The Bosch eBike system entered the market in spring 2011. Today it is considered a benchmark due to its drive performance and its excellent responsiveness. A growing number of bicycle brands offer e-bikes with the Bosch system. During the development process, we faced many challenges that are atypical for automotive standards, such as an extremely short time to market. To enable an agile development process for the drive controller, a specific tool chain was established, starting from model-based virtual prototyping based on Simulink, through dSPACE^® AutoBox-equipped prototype bicycles and test benches, to code generation using Embedded Coder. Using this tool chain, we were able to design and optimize highly complex software modules and to reduce efforts required to make changes.

The presentation gives insight into the challenges of this fast-growing market segment of e-mobility and how agile software development is employed to meet the requirements of consumer product life cycles.