German conglomerate Bosch announced on Monday at CES 2025 a new layer of theft prevention for its e-bike batteries: the ability to lock a battery through the company’s Flow+ app.
With the feature activated, batteries will automatically digitally lock when owners turn off their Bosch e-bike. If a thief somehow steals one of these batteries and tries to use them on another Bosch e-bike, not only will it not work, it will disable that bike’s motor support and make it unusable, according to the company. And on the flip side, Bosch is also making it possible for owners to create digital keys so friends and family can ride their e-bike.
This new feature will be available later this summer via an over-the-air update to batteries that work with Bosch e-bikes equipped with the company’s smart system. It’s the latest addition to the company’s suite of security features. Some Bosch e-bikes already have smartphone-based locking systems built right into their digital displays. Bosch has also developed an alarm system for its e-bikes. And of course the company employs regular old mechanical locking systems for its e-bike batteries.
That’s not the only e-bike announcement from Bosch at this year’s show. The company also mentioned onstage that it’s developed a feature that — leveraging AI, of course — will let a user set the charge level they want at the end of the ride. The bike then presumably manages the battery and motor to hit that target. There wasn’t much detail about how this will work, onstage or in the company’s release, so we’ll try to learn more from the CES 2025 show floor.
