Engwe P275 SE Review: The Best-Value City E-Bike I’ve Tested

When you hear Engwe, you probably think of fat tires or foldable e-bikes. But in the last few years, they’ve also shaken up the commuting space with true urban e-bikes.

At the heart of that is the Engwe P275 SE. It’s their most popular city commuter, built for the European market and street-legal. I’ve used it as my daily commuter to and from the office, covering 547 km, and benchmarked its performance. I tested real-world range, hill climbing, ride comfort, acceleration, and overall how it holds up.

So does the P275 SE live up to the hype? Let’s find out.

Speed and Motor Performance

The P275 SE runs a 250W rear hub motor with 55 Nm of torque, and the best-feeling torque sensor I’ve ever tested at this price.

Top speed test

The P275 SE ships street-legal in the EU with a 25 km/h top speed. If your locality allows it, you can unlock the speed on the display to 32 km/h.

Locked at 25 kmh, you can feel the assist fade out and grab hold again around the cap, but it’s honestly fine. At 32 kmh, you don’t really notice it, because that’s simply the bike’s potential.

Acceleration

I measured the acceleration from 0 to 15 mph at 7.53s (7.38s best) in PAS 5. The bike is pedal-only, so it’s hard to quantify 100%, but I didn’t push it hard. I let the pedal assist do the work.

It feels quick and responsive off the line, and if you’re in PAS 3, you’ll be able to hit the 25 km/h top speed already there.

Hill climbing

I tested the P275 SE on Skovbakkevej in Aalborg, Denmark, which peaks at 17%. This feels like the limit of what the bike will handle. In PAS 5, it slowed down to about 10 km/h, and I was doing more legwork as well.

That’s respectable for a budget-friendly city e-bike, but you won’t be climbing 20% inclines. It’s fine for moderate hills, but you do feel the top speed dropping gradually above 10% grades.

Sensor and motor feel

The P275 SE has hands-down the best sensor feel I’ve tested at this price, and maybe on any hub e-bike, period.

It’s got a torque sensor with Engwe’s proprietary E-SATS technology, which supposedly calibrates 50 times per second and knows not only how fast but also how hard you pedal. They claim less than 1% deviation in pedal response. I can’t confirm or deny those numbers, but what I can say is that the pedal assist feels incredibly smooth and well-integrated, not jolty like on many hub e-bikes.

You’ve got 5 PAS settings with a meaningful difference between them. I typically ride PAS 1-2 around pedestrians and PAS 5 on open roads.

Range and Battery

The P275 SE carries a 36V, 468Wh removable battery in the downtube. In my tests, I got an impressive 71.2 km of real-world range in PAS 5, beating Engwe’s own claim.

Range tests

E-bike brands are known to invent all kinds of impressive range numbers that don’t translate to the real world. So I was beyond surprised when the P275 SE matched or outright beat what Engwe claims across my range tests.

Engwe P275 SE: Claimed vs Tested Range

Item	Claimed (mi)	Tested (mi)
PAS 1	62.1	61
PAS 3	49.7	51.3
PAS 5	40.4	44.2

Claimed = Engwe's spec. Tested = ERideHero real-world commuting, 175 lb rider, relatively flat city riding.

This means the P275 SE is a very efficient machine. The PAS 5 result works out to about 6.6 Wh per km. That’s plenty of range for long commutes, and it’s refreshing to spend more time on the road than inside charging.

And if you ride conservatively in PAS 1, you can expect up to 98.2 km, which is really great for a battery this size.

Charging

The 36V, 13Ah battery is easy to remove. It comes with two keys for taking it out, and it clicks back in without needing the key. I really like the design – it’s never a hassle to get seated right.

The battery charges at 2A (72W) and took about 6.5 hours from empty for me, which is pretty standard for a battery this size.

Ride Quality

One of my favorite things about the P275 SE is that it doesn’t feel cheap. It’s comfortable and refined, and gets really close to the household brands for far less money.

Suspension

The P275 SE has a basic front suspension fork. It’s non-adjustable, but it does a great job of taking the sting out of potholes and other large obstacles.

It’s tuned relatively stiff, which is exactly what you want in a city e-bike, so your pedaling energy goes into forward momentum rather than bobbing.

I also tested it on hardpacked gravel roads, which it handled just fine, so this is a versatile city e-bike you shouldn’t be afraid to take down the occasional unpaved path.

Tires

The P275 SE runs 27.5×1.95-inch CST tires. They’re proper urban tires with fast-rolling tread and two-layer puncture protection. They’re also ECE-R75 certified, which means they’ve been tested to handle the same speeds and loads as moped tires.

It’s a clear step up from the entry-level tires you’ll see on most budget e-bikes, which I really appreciate. Too many brands cut corners on tires to save money, only for you to deal with one too many flats.

In my tests, they have solid grip on uneven pavement and handle wet roads with confidence. I ran them at the recommended pressure, and across 500 kilometers I haven’t had any flats or pinches. If you don’t mind sacrificing a little range, you can drop the PSI to the low end of the recommended interval for extra ride comfort.

Brakes

The P275 SE is fitted with 160mm hydraulic disc brakes. They’re generic, unbranded units, but it’s nice to see hydraulics at all, which isn’t a given at this price. I measured stopping distances from both 15 mph and 20 mph:

Out of the box, the brakes were soft, but a quick tightening made them nice. The lever feel is decent. It’s not premium, but it’s not spongy either. There’s plenty of stopping power, and they feel reliable.

Across my tests, I haven’t noticed any fade, not even on the steepest descents in my city. All in all, these are decent-value brakes that suit the bike’s speed and weight. They’re obviously not top-tier, but they’re not something you’d want to upgrade on day one either.

Handling and ride feel

The P275 SE is super relaxing to ride. It’s got an upright, Dutch-style riding position and swept-back swallow bars (620mm) that sort of wrap around you. The handlebar height can also be adjusted a bit to accommodate riders of different sizes.

Handling is great. It doesn’t feel twitchy or lively, but it’s still responsive enough to navigate tighter spaces, thanks to its relatively low weight. The saddle is fairly standard but comfortable, with room to shift your seating position on longer rides. It all adds up to a bike that’s genuinely comfortable, not something that just sounds nice on paper.

Display and app

The display is basic but does what it needs to do. You can see your speed, assist level, battery level, and trip and all-time data. It’s fairly easy to read in direct sunlight but can be a bit glary at the wrong angle.

You’ve also got the ENGWE companion app, which I honestly found to be a bit buggy. It also doesn’t offer a lot beyond what’s already on the display, so the main value is registering your bike.

The app supposedly has a password-lock feature, but I couldn’t get it to work on Android despite multiple attempts. In practice, that means there’s no way to secure your bike other than a physical lock (which I’d recommend either way). The battery has a key lock, but the bike itself has no real anti-theft, which is my biggest gripe.

Drivetrain

The P275 SE uses Shimano’s entry-level 7-speed Tourney groupset. Out of the box, the shifter was soft in the high gears and too tight in the low gears. I was able to noticeably improve it by adjusting the cable tension on the rear derailleur, but I would’ve liked it to ship better tuned out of the box.

For a commuter at this price, Tourney is arguably the most popular drivetrain, and it makes sense. It’s affordable and proven, just not premium.

Lights

You get front and rear lights, both integrated into the battery, so there are no extra batteries or secondary buttons you have to press to activate them.

My only issue is that the taillight doesn’t react to braking, which is common on even budget e-bikes these days and is a safety plus in traffic.

Weight

Engwe lists the P275 SE at 24.4 kg, but on my own high-precision scale it came in at 25.8 kg with the battery. That’s still reasonably light for an e-bike with a sizable battery, hub motor, fenders, lights, and a rack.

The weight makes it easy to maneuver in the city and, as mentioned earlier, manageable to pedal unassisted.

Assembly

Assembly is straightforward, and the manual is well-written with clear illustrations.

It took me around 30 minutes to fully assemble the P275 SE, noticeably longer than the 20 minutes Engwe quotes. The chain ships unmounted, and while fitting it is easy, that extra step is likely what accounts for the difference.

Fit and geometry

The P275 SE is advertised to fit riders between 155 and 185 cm, and based on my testing, that holds true.

I’m 180 cm and fit comfortably with plenty of height adjustment to spare. We also tested it with my girlfriend, who is 170 cm tall; it fit well, and there was still room to lower the saddle further.

Saddle height is adjustable from 81.5 cm to 100.1 cm, and you can dial in the saddle angle and move it forward or backward depending on arm length. It’s a step-through frame with a 72 cm standover height, making it easy to get on and off for both shorter riders and seniors.

The geometry is arguably more relaxed than it is sporty. You’ve got a wide 111.2 cm wheelbase that gives it a planted, stable feel, and the upright riding position and swept-back handlebars encourage a tall posture rather than a forward-leaning one.

Verdict

The P275 SE is an excellent city e-bike for the money. It feels almost as refined as premium European commuters, but costs a fraction of the price.

The biggest selling point is the E-SATS torque sensor. Power delivery is the most natural I’ve ever tested on a hub motor bike, and it makes the P275 SE feel more like a regular bicycle with a tailwind than a moped with pedals.

If your commute is mostly flat with occasional mild hills, and you want an aesthetic, minimalist e-bike with natural torque-sensor feel without emptying your pockets, the P275 SE gets my full recommendation.