Volkswagen’s new e-bike has a rearview camera, radar, and fighter-pilot smart glasses

Volkswagen has put its name on an e-bike built around the kind of safety technology you would normally find in a car. The Volkswagen eBike, manufactured by n+ under licence, features a rear-mounted camera that streams a live feed to a handlebar display, radar-activated blind-spot alerts, a smart helmet with crash detection, and HUD glasses that project navigation and safety warnings into the rider’s line of sight. Two models, Sport and Crossover, are available for preorder now with deliveries planned for the fourth quarter of 2026.

The centrepiece is Smart View, a camera mounted to the rear fender that gives riders a wide-angle look at the traffic behind them without turning their head. The feed appears on a screen built into the handlebars, and radar monitors vehicles approaching from behind, alerting the rider when something gets too close. The system is normally priced at $699 but is included free for customers who preorder.

An optional Smart Helmet syncs with the bike over Bluetooth, mirroring its LED turn signals and brake lights so other road users can see the rider’s intentions from behind as well as from the bike itself. The helmet also carries a built-in accelerometer that detects crashes and automatically sends a text to the rider’s emergency contacts. It costs $399.

The Smart Glasses take the concept further. They work like a head-up display of the kind that smart glasses makers have been racing to build, projecting speed, range, navigation prompts, and blind-spot warnings directly into the rider’s field of view. VW says the underlying technology was developed by engineers with experience building helmet-mounted displays for military pilots, and the glasses cost $499.

Both models run a Yamaha PW-X3 mid-drive motor rated at 250 watts and 85 newton-metres of torque, with pedal assistance up to 25 kilometres per hour. A removable 490-watt-hour battery sits inside the downtube and offers a claimed range of up to 162 kilometres. The Sport starts at $3,999 and the Crossover at $4,349, with the Crossover adding a rear cargo tray that doubles as a mount for turn-signal LEDs and an optional $749 range extender.

The bikes are built by n+, the same company behind the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1-branded electric bicycles, and this is its third major automotive licensing deal after Mercedes and Ford. Volkswagen has been expanding beyond traditional cars with autonomous shuttles and now micromobility, and the eBike marks the first time the company has attached its badge to a two-wheeled vehicle. Whether riders will pay car-accessory prices for bicycle safety gear is the open question, but the rearview camera alone addresses a real problem that most e-bikes still ignore.