Merida eFloat City 400

The Merida eFloat City 400 is a low-step electric city bike built to make everyday journeys, hilly commutes and shopping runs as straightforward as possible. Its Bosch mid-drive motor, sizeable battery and generous fitted equipment set it apart from a bare-bones urban e-bike, and the step-through frame means getting on and off with bags, groceries or work clothes never becomes a wrestle. This is a bike for riders who want to reach for the door and just ride, rather than build a commuting setup themselves.

Power for hills and everyday range

At the heart of the eFloat City 400 sits a Bosch Performance Line mid-drive motor paired with a 625 Wh Bosch PowerTube battery, a combination built for routes with a few climbs in them rather than flat towpaths alone. Merida's own 2026 specification for its market quotes 75 Nm of torque from this motor, though UK equipment listings identify the motor and battery without independently confirming that figure, so it's worth treating the torque number as indicative rather than a guaranteed UK spec. A 625 Wh battery is a genuinely useful size for city and suburban riding, though how far it takes you depends on terrain, rider weight and assistance level, so any range is a matter of riding style rather than a fixed number of miles. Putting the power down is a Shimano CUES U4000 1x9 drivetrain, with an 11-46-tooth cassette and LG500 chain giving a wide enough spread to spin up a hill in the easiest gear or hold a decent cruising speed without a front derailleur complicating the shifting. A Bosch Purion 200 display keeps the essentials, speed, battery level and assistance mode, visible at a glance.

Comfort and stopping power

The eFloat City 400 rides on Continental eContact Plus tyres in a 622-50 size, wide enough to smooth out potholes and cobbles, with a reflective strip that adds a bit of visibility on unlit roads. Up front, an SR Suntour NEX E25 coil suspension fork with 63 mm of travel takes the edge off broken tarmac and kerb drops; it's worth being clear that this is a comfort-oriented fork for city and light towpath riding rather than a trail suspension for technical terrain. Stopping duties go to Shimano MT200 hydraulic disc brakes with 180 mm rotors at both wheels, a sensible spec given the added weight of a battery, motor and a loaded rear carrier. An adjustable stem and 640 mm handlebar let you fine-tune your riding position, and the stem length itself changes with frame size, at 65 mm on the XS to M frames and 90 mm on the L and XL frames, to keep reach sensible across the size run.

Ready for daily use

One of the more appealing things about this build is how little you need to add before riding it to work or the shops. A rear carrier, mudguards, lights, a frame lock and a kickstand all come fitted as standard, which turns this into a bike you can use for a genuine daily commute or a supermarket run without buying separate accessories. It's the kind of practical equipment list that makes far more difference to daily ownership than an extra few watts of motor power.

Getting the right size

Merida's UK-published eFloat City height guide runs across five sizes, XS through to XL, and their bands overlap deliberately so riders near a boundary have a genuine choice rather than a hard cut-off. The M frame, for example, covers 160 to 177 cm and the L frame covers 168 to 185 cm, so a rider around 170 cm has both to consider depending on preferred reach and standover. The published guide doesn't include inseam figures, so height is the reference point to work from, and it isn't a guarantee of fit for every proportion, particularly if your leg length differs noticeably from the average for your height.

Which eFloat City 400 you're actually looking at

Because the eFloat City 400 name has been used across more than one model year, it's worth checking what's actually equipped on any bike carrying that name before assuming it matches this specification. Merida's earlier global specification listed Maxxis Metropass tyres and quoted a weight of around 29.3 kg at size M, but that's a previous specification and the weight applies only to that earlier build and size, not to the UK-offered 2026 bike described here, which is specified with Continental eContact Plus tyres instead. If you're comparing listings, treat the model year in a title as a prompt to check the actual fitted tyres and equipment rather than as proof of a matching specification.

Riding a bike built around comfort and convenience like this means the daily decisions, whether to lock up outside, carry shopping, or ride home after dark, are already accounted for before you set off.