result of expensive development work
Some of you may occasionally wonder in which direction e-bikes will develop in the coming years. Urtopia provides a very exciting answer with the Titanium Zero. And to get it out of the way right away: this e-bike will not be available for purchase in this form. It is a concept, a study. According to the online magazine Golem, Urtopia CEO Bo Zhang estimates its value at around 50,000 US dollars. Allegedly, around half a million US dollars have been invested in the development of the prototype. Despite these immense sums, the Titanium Zero does not necessarily seem like a utopian vision that will soon be forgotten. The motor and battery in particular are likely to contain know-how that could find its way into the series production of such components in a similar form in the near future.
2. The Urtopia Titanium Zero motor: small, round and powerful
Urtopia refers to the in-house developed mid-mounted motor as the Quark DM 1.2. With its low weight of just 1.2 kilograms and cylindrical shape, it is reminiscent of the Mavic X-Tend. However, it has been quite around this project since 2023 as well. In terms of torque, the Quark DM 1.2 promises a little more than Mavic had announced at the time. The 60 Newton metres mentioned by Urtopia are in the range of what a TQ HPR50 and a Fazua Ride 60 can achieve. In this respect, Urtopia would therefore be in good company. Especially since the other two motors have already proven that a motor of this size is perfectly adequate in a wide variety of ebikes.
A torque sensor and a magnetic encoder are included with the motor. According to Urtopia, it developed both of these itself. They are designed to ensure that the power delivery and responsiveness respond seamlessly to the input you provide to the system via the pedals and the selected level of assistance. However, details of the sensor technology cannot be found in the manufacturer’s press release or in the images of the Titanium Zero that are currently circulating. Therefore, it is not possible to say whether the sensor technology, for example, comes close to the speed sensor with 42 measuring points of the DJI Avinox on the Amflow PL or is even better.
3. Solid-state battery seems feasible for ebikes
In any case, Urtopia is breaking new ground when it comes to batteries. Are we talking about the first solid-state battery on an ebike? Hm, not sure. At least it is the first one that we have consciously encountered in this context. Compared to conventional lithium-ion batteries, solid-state batteries have numerous advantages:
- longer lifespan due to a significantly higher number of charging cycles
- lower risk of thermal runaway
- no risk of fire when exposed to mechanical forces
- better environmental balance due to the absence of heavy metals such as cobalt
- shorter charging times
- higher energy density
- lower loss of capacity at low temperatures due to the use of solid electrolytes
Urtopia does not mention a specific capacity for the battery integrated into the down tube. We only learn that the energy density should be a maximum of 300 watt-hours per kilogram. In comparison, the most powerful battery from Bosch in this regard, the current PowerTube 800 for the Smart System, achieves 205 watt-hours per kilogram. This ratio alone gives an indication of the major advantage that solid-state batteries can offer in terms of ebike range.
4. Lightweight construction with titanium and carbon
The other details of the bike sound no less impressive. The 3D-printed frame of the e-road bike is made of a titanium alloy. Its geometry is hard to fault. Some may find it too conservative. Others, on the other hand, particularly like the more classic lines. As always, it’s a matter of taste. The titanium alloy is used again for the seatpost. The wheels, fork and hollow crankset, on the other hand, are made of carbon. As a drivetrain, Urtopia has equipped the Titanium Zero with an exemplary 12-speed electronic derailleur system from Sram. All in all, this results in the aforementioned ten kilograms as the total weight. If you compare this to the early days of ebikes, it’s hard to believe what has happened in the past fifteen years.
5. Operating concept without AI assistant
In its press release, Urtopia once again highlights its AI-based operating concept with the riding assistant. However, everything indicates to us that this is not found on the Titanium Zero. After all, it comes as a relatively large Smartbar on other models from the manufacturer. We cannot see this combination of display, headlights, loudspeaker and fingerprint scanner on the concept bike. From a purely visual point of view, we welcome this decision. It would simply not have matched the no-frills appearance of the Titanium Zero, which, despite all its technical finesse, is functionally limited to what is really needed for riding an ebike: motor, battery, gearing system, decent frame, and the rest of the components working.
In tests of the Urtopia Carbon 1 Pro or Urtopia Fusion, the smartbar was not always convincing. In theory, for example, a voice control linked to ChatGPT can answer any question or turn the lights on and off at your request. In practice, however, the wind is often enough to push the system to its limits. Even shouting at the smartbar while riding was unsuccessful in several cases.
When the voice transmission works, the AI sometimes lacks the much-vaunted intelligence. In a video sent by Urtopia, for example, an ebike rider asks where he can quench his thirst nearby. The system’s first response is to point him to a coffee shop. However, this is too mundane for the person in the video. The assistant then suggests a nearby whiskey bar. The fact that drinking alcohol and riding a bike are not a good idea together is not mentioned at all. If we ignore the quality of the content, even the visual presentation of the navigation to a desired destination is not particularly impressive in terms of contemporary design. The route only appears clearly on your smartphone. But according to Urtopia, you are welcome to stow it in your things or a backpack. If you do, however, you will only see distance and direction information on the display. And this in a dot matrix that takes some getting used to and exudes the charm of cheap computer games from the 1990s. In this respect, the Urtopia Titanium Zero not only serves as a noteworthy pointer to the future, but also as an example of what still needs to be worked on along the way.
Images: New Urtopia Holdings HK Limited