I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a “bike guy.” I’m a middle-aged IT professional living in the suburbs, and honestly, I haven’t ridden a bike since high school. Terms like “torque sensor” and “drive belt” are pretty much foreign to me. So, when ENGWE reached out and asked if I’d be interested in reviewing one of their ebikes, I was hesitant, especially after reading some of Robbie Khan’s impressively detailed reviews. But after chatting with the ENGWE team about my background and what I was hoping to get out of an ebike, we landed on a cargo bike, specifically the LE20. As someone who just wants a practical way to get around town and cut down on car trips, this seemed like the perfect fit for my suburban lifestyle.
Specifications
Below are the specifications for the ENGWE LE20 Cargo Bike.
| Frame Material | Aluminum |
| Maximum Load | 440 pounds / 200 kilograms |
| Rider Height | 5.0-6.2 ft (155~190 cm) |
| Top Speed | 28mph (US Version) |
| Motor | 750W Rear Hub Motor |
| Motor Torque | 75Nm (US version) |
| Battery Capacity | 921hW Li-ion (single battery) / 1,842 Wh Li-ion (optional dual battery) |
| Maximum Range | 112 miles / 180 kilometers (single battery) / 217 miles / 350 kilometers (optional dual battery) |
| Tire Size | 20x3" Front/Rear |
| Tire Pressure | Not more than 20psi |
| Transmission System | Shimano 7 Speed |
| Brakes | 180 mm Hydraulic Brake |
| Charger (default) | 48V 3A |
| Charging Time (default) | 6-8 hours |
| Waterproofing | IPX5 |
| Weight | 81 pounds / 36.8 kilograms (single battery) / 91 pounds / 41.5 kilograms (optional dual battery |
While the range looks very impressive on the specifications chart, it"s important to note that it was calculated under ideal conditions. Specifically, according to the manual, it was measured on a flat road, with a full charge on the battery, a load of 165lbs/75kg, a temperature of 77°F/25°C, a humidity of 70%, and in first-gear power mode. I"ll get into details from my testing later, but needless to say, my results were nowhere near the ideal specs.
Initial Build
The ENGWE LE20 cargo bike came in a single box, while the accessories that they sent came separately, namely the fast charger, extra battery, front rack basket, and a rear canvas bag. It"s also important to note that the box the bike itself comes in is very heavy; you should try to have a second person help you with moving it, as well as assembly, if possible.
The box that the bike came in looked like it had gone through a lot before making it to my house, and one of the boxes that contained various accessories had broken open. Luckily, everything else was packed well, and there was no apparent damage to anything.
After lifting the bike out of the box (two people!) and organizing the various bolts and such, you"ll need to spend a few minutes cutting off all of the various protective pieces on the ENGWE LE20, which is pretty straightforward.
There"s a yellow warning tag hanging off the side of the bike, but, as someone who knows nothing about bicycles, combined with the fact that there are clearly some translation issues, I still don"t understand what I was supposed to protect. What"s a "drillur protector?" What"s a "derall-eur?" Or is it supposed to be "derilleur?" Or maybe "derailleur?" Or "deralleur?" I tried to follow the picture and not let that thing touch anything else, and everything seems to be working.
The manual that ships with the bike is terrible. It"s hard to understand what the steps are from looking at the pictures, and if that"s all I had to go by, I probably would"ve given up and tried to ship it back without ever pedaling.
Before giving up, I decided to look on YouTube and found that ENGWE has a channel with videos explaining exactly how to do the setup. I"m not saying the build was easy, but the video made it achievable. The entire process took just over two hours from opening the box to being able to ride, and was a fun project to do with my teenage daughter.
First Impressions
I want to start out by saying I haven"t ridden a bike since I was in high school, and I"m part of Generation X, so it"s been a while. When I finished building the ENGWE LE20, I was seriously just hoping that the phrase, "it"s like riding a bike," was based in reality...
...And I"m happy to say it is! After putting on my newly purchased helmet, hopping on the back of the bike, and putting my feet on the pedals, I was able to keep my balance, roll out of the driveway and turn onto the street without dying.
After spending a few seconds pedaling, I couldn"t wait to try the throttle, and it didn"t disappoint. After turning the handle slightly, the LE20 took off, and before I knew it, I was riding 20mph/32kmh through my neighborhood, the wind rushing in my face. Switching between the different power settings was easy, making control of the bike straightforward. After a few blocks, I returned home, applied the brakes, and turned it over to my daughter to try.
The only negative I identified on my first attempt was that when applying the throttle, the bike jerks forward a bit too quickly, and there doesn"t seem to be a way to have a smooth transition up from a slow speed. It doesn"t feel unsafe, but it"s slightly uncomfortable at the start.
Cargo Accessories
After building the main bike, I then added on a couple of optional accessories that are focused on cargo.
Installing the front rack basket was a simple matter of unscrewing a few bolts, lining the basket up with the holes, and then screwing the bolts back in. The basket itself has fairly wide spaces in it that would preclude carrying smaller items. Trying to put a plastic bag full of cans was impossible, because the cans would fall through the spaces. However, using paper bags or using it to carry moderately sized items worked great.
The rear canvas bag was a bit more involved. It came with no documentation, but luckily, I managed to find a video online that went step by step. Even with this video, identifying which of the multiple-sized bolts to use in what place was challenging, and for some reason, I was given extra hardware that wasn"t even used in the assembly.
Once the installation was complete, however, the bag proved to be a very useful addition. There are a couple of different zippers you can use to open it up, and the capacity inside is very spacious. Considering the LE20 is sold as a cargo bike, I would"ve liked to have seen this be included in the purchase price instead of being an add-on, but it"s definitely worth the price.
Once the bike is loaded with cargo, riding is the same, but overall maneuvering and using the kickstand get more difficult due to the added weight. It took a little time to get used to the differences, and it"s something I probably should"ve thought about beforehand, but it"s not really a concern once you get the hang of it.
Battery Life
The ENGWE LE20 Cargo comes with a standard battery, but there"s a slot under the seat for a second battery to extend your overall range. As noted under the specifications, the bike has a range of 112 miles (180km) with one battery and 217 miles (350km) with the second battery, but these are only under optimal conditions, which you"ll rarely run into.
The batteries lock into place and require a key to remove, which prevents someone from simply stealing your battery when you leave your bike to go into a store.
In my experience, living in the Midwest of the United States, where most of the roads are relatively flat, and weighing about 240 pounds (109kg), I was able to get roughly 50 miles (80km) with a single battery, which is only about 45% of the ideal rating. I will point out that I used the throttle a lot more than I probably should - peddling was optional in my case - so with more manual cycling, the battery will fare better. Using the second battery will also, obviously, give better results. With both batteries in, I was able to roughly double my range to 100 miles (160km).
While these numbers are much lower than the ideal range, with my use case of running errands, I"ll rarely, if ever, need to go further than 50 miles round trip, and never see myself coming close to going 100 miles round trip. That means even a single battery would be fine for my use case.
The bike includes a standard battery charger that is able to charge a single battery at a time. Using this 48V, 3A charger, it took roughly 6.5 hours to go from near 0% to 100%. However, ENGWE provides a fast charger for those who don"t want to wait. The upgraded charger costs $135 on Amazon, shipped directly from ENGWE, and is a 54.6V, 8A charger. With it, I was able to recharge the battery from almost 0% to 100% in two hours and 13 minutes. You"ll need to decide whether fast charging is worth that steep a price or not.
The Internet also, rightfully so, has some concerns around ebike batteries in general. They"re high-capacity and, if made cheaply, could lead to house fires or personal injury. While ENGWE holds UL 2849 and EN 15194 certifications on some of their batteries and bikes, the LE20 was not part of that certification process. For what it"s worth, I never had any issues with the batteries, but you should always practice safety with any large battery: Don"t drop them, don"t submerge them, and don"t leave them charging unsupervised or overnight. There are also companies, such as Bat Safe, that sell ebike battery containers to prevent battery fires from destroying your home.
Application
ENGWE provides an application that can be used with its bikes. While the app has direct links to the manual and installation video, the other features are, in my opinion, of limited value.
The main page of the app shows the current weather for your location, but it always displays in metric, despite setting the units to Imperial in the menu. The main page also shows your riding stats - including overall distance, time, calories burned, and CO2 saved. This is somewhat interesting, but there are other, better tracking apps for that level of information, such as Strava.
There are separate pages for starting your ride recording, registering your bike, and viewing the social feed where people share their rides. Maybe this is a "bike culture" thing, but why do I care where random strangers are riding? More importantly, there are serious security concerns since many of the rides I looked at had a starting and ending position in a residential area.
Finally, the last page is just general information about your profile, about ENGWE, the privacy policy, terms of use, and the like.
Overall, I don"t think the app really adds anything.
Concerns
While most people don"t think that batteries can be dangerous, that couldn"t be further from the truth, as evidenced by the exploding Samsung Galaxy Note7 phones. The battery capacity in those was far less than what is contained in any ebike, so you have to be careful with both the battery and the bike and how you handle them.
Which leads to my first concern: Neither the ENGWE LE20 nor the batteries it uses have gone through UL certification, meaning there"s no independent examination of either component. This is unfortunate because some of their other models, such as the L20, are UL 2849 and EN 15194 certified. That gives me some peace of mind, knowing that the company probably builds its products with a high standard in mind and just didn"t want to pay the licensing fees at this time, but it"s still not an ideal situation.
My second concern is that I fear getting repairs may be difficult. While I haven"t needed any work done on the bike in the three months I tested it, I"ve read stories about local bike shops refusing to repair anything other than models they sell. As someone who knows nothing about how bikes work, if I run into a physical issue, I may have to figure out how to fix it myself with YouTube videos or working with ENGWE support. This isn"t necessarily a bad thing, but it lacks the convenience of driving the bike to a shop and dropping it off.
Finally, the last issue is something that impacts many ebikes, not just the ENGWE LE20, and that"s the fact that there are no U-locks on the market that fit this model. With bike theft so rampant, I was hoping to get the best lock I could, but instead had to settle for a couple of folding locks. While I believe they"re enough to thwart most thieves, I was hoping to use both a U-lock and a folding lock for extra protection.
Having said all that, the biggest issue for the ENGWE LE20 is that you can"t buy it in the USA. It was sold in the States for the beginning of the year, but has since been discontinued. My rep tells me that it"s still available in the EU and is almost the same, with the only differences being the motor having 250W of power and capping the speed to 25 km/h to comply with EU regulations. I"m told that an updated model, the M20 3.0, will be available by Q1, 2026, but it remains to be seen how well it works as a cargo bike.
Overall Thoughts
I"ll be honest, I was really nervous when ENGWE asked me to view the LE20. Having not been on a bike for decades, was I really the right person for this task? Well, I"m happy to say that after using the bike for a few months, I can highly recommend it to anyone who is on the fence about such a purchase.
The bike really excels at hauling cargo once you add the front and rear containers to the LE20. While it"s not that hard to carry a couple of moderately sized bags on the handlebars, if you want to make a moderate-sized run to the local grocery store, the extra storage definitely comes in handy.
That said, things aren"t perfect as I noted in the previous section. Not being able to use a U-lock is a potential risk if you decide to go into a store instead of doing curbside pickup, even UL-certified large capacity batteries can be dangerous, and if something goes wrong with the bike, I may have to learn how to fix it myself based on some initial research. Learning a new skill isn"t necessarily a bad thing in this situation, though, and if you have some basic bike skills, you"re probably less likely to need a third party anyway.
If you"re in the market for an ebike specifically for carrying around cargo, the ENGWE LE20 is a great choice. If, instead, you"re looking for more sporty bikes, check out the reviews our very own Robbie Khan has written on the topic.