Merida eSpresso City 775

This is a low-step city e-bike built for someone who wants the hard work done for them: a proper mid-drive motor, a big battery, and gearing that can shift itself so you're not fiddling with a lever at every junction. It's aimed squarely at commuting and errands rather than weekend adventures, and the amount of everyday kit fitted as standard reflects that.

The motor, battery and gearing that do the work

Power comes from a Shimano EP6 mid-drive putting out 85Nm, which is a genuinely strong figure for pulling away from lights with shopping on the rack or climbing a steady urban gradient without having to stand on the pedals. It's fed by a 750Wh Trendpower battery built into the frame's ENERGY CRADLE design, and that battery is removable, so if you don't have a plug socket near where you store the bike, you can carry it indoors to charge instead of running an extension lead out to a shed. The gearing is where this bike really sets itself apart from a typical city e-bike: a Shimano Nexus Inter-5E five-speed electronic hub can shift on its own, sensing your speed and effort and changing gear without any input from you, or you can take manual control when you want it. For stop-start city riding, where a derailleur bike demands constant small decisions about when to change down before a junction, that automatic option takes one job off your plate.

Built for the school run and the grocery run

Everything you'd otherwise have to add yourself comes fitted: mudguards, front and rear lights, a MIK HD rear carrier for panniers or a child seat, an Abus frame lock, and a kickstand. Braking is handled by Shimano MT410-3A two-piston hydraulic discs with 180mm rotors front and rear, which is plenty of stopping power for a loaded city bike in wet weather. Comfort gets similar attention: a 63mm-travel SR Suntour NEX E25 coil fork and a 40mm-travel Merida Expert TK suspension seatpost take the edge off potholes and dropped kerbs, the stem is adjustable so you can fine-tune your reach, and a Shimano SC-EN610 display keeps battery level and assistance mode visible at a glance. The 700c wheels run Continental Contact Cruiser tyres with reflective sidewalls, a small but genuinely useful touch for anyone riding home after dark.

One UK build, and a naming muddle worth avoiding

There's only one UK configuration established here: this low-step frame, 750Wh battery and Nexus Inter-5E hub-gear build, sometimes listed by retailers as the “2024 eSpresso City 775 EQ”. The “EQ” simply flags that the guards, lights, rack, lock and kickstand come fitted rather than describing a different specification. It's worth keeping this bike separate from the eSpresso 775 (without “City” in the name) and the City 575, which are different models, and from a differently specified 2025 City 775 sold in mainland Europe; its size range and weight figures don't carry over to this UK offer.

Sizing, weight and price context

The UK build is offered in four low-step sizes, XS through to L, and the fitted stem length changes with frame size: 65mm on XS, S and M, stepping up to 90mm on the L. Complete weight is approximately 29.45kg for the UK catalogue entry, and that's worth factoring in if you'll need to lift the bike onto a car rack or up a flight of stairs regularly, since it's a heavier bike than a basic derailleur city e-bike. Merida states a maximum system weight of 150kg, but that's the combined total of bike, rider and any cargo together, not a 150kg allowance for rider and luggage on top of the bike's own weight. UK retailers commonly quote £3,800 as the RRP for this build, though that figure isn't an independently confirmed manufacturer list price, and it doesn't tell you what any individual retailer is actually charging today.

The automatic-shifting hub gear is really the bike's defining ownership feature: once you've set it up, day-to-day riding becomes less about managing the drivetrain and more about simply pedalling, which is exactly what a lot of everyday city riders want from an e-bike.