Merida eSpresso CC 675 EQ 2024 review | Urban Electric Bike of the Year contender

Merida’s eSpresso bikes are the brand’s range of comfort-oriented urban explorers.

The eSpresso CC adds in a bit of rugged specification and a larger 675Wh battery to create a bike designed for cruising around town as well as taking on rural bike paths, towpaths and forest roads.

Overall, this Urban Electric Bike of the Year contender impresses where it matters most, and can lay claim to being as much a multi-terrain machine as an urban commuter bike.

Merida eSpresso CC 675 EQ 2024 frame details

Visually, the hydroformed alloy-tubed frame is welded and finished neatly.

It might seem slightly slab-like, but the flipside is it’s likely to be tough enough to take plenty of knocks from the rough and tumble of everyday use.

The frame’s hugely oversized single-spar design, with its low-step shape, makes it easy to get onboard, and the ride position is just as easy to live with.

It’s upright and short in reach, but with a nice mid-width riser bar that’s not too wide to slip between static traffic, but not so narrow as to become twitchy at slow speeds or nervous at higher velocities.

Merida eSpresso CC 675 EQ 2024 specifications

The motor is Shimano’s powerful Steps EP6 model, which is more commonly found on performance electric mountain bikes. This can deliver as much as 85Nm of torque – up there with the most powerful electric bike motors available on urban electric commuters.

The Steps system hints at the eSpresso’s mountain bike origins with the second of its three power modes: Eco, Trail and Boost.

Consider the Eco setting for riding on flat roads, Trail for lumpy rolling terrain and Boost for big hills and you won’t go far wrong.

The EP6 motor is essentially the same as Shimano’s top-spec EP8 system found on plenty of the best electric mountain bikes, but while the EP8 is housed in a lightweight magnesium shell, the EP6 goes with standard steel.

Here, it’s paired with a third-party battery from Trend Power, with a large 750Wh capacity.

Shimano is one of very few brands to offer third-party battery compatibility with its motors, which means you should be able to shop around whenever the time comes to replace it.

Smartly, the battery can be removed for charging and uses the same ABUS key as the supplied frame-mounted rear-wheel lock.

Shimano also provides the gears, with its latest Cues range. Here, it’s a very broad-spread 11-speed, 11-50t cassette with a 38-tooth front chainring.

This feels closer to a mountain bike setup than a road bike, for example, but it suits the eSpresso well, especially if you venture off the tarmac and take the Merida onto towpaths or light forest trails, as I have during my test rides.

The mountain-bike derived Shimano hydraulic brakes, with big 180mm rotors, give lots of confidence-inspiring feel and ample stopping power.

The EQ in the name stands for ‘equipped’, and the eSpresso is certainly that.

Tough and treaded 2.25in-wide Maxxis Crossmark II 650b tyres set the scene.

The deep-blocked tread gives ample off-road bite and they’ve also got a commuter-friendly reflective strip around the circumference of the sidewall.

Compared to larger 700c alternatives, 650b wheels are sturdier, can roll up to speed quicker and enable the fitting of a wider tyre – all good things on an urban ebike.

Broad fixed aluminium mudguards are provided to keep you clean and spray-free.

The clear chainguard helps keep your trousers clean of greasy oil marks on the ride to work.

Up front, a fork-crown mounted light draws its power from the battery.

The Suntour Mobie fork provides 75mm of travel and has a lockout feature for when you’re riding on smooth surfaces, to avoid pedal-induced bobbing.

At the back, a suspension seatpost adds cushioning, although the Merida saddle’s swoopy shape and ample padding should be enough comfort for most unpadded posteriors.

The bike includes a Herrmans front light and Spanninga rear light, both of which are powered by the main battery. The rear light is integrated into the pannier rack.

The saddle has a port mounted under the rear of the shell, housing a multi-tool.

A quality oversized rear rack and a chainstay-mounted kickstand round things off on what is a very well-specified bike.

Merida eSpresso CC 675 EQ 2024 ride impressions

The eSpresso is a brilliant all-round urban and suburban bike.

The low-step frame is well-proportioned and the handling is very stable. The big chunky tyres take the edge off acceleration on tarmac but, let’s face it, the eSpresso is designed to be a comfortable cruiser. For that purpose, Merida has got things just right.

The Shimano Steps powertrain is nicely realised with a very smart (and small) bar-mounted remote to control power modes and switch between the information pages on the full-colour display unit.

The motor is noticeably quiet compared to Bosch’s equivalent Performance Line CX and the SportDrive unit Ridgeback uses in its urban ebikes. However, the real difference is in how the power is delivered

The Shimano motor gives the most assistance at low speeds, so setting off from the lights is easy even on steep slopes.

The flipside is that, at close to the 15.5mph / 25kph EU-set speed limit, the assistance in each mode is noticeably less than competitor systems.

Because of the power delivery, it’s not a bike where you can sit back and rely on the motor to do the lion’s share of the work. It’s at its most rewarding when you’re putting in effort too.

Controlling the system is easy via the bar-mounted remote and the information available is ample.

There’s a range of data, including the power you and the bike are generating, cadence, trip distance, range estimation, odometer and a remaining-battery graphic with 10 segments.

I’d have preferred a battery percentage level too because the battery graphic is on the small side compared to the other data fields.

The large 750Wh battery promised a long range, but with the bike tipping the scales at more than 30kg, plus the use of heavily treaded tyres, the range isn’t as far as you might think.

I averaged around 50 miles on successive rides, with a maximum of 50.167 miles / 80.75km, including 2,816ft / 858.33m of ascent; and 49.04 miles / 78.9km, with 2,411ft / 735m of ascent on a much cooler day. Those are good numbers for a bike of this type.

The recharge time for this enlarged battery size (500Wh is more common) was a rather sedate, but understandable, six hours and 15 minutes.

Merida eSpresso CC 675 EQ 2024 bottom line

The eSpresso CC is a very capable, well-equipped electric bike and the Shimano powertrain offers loads of smooth assistance on tap.

The ride position is excellent and the contact points bring comfort without being overly squishy. The burly, go-anywhere tyres are great if you intend to mix up surfaces and terrain, but if you intend to stay mainly on the tarmac, you may find the chunky treads a little sluggish.

In all, the eSpresso is a go-anywhere urban ebike with enough in the tank to get you a long way from the urban sprawl and into the great outdoors.