Scott’s E-Genius 710 Plus is a 27.5+ full suspension rig with Bosch’s top end Performance Line CX giving you a boost up the hills. That’s backed up by a platform that’s dripping with interesting tech, and high end components to justify the £4,099 asking price.

Let’s deal with tyre size first. The E-Genius 710 Plus uses the 27.5+ standard, which is a mid-size rim (between the historically-favoured 26” and the newer 29”) with a wider profile. Tyre and rim standards are a mish-mash of imperial and metric, so what you have here is a 40mm width rim, much wider than a standard cross country wheel, which helps to support the 3” Schwalbe tyres.

27.5+ has advantages as an e-MTB tyre. The air chamber is bigger which allows it to absorb bigger hits, and you can run the tyres at lower pressures for greater comfort. The combination of low pressure and wide profile also means you get masses of grip, which is a good thing if you’re augmenting your legs with 250W of motor power on loose surfaces.

The 6061 aluminium alloy full-suspension platform on the e-Genius offers 130mm or 90mm of travel with a lockout option, and that’s matched to a 140mm Fox 34 fork at the front. The pivot position of the shock has two available positions, with one offering a lower bottom bracket and slightly slacker head tube angle.

Scott use a clever handlebar-mounted lever called the Twinloc, which allows you to toggle through three setups. At one end the fork and rear shock are fully open. The middle setting shuts the rear down to 90mm travel, and the third position locks both ends of the bike out. As well as that remote there’s also one for the Rockshox Reverb dropper seatpost. That might sound like a lot of cables but the internal routing of the the e-Genius means it’s a very tidy looking bike.

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With 70Nm of torque, the Performance Line CX is the most powerful that Bosch produce (that doesn’t fall foul of EU pedelec rules, anyway) and it’s mated here with their top-capacity 500Wh battery pack. Bosch’s Intuvia display and remote are pretty mature technology (in e-bike terms) and they work very well, giving instant access to power modes and ride info.

Transmission duties are taken care of by Shimano XT, with a 1x11 setup and a wide-range 11-42 cassette. Brakes are one rung lower on the Shimano ladder but Shimano SLX kit is very dependable, and you get a 200mm rotor at the front (180mm at the rear) for maximum stopping power. Syncros provide the headset, handlebar, stem and seat.

Dave says: mountain bike wheel standards have proliferated in the last few years. Each one has its upsides and downsides, but 27.5+ is more or less perfect for an e-MTB. The bigger rim and tyre give excellent traction and grip, with a bit of extra cushioning and impact protection, and you can use standard geometries and components. The main downside is the weight, but with a motor that’s not really an issue any more.

There's lots of control levers but the cockpit doesn't feel crowded

The Scott feels like a bit of a tractor when you sling a leg over if for the first time, but it really doesn’t take long before you’re just thinking of it as a trail bike. The handling is predictable and the fork and rear suspension very well matched. The bike copes well with both big hits and multiple smaller ones, and flows well over bumpy and rooty singletrack. The fork/shock remote is excellent, giving you access to the three configurations you’re likely to want at the press of a thumb.

Climbing is best with the rear locked down to 90mm, and there’s hardly ever any scrabbling from the huge Schwalbe tyres, they just hang onto whatever they’re touching. The motor is a tried-and-tested unit; you’ll see it on hundreds of e-MTBs and there’s a reason for that: it’s really good. There’s masses of power; in the high modes it can sometimes be a struggle to keep the front wheel down on steeper climbs, although the Scott coped a lot better than some in that regard.

Point the Scott downhill and the beefy fork and oversized head tube give excellent tracking, with the 140mm of travel enough to take some daring lines. Cornering is excellent, with the big tyres giving prodigious amounts of grip even when leant over. The wider rim supports the big tyre well and as a result there’s very little rolling of the tyre even when cornering hard.

Overall this bike is a compelling package. It’s nimble enough for trail use, with enough in the suspension and the tyres to soak up some pretty big hits. And of course once you’re at the bottom of your run you’ve got 250W of help to get you back to the top.