Following plenty of interest and reader reaction to our recent story on French conversion kit the Virvolt 900, we decided to take a closer look at this Paris-based e-bike specialist.
After our previous story, multiple readers contacted ebiketips to suggest that Virvolt's motor was simply a rebadged Tongsheng TSDZ2, which has been available for many years. It certainly looks like one, so we got in touch with Virvolt to find out more about the motor itself and the company more broadly, and discovered there is much more to them than we first realised.
Custom parts and added value
We spoke to Yvan de la Baume, Virvolt co-founder, about how the company came into being and just how and why the Virvolt motor - though indeed based on a Tongsheng mid-drive - is different from it.
Virvolt started life as an 'electrification workshop', motorising everything from skateboards to classic French mopeds like the Motobecane above. It was through their use of motors from Chinese companies like Tongsheng and Bafang that they conceived of the idea of improving the motors with their own parts and design modifications and working towards a Made in France product.
The main thrust of their talks with Tongsheng centred on making the motor more readily repairable in their quest to make their business as sustainable as possible. Yvan says they also wanted to address the aesthetics of the motor, the wiring, the mechanism by which it secures to the bike frame, programming (making the 15.5mph cut out limit smoother) and other details. Naturally Yvan doesn't want to give away all the secrets of their hard work, the end result of which he calls their 'grandmother's recipe'.
4,000 or so retrofit kits later, the Virvolt 900 is the result of the feedback gained from all those sales. The next stage is to scale up and industrialise by moving from their original base in a Paris workshop to the Parisian hinterland at Renault's factory in Flins, where they are now housed at the 'ReFactory' project that is all about recycling, reuse, retrofitting and the circular economy. Their relocation there also chimes nicely with Renault's own efforts to develop an electrification kit to replace the internal combustion engine in cars and commercial vehicles.
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With Renault's help Virvolt hope to manufacture 3,000 units at ReFactory in Flins by the end of 2023. They are certainly off to a good start as they were recently awarded the French government's 'Made in France' certification. According to this French government webpage "...'Made in France' does not mean that 100% of the manufacturing steps of a product have been carried out in France, but that at least a significant part of the manufacturing of the product has been carried out in France."
The Virvolt 900 kits are available from €1,200 at more than 250 bicycle dealers across France. Included in that price is not only a 380Wh battery (there is a larger 720Wh option) but also fitting and a guarantee (1 or 2 years depending on the spec of the kit). Yvan told me that the 92 parts that make up the Virvolt mid-drive will shortly be available in catalogue form to be shared with partner dealers to facilitate rapid repair of the motor. Virvolt say the 900 kit also conforms to EN ISO 13849-1:2015, EN 15194:2017 Clause 4.2.15, EN 61000-6-3 and EN 61000-6-1 which are all commonly adhered to standards on 'off-the-peg' e-bikes.
