GM announced its e-bike brand name and presented two bikes

General Motors names its e-bike brand as ARĪV (as in “arrive”), months after it announced a crowdsourcing campaign to name its e-biking venture. It also released teasers of its two electric bikes named Merge and Meld, of which the latter is compact e-bike while the other is a folding model. Most importantly, the company plans to launch these bikes initially in only a few European regions – such as Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany.

Merge and Meld both have a top speed of 25 km/h (15.5 mph) with four levels of electric assist, according to GM. The bikes provide up to 64 km of range on a full charge – which the onboard battery pack takes 3.5 hours to achieve. The bikes, featuring the GM’s proprietary mobile vehicle technology developed at its Oshawa center, also include integrated, rechargeable front and rear LED safety lights, USB phone charger, and “oversized” brake rotors. In addition to it, bikers can even attach a smartphone to the bike using a “Quad Lock mount”.

Also with a cleaner look, these bikes are uniquely designed to accommodate some never-seen-before features. The bikes can be folded when not in use, and feature a "walk mode" that engages the electric motor when walking the bikes up hills. Furthermore, GM injects an algorithm to control the amount of motor assistance required to achieve the easiest-possible ride. The bikes, via Bluetooth, can even connect with an app which is intended “to give riders with all kinds of metrics such as speed, distance, remaining battery level, motor assist level, and distance traveled,” GM added.

Scheduled to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2019, Meld can be bought at about $3,100, while Merge gets slightly dearer with a price tag of $3,800 approximately.