Bosch is aiming to tackle the growing problem of e-bike theft with a new software update unveiled at CES 2026, says Electrek.

Bosch’s latest addition to its smart system lets owners digitally mark an e-bike – or even just its battery – as stolen using the eBike Flow app. Once that happens, the bike is effectively flagged across Bosch’s entire digital ecosystem. That includes the Flow app, Bosch dealer diagnostic tools, and Bosch’s own support infrastructure. In short, a stolen Bosch-powered e-bike becomes very hard to resell without raising red flags. It’s essentially an extension of a similar feature Bosch rolled out for its batteries last year, though this time they are thankfully not holding it back behind a paywall.

When a bike is marked as stolen, anyone who tries to connect to it using the eBike Flow app will receive a warning that the bike has been reported stolen, complete with the serial numbers of the affected components. This is made possible by the digital allocation principle used by the smart system. All the components of an eBike – the motor, the battery, and the display – have a unique registration in the system and are linked to a specific user profile. If the user marks their eBike or battery as stolen, this information is stored centrally and can be accessed from anywhere in the digital ecosystem of Bosch eBike Systems. The eBike Flow app, the DiagnosticTool, and Bosch eBike Support all use the same data. The digital marking can only be removed via the registered user profile.

This function is an addition to the theft protection portfolio of Bosch eBike Systems. The first theft protection functions were introduced in 2018 and the portfolio, which includes eBike Lock, eBike Alarm, and Battery Lock, now offers an additional layer of protection. This makes stealing eBikes an even less attractive proposition and represents a further step toward the Bosch mission of preventing all thefts of eBikes with the help of its smart system.

(Picture: Bosch)