Vvolt Proxima Electric Bike Review 2023

The Proxima is powered by a 36V, 10Ah (375Wh) battery that’s fully integrated into the frame and removable. Compared to other e-bikes we’ve reviewed, that battery is on the smaller end of the spectrum. Just a handful of others — including the Aventon Soltera, Ride1UP Roadster V2 and Propella Mini — had smaller batteries, and all of those bikes are positioned as more entry-level affordable models.

In our range testing, the Proxima’s 375Wh battery yielded results that were lower than what we’d consider typical for a bike in its category. We did three tests — in PAS 1, PAS 3 and PAS 5 — and the results were as follows:

PAS 1: 28.84 mi, 12.46 mph avg
PAS 3: 23.82 mi, 13.74 mph avg
PAS 5: 16.89 mi, 19.1 mph avg

There’s two ways we can compare these results to other e-bikes we’ve reviewed: By battery size and bike type.

Looking at the data of e-bikes we’ve reviewed with batteries smaller than 400Wh, its results are fairly on par. The context for these bikes is that they’re typically more entry level than the Vvolt, have fewer features and are designed for short-distance city riding.

Compared to the results of other e-bikes in its category — Class 3 commuters — the Vvolt’s results are near the bottom. But many of those e-bikes come with substantially larger batteries and, in some cases, larger price tags.

According to Vvolt, that smaller battery was a strategic choice aimed at keeping weight down and keeping the bike focused on the commuter demographic. Frankly, I don’t think it was a bad call.

The truth is, despite many consumers’ assumption that bigger range is better, most e-bike riders don’t need a whopping battery to get the job done. Even the Vvolt’s shortest range result on PAS 5 is likely plenty for your average rider. Opting for the smaller battery also definitely keeps weight down (and, likely the price), which is one of the features we like best about this bike — it’s slimmed-down and featherweight ride feel.

But Vvolt is not ignorant to the fact that there are folks out there who are going to want greater range. They do have 36V, 14Ah (504Wh) batteries en route that should be available in the future. When those will be in stock is still unknown, according to the company, as the cycling industries’ bogged down supply chain has delayed their delivery.

That motor makes 80Nm of torque; a significant number that translates into quite a lot of climbing capability. One of the best features of mid-drive equipped e-bikes is that the motor’s power can be manipulated by changing gears, giving a rider greater control over how it delivers power to the rear wheel simply by adjusting the gear ratio. This is a feature that’s particularly useful on hills, and one of the reasons we often see small mid-drive motors rivaling the capabilities of much larger hub motors.

For the Vvolt, all this translates into a really pleasant hill climbing experience. It’s no hill climbing speed demon (it’s not supposed to be) but it handled everything we threw at it with ease and without raising my heart rate too much.

We pitted the Proxima against the clock on our official test hill Hell Hole — a one-third of a mile section with an average grade of 12 percent — and the bike cleared the top in 1:25.00 with an average speed of 12.8 mph.

Compared to similar bikes we’ve reviewed (the same ones we used as benchmarks for the range test), that’s a solid mid-pack result. Narrowing the field further to just the other mid-drive Class 3 commuters (the Specialized Turbo Vado and MOD Berlin) all the bikes are within 1-3 seconds of each other.

Anecdotally, from my perspective as the test rider, the Vvolt Proxima is a pleasantly well climbing commuter. I never wanted more power from the bike or felt like it was going to give up on me, and I really enjoyed how lively the motor felt on steep pitches.

One highlight, that’s especially important on mid-drive bikes, was the Enviolo CVT shifting. Unlike traditional chain and sprocket drivetrains, the Enviolo’s stepless shifting had almost zero problem shifting under load and I liked that I could micro adjust the gear ratio as the hill got steeper or more gradual.

Our review model came with a set of Radius hydraulic disk brakes paired to 160mm brake rotors front and rear.

Like the MPF motor, the Radius brakes are new to us, but seem to perform well. In our brake test, where we see how quickly the bike can stop from 20 mph, the Proxima came to a stop on average in 15-feet-6-inches. That’s a slightly better result than the average of all the e-bikes we’ve reviewed, a figure that currently sits evenly at 16-feet.

But there is a caveat I’ll add: The Vvolt is a stiff bike. It’s fully rigid and even sports a thru-axle in the front end. From a handling and performance perspective, this is a very good characteristic. It gives the bike very tight, very responsive sports car-like handling that’s really, really fun and really, really confidence inspiring in corners and at high speeds.

The tradeoff to all that sporty handling is that, much like a sports car, you feel more of the road. It’s not overwhelmingly stiff to the point of discomfort, but it is the type of bike where a rider would be smart to keep an eye out for potholes and rough patches. To me, the wonderful handling is worth a slightly rougher ride — but that’s a point of personal preference.

In my opinion, the Proxima is a wonderful candidate for a high-performing suspension seatpost and possibly a suspension stem. That way you get a little relief on bumps while sacrificing very little of the bike’s truly stellar handling. Since finishing our formal review of the Proxima we’ve actually chosen it as our testbed for the Kinekt suspension seatpost and suspension stem, a pairing that’s turned out nice so far.

At the handlebars, the bike’s slimmed-down vibe continues. The control interface is very clean, and the Proxima sports a display that’s small and fairly basic, albeit functional. I’m a fan of small displays for aesthetic reasons, and this one takes up very little space on the handlebar. The buttons to change pedal assist levels are easy to use and the screen clear, but the readout itself looks a little dated — using the same dash-style numerals you’d see on an alarm clock. That’s mostly an aesthetic gripe, but the one department in which I’d truly ding the Vvolt’s display is its battery readout, which is very small and tough to decipher.

Regardless of price, the Vvolt Proxima is one of my downright favorite e-bikes I’ve tested to date. It’s good enough that by the time this review was written, the Proxima had already disappeared from the Electric Bike Report offices and landed in my personal bike stash at home.

The folks up there at Vvolt’s headquarters in Portland, Oregon have done a really incredible job at piecing together an electric commuter bike that’s thoughtfully outfitted for commuting but versatile enough to do just about anything. The Proxima is chock-full of small but wonderfully useful details that are hard to pick out in a spec sheet; the type of details that make it obvious that the people who designed this bike spend a lot of time riding bikes.

There’s the obvious stuff like the mid-drive motor, Gates CDX drive and Enviolo shifting, but there’s also the less obvious stuff — like the fact they built a pass-through in the rear triangle of the frame in case that belt drive ever needs replacing. Or the fact that the rigid front fork on this bike is actually a utility fork, complete with three-pack mount points on each leg for bottle cages or other small racks.

I could continue raving about all the things I liked about the Vvolt, but quite frankly I think there’s a bigger point to be made: This bike is stupid affordable.

The number of sub-$3,000 e-bikes on the market with mid-drive motors is small, but add in the Enviolo drive train, Gates belt and name-brand brakes, and I think the Proxima may be in a league of its own.

If the Proxima’s price is a little rich for your blood, Vvolt also makes two hub-driven models — the Alpha and Alpha S — that are cheaper but still share many of the same features and overall look. Vvolt also makes the Sirius, which appears super similar to the Proxima but sports a suspension fork and slightly beefier tires.

Or, if you’re as sold on the Proxima as I am, it can be bought online at Vvolt’s website and shipped directly to your door.

‘Happy Riding, make sure to let us know if you have any questions down in our comments section or if you think we left anything out in this review of the Vvolt Proxima.