Best e-bikes for hills: torque, mid-drives and what actually climbed

Hills are where e-bikes earn their money, and where the spec sheet fools the most people. I’ve had a 250W bike push me up climbs that a 350W bike stalled on. I’ve had a 1,000W bike that felt no better on a hill than a good 750W one. After testing bikes since 2015, here’s how I think about climbing, and which bikes actually got me up the hills I ride at about 200 pounds.

The short answer

Torque vs. watts in plain words

Watts measure power: how much work the motor can do per second. Torque, listed in newton-meters (Nm), measures twisting force: how hard the motor can turn the crank or wheel.

On a climb you’re going slowly, and at low speed what you feel is torque. Power is torque times rotational speed, so a motor can have a modest watt rating and still twist hard at low speed. That’s exactly what happened on the Ramblas: Aventon rates its A100 mid-drive at 250W sustained and 750W peak, but lists 100 Nm, and it climbed like nothing else I’ve ridden.

Two more things about watts on spec sheets:

• Rated vs. peak. Rated (or sustained) watts is what the motor can deliver continuously. Peak is a short burst. The Aventure.3 is listed at 750W with 1,440W peak in boost. The Pace 500.3 is 500W with 864W peak. Compare rated to rated.
• Legal caps. In the common US three-class system, the motor is capped at 750W. That’s why so many bikes I test land at exactly 750W.

A lot of brands don’t list torque at all. Rad doesn’t on the bikes I tested, and neither does Engwe for the EP-2 Pro, where its page had conflicting motor numbers. If a brand won’t tell you, you have to go by reviews.

Hub motor vs. mid-drive

Hub motors sit in the middle of the rear wheel (or sometimes the front). They’re simple, cheaper, and they make it easy to add a throttle. Most bikes I test use one. The downside on hills is that the motor is always turning at the wheel’s speed. When you slow down on a steep climb, the motor slows down too, and it moves away from the speed where it’s most efficient. Shifting to a low gear helps your legs, but it doesn’t help the motor.

Mid-drives sit at the pedals and drive the chain. Shift into a low gear and the motor can keep spinning near its sweet spot while the wheel turns slowly. That’s the big reason a 250W-rated mid-drive like the A100 can out-climb a 350W hub motor. The trade-off is more wear on the chain and cassette, because the motor’s force goes through them, and you usually don’t get a throttle. Neither the Ramblas nor the Aventure M has a throttle out of the box.

On the Aventure M, I said the mid-drive felt much more responsive than a hub motor. With Auto assist and the auto-shifter, it shifted down on steep climbs and up on downhills right when I wanted.

A worked example: one steep hill

Let’s put numbers on a real situation. Say you weigh 200 lb, like me, and you’re on a 75 lb bike (about what the Aventure.3 weighs) carrying 10 lb of gear. Total: 285 lb, or about 129 kg.

You hit a 10 percent grade, which is steep for a road. You want to hold 10 mph, about 4.5 meters per second.

The power just to lift you up that hill is weight × gravity × climb rate:

• Climb rate: 4.5 m/s × 0.10 = 0.45 m/s upward (close enough at this grade)
• Power: 129 kg × 9.81 × 0.45 ≈ 570 watts

That’s before rolling resistance, wind and drivetrain losses, which add more. A strong recreational rider can hold maybe 150 to 250 watts for a while. So on that hill, at 10 mph:

• A 250W hub motor plus your legs is well short. You’ll slow way down. That matches what I saw on the ONEBOT S7, where at 200 lb I was pedaling on any incline.
• A 350W hub motor helps, but probably not enough on throttle alone. On the Eahora XC100, the 350W motor stalled on hills on throttle alone.
• A 750W hub motor with its peak output, plus some pedaling, gets you there. That’s why the 750W bikes I tested all handled my hills.
• A mid-drive in a low gear can deliver its peak power at a slower wheel speed. If you slow to 6 mph, the power you need drops to about 340 watts, and the motor’s torque through the gears does the rest. That’s the Ramblas experience.

Slowing down is the cheapest way to climb. Power needed for the lifting part drops in direct proportion to speed. Half the speed, half the watts.

Bikes that climbed, and bikes that didn’t

What I saw at about 200 lb:

Climbed everything I tried:

• Aventon Ramblas: huge torque from the A100 mid-drive. Don’t let the 250W rating fool you. It also has a SRAM Eagle 12-speed with plenty of climbing gears.
• Aventon Aventure M: auto assist and auto-shifting worked well even on steep inclines, and hill start assist gives you a boost from a stop.
• Aventon Aventure.3: the 750W motor has plenty of power for any incline.
• Engwe E26: hauled me up every incline I tried.
• Luckeep X1 Pro: plenty of power for me, even on steep inclines.
• Aventon Pace 500.3: the 500W motor handled every hill I tried. The torque sensor feels natural.
• Ziprs F1: the 350W motor felt like 500W to me, even on big inclines. It’s the exception among the small motors.

Needed help:

• Engwe EP-2 Pro: slow on the throttle from a stop on hills.
• Aventon Soltera 3 ADV: on gravel up a slight incline, even in turbo I had to pedal pretty hard. It’s 250W and 40 Nm, single speed.
• Hiland Sabo 2.0: the 350W motor helped on hills, but you’re going to pedal.
• MACFOX X7: I wanted more power. It suits a lighter teen better.
• ONEBOT S7 and Eahora XC100, as above.

Gears, sensors and other things that help

• Gears. A wide-range cassette lets you keep pedaling at a comfortable cadence. The Ramblas’s 12-speed is the widest I’ve tested. Single-speed bikes, like the Soltera 3 ADV and ONEBOT S7, have nothing to shift to.
• Torque sensors. A torque sensor gives more help the harder you push, which feels natural on a climb. The Pace 500.3 and Abound LR have one. Cadence sensors just turn the motor on when the pedals turn.
• Throttle that works from zero. Starting on a hill is the hardest moment. A throttle that works from a stop, like on the E26, Luckeep and Bee Cool bikes, gets you moving. The Aventure M’s hill start assist covers the same need without a throttle.
• Weight. Every pound you add is a pound the motor lifts. In my worked example, 285 lb needed about 570 watts. Drop 30 lb and it’s about 510.
• Battery level. Many bikes lose power as the battery drains. I noticed a clear power drop on the Rattan LF 750 Pro when the battery got low. Start a big climb with a charge.

How I ride a steep hill on an e-bike

A few habits make a bigger difference than most upgrades:

1. Shift down before the hill. Pick a gear you could pedal at a comfortable cadence at walking pace. On a mid-drive this protects the chain; on a hub motor it keeps your legs useful.
2. Raise the assist level at the bottom, not halfway up. Starting the climb with speed and power is easier than trying to recover once you’ve slowed.
3. Pedal, even on a throttle bike. Your legs add real watts. In my worked example, 150 to 250 watts from a rider is a big share of the roughly 570 watts that hill needs at 10 mph.
4. Accept a slower speed. Holding 6 mph instead of 10 cuts the power for the climbing part by about 40 percent. The motor runs cooler and the battery lasts longer.
5. Stay seated on loose surfaces. Standing shifts weight off the rear tire, and on gravel that’s when the wheel spins out.
6. Use the brakes in bursts on the way down. Long, steady dragging heats rotors. Firm, short squeezes with a break between them are easier on the brakes.

Common mistakes

• Buying on peak watts. A high peak number with no torque spec tells you little. Compare rated watts and torque.
• Assuming 250W means weak. True for the 250W hub motors I’ve tested, but the 250W mid-drives on the Ramblas and Aventure M climbed better than most of the 750W hub bikes.
• Starting a climb in a high gear. On a mid-drive especially, shift down before the hill, not halfway up, when the chain is under heavy load.
• Expecting rated range on hilly routes. I got 23 miles on the EP-2 Pro throttle-only at 200 lb on hilly ground. Climbing burns battery fast.
• Ignoring brakes. What goes up comes down. Hydraulic discs are what I want on long descents. The Aventure M’s SRAM DB4s had plenty of stopping power.

FAQ

How much torque do I need for hills?

From what I’ve ridden, the bikes listing 80 Nm or more all handled my hills at about 200 lb. Bikes at 40 to 45 Nm were fine on pavement but needed real pedaling on climbs. Gearing and motor type matter too, so treat torque as a guide, not a guarantee.

Is a mid-drive better for hills than a hub motor?

Usually, because it uses the bike’s gears. The two mid-drives I’ve tested, the Aventon Ramblas and Aventure M, both at 100 Nm, were the best climbers I’ve ridden. Hub motors with 750W and 80 Nm or more still handled every hill I tried.

Can a 500W e-bike climb hills?

Yes. The Aventon Pace 500.3’s 500W hub motor handled every incline I tried at about 200 lb. Very steep or very long climbs will slow it more than a 750W bike.

Can a 250W e-bike climb hills?

The 250W hub motors I’ve tested struggled with an adult rider. The 250W mid-drives climbed very well, because their torque goes through the gears.

Does a throttle help on hills?

It helps you start from a stop. Once you’re moving, pedaling with assist usually climbs better and uses less battery than throttle alone.

How much range do hills cost?

It depends on the grade, your weight and your speed, but climbing is the biggest energy draw on an e-bike. Expect noticeably less than the rated range on a hilly route. See my rated vs. tested chart in the folding e-bike guide.