Panasonic motors
About Panasonic
The Panasonic electronics group was founded in Japan in 1918. The company's extensive product range includes items from the fields of consumer & household electronics - e.g. washing machines, kitchen appliances, flat-screen TVs, cameras, hi-fi & audio equipment, shavers, etc. - as well as high-quality motors. For a long time, Panasonic e-bike drives were among the best-selling in German-speaking countries. But even though Bosch drives are the most successful in Germany today, Panasonic drives have been able to maintain their position on the e-bike market thanks to innovative new developments and good quality. Today, Panasonic e-bike motors are used in models from KTM, FLYER (e.g. T series), Kreidler and KETTLER, among others.
All tuning products for these motors in our shop
Panasonic e-bike motors
Panasonic produced and still produces rear, front and mid-mounted motors for e-bikes.
The Panasonic rear drive has the advantage that it is very light and, with a diameter of 140 mm, extremely small. The motor is characterised by an integrated gearbox, which ensures particularly good power delivery.
The Panasonic front-wheel drive is technically quite simple and therefore very inexpensive. It is primarily designed for comfort and is very well suited for short distances in the city or in the country. One advantage is that the motor can easily be combined with a back-pedal brake and hub or derailleur gears.
The Panasonic 36V mid-motor caused a particular stir in 2014, an engine with which the company countered the powerful competition from Bosch. Compared to the previous Panasonic mid-motor systems, this new drive was optimised in many ways: The design was more compact & lighter, the propulsion more powerful (60 Nm at KTM), there was an optimised display etc.. In addition, the previously used chain reversal was dropped and instead a change was made to a direct drive. This means that the chainring was now driven by the motor itself - and not via an additional sprocket as before. It is also worth mentioning that the Panasonic mid-mounted motor system was also optionally available with a back-pedalling function - in general, it is noticeable that Panasonic placed a lot of emphasis on comfort with this drive.
There is now a whole range of Panasonic mid-mounted motor systems, which differ, for example, in the battery position: "Rear Mount" with battery at the rear, and "Front Mount" with battery integrated at the down tube.
Panasonic X0 and GX0 motors
In 2018, Panasonic introduced the X0 motor. With this drive, the torque was increased by 5 Nm to a total of 80 Nm. Since the internal gearbox has been omitted from the motor, it is even lighter than its predecessors. In addition, the range of the cadence to be supported has been increased to 110 revolutions per minute, so that the rider still receives motor support even when pedalling fast. The Panasonic X0 motor is now available in different variants with slightly different technical parameters.
The next generation of Panasonic mid-mounted motors followed in 2019 with the GX0 - a completely new development that was primarily designed for use on e-mountain bikes. Here, the maximum torque could be increased once again to 90 Nm, and the motor even supports up to a maximum cadence of 130 revolutions per minute. Despite these impressive values, the Panasonic GX0 is quite lightweight with a weight of 2.95 kg. This motor is used, for example, in FLYER Uproc e-bikes.
Can Panasonic mid-mounted motors be optimised?
Yes, also for Panasonic e-bike systems there are effective, easy-to-use tools to make the bikes faster in an uncomplicated way. However, there are currently only tuning solutions for Panasonic mid-mounted motors.
Attractive tuning solutions are available, for example, from:
