Brose sells e-bike drive business to Yamaha

Brose is a classic automotive supplier, but was also involved in the bicycle industry as a supplier for around a decade. This is now coming to an end, as Brose is selling its electric drive business for e-bikes to Yamaha. The 110 employees in Berlin will be taken over by the Japanese company. Neither side is disclosing the purchase price. Brose describes the sale as part of Brose’s strategic realignment with a focus on its core business.

In the bike market, Brose has primarily built drive systems for electric mountain bikes since 2014. According to industry experts, the company recently had a market share of around seven per cent – behind Bosch, Shimano and Bafang, but ahead of Yamaha in fifth place. The brief company statement on the sale states that Yamaha will utilise Brose’s development resources in the e-bike sector in future and will start to build up its own development base in Europe. The aim is to “recognise market requirements more quickly, respond flexibly to local customer wishes and win new customers.” In addition, procurement in the key European market is to be strengthened and operational efficiency improved.

“We are convinced that Yamaha offers the best conditions to successfully develop the business further. At the same time, we would like to thank our employees for their commitment,” said Raymond Mutz, Executive Vice President of Drives for the Brose Group.

Brose will use the funds from the sale to stabilise its economic situation because, like many automotive suppliers, the family-owned company is currently struggling. In December, Brose announced that it expected a loss of 53 million euros for 2024 and would cut 700 jobs in Germany by the end of 2025. “The lack of capacity utilisation in production and rising costs are weighing on the result,” the company summarised, adding: “The automotive supplier also expects only very low sales growth until 2027. At the same time, indirect personnel costs have increased massively over the last ten years […].” However, there was no mention at the time that Brose might react by selling its e-bike drive unit.

For Yamaha, this is not the first acquisition of an engine specialist in Germany. In 2024, the Japanese Group already completed a transaction to acquire Torqeedo, a specialist in electric boat drives that previously belonged to Cologne-based engine manufacturer Deutz.

presseportal.de, zeit.de (both in German)