The Bosch 12A Fast Charger: What It Means for Your Riese & Müller

Alongside the Performance Upgrade 2.0 announcement on 1 May 2026, Bosch quietly dropped the other piece of news that R&M owners have been waiting for. There is finally a fast charger. It is three times faster than the 4A unit that ships in the box with every Smart System bike, it weighs less than a kilogram, and it works on every Bosch Smart System battery you might already own.

It does not ship until the end of 2026 and Bosch has not announced a price. So this post is not a "go and buy it" piece. It is a "here is what it changes, here are the actual numbers, and here is who it does and does not cover" piece. Read alongside our companion post on Performance Upgrade 2.0 for the full picture of where Bosch and Riese & Müller are heading in 2026.

What is new

The 12A Fast Charger is a straight-up three-times-faster version of what you have now. It takes the same plug, it goes into the same battery, it just delivers about 500 watts of charging power instead of the 4A unit's roughly 165 watts.

The reason it can do that without weighing a lot is that Bosch has switched to gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors inside it. The same technology has made the latest generation of laptop chargers smaller and lighter than the laptop you bought ten years ago. The new unit weighs around 700 grams. The old 4A is 800 grams plus. So this one is not just faster; it is a charger you can actually consider taking with you on a tour.

The charging estimates, by R&M battery

This is the part most R&M owners care about. How long does my bike take to charge with the new unit, compared with the one I have now? These are estimates.

A useful rule of thumb: 50 per cent charge takes roughly half the full-charge time. So an 800 Wh PowerTube on the new 12A goes from empty to half full in about an hour. That is the figure that changes the way you think about charging on a long ride. A long lunch is now a meaningful battery top-up.

What this changes when you ride

For most owners, the daily routine is "plug in overnight, fully charged in the morning". Either charger does that fine and you will not feel the difference. The change shows up in three specific situations.

Touring. If you are doing 60 to 100 km days from B&Bs and cafés, the existing 4A means you are essentially waiting until you stop for the night to get a meaningful charge. With the 12A, a long lunch gets you back to half full, and an extended afternoon café stop can fully top you up. Either of those changes how far you can plan to go in a day, especially in hill country.

Cargo, particularly Load5. A 725 Wh battery is a lot to recharge between school runs or delivery rounds. Bringing it from low back to usable in under two hours rather than nearly six makes the bike feasible for owners who run it hard during the day and need it ready for the next round of jobs.

DualBattery weekend tours. A 1,200 Wh setup on a Superdelite is a serious tour battery, but it is also a serious thing to recharge. The current 4A means a full DualBattery recharge takes nine hours, which is fine overnight but inconvenient if you have lost a chunk of charge in the middle of a busy weekend. The 12A makes a half-day stop in a town actually useful.

If your cycling consists of a 30-minute commute each way and a Saturday potter, the new charger is not really for you. The 4A you already have is doing its job.

Will it work on my bike?

The 12A charger will work on any Riese & Müller with a Bosch Smart System battery. That covers the bulk of what we sell:

• Charger5, Mixte and CORE variants
• Delite5
• Homage5
• Superdelite5
• Nevo5 and CORE variants
• Load5 (60 and 75)
• All HS variants of the above
• Smart System Charger4 and Nevo4, Delite4 etc (the ones managed via the eBike Flow app)

It does not work on:

• R&M Pinion variants (Charger5 Pinion, Delite5 Pinion, Nevo5 Pinion, Homage5 Pinion). Pinion bikes use the FIT system with a different battery, not Bosch.
• UBN Five Commute. That bike runs the Fazua Ride60 system. Different manufacturer, different battery, different charger.
• Pre-Smart-System R&M bikes. If you manage your bike with the older Bosch eBike Connect app rather than the Flow app, you are on the previous Bosch generation and the new charger is not for you.

If you are not sure which group you are in, the giveaway is the app. Flow app means yes. Connect app means no.

Carrying it with you

The detail that does not show up in the spec sheet matters here. The current 4A charger is fine for sitting next to a power outlet at home. It is awkward to take with you on a tour. Bosch's 4A unit weighs about 800 grams and does not pack particularly well in a pannier.

The new 12A charger comes in at less than a kilogram (around 700 grams from what Bosch has shown so far), and it is a smaller, slimmer form factor. Bosch's own marketing shows it being slipped into a backpack. For someone planning a multi-day tour where charging stops are part of the route, that is a meaningful change.

When it is worth buying

• Daily commuter who tops up overnight: stick with the 4A. The new charger is a nice-to-have, not a must-have.
• Tourer who relies on intermediate charging stops: worth it. The faster charge is what changes the size of the day you can comfortably plan.
• Cargo rider with a Load5 in heavy use: worth it. Mid-day top-ups become genuinely useful.
• Multi-bike household: worth it. One fast charger across all the Smart System bikes in the family covers everyone.

Pricing and availability

Bosch has confirmed end of 2026 for launch. They have not announced a price. GaN-based fast chargers in the laptop world typically command something like a 50 to 100 per cent premium over slower units, so it would not be surprising to see the 12A priced meaningfully above the 4A. We will not pretend to know until Bosch publishes.

ebikeist will stock the new charger as soon as it becomes available to dealers. We will write a follow-up post with confirmed pricing and our first-hand impressions once we have one in our hands.

Questions you might have

Do I need a new battery?

No. The 12A charger uses the same connection as the 4A and works with every Smart System battery you already own.

What about my older Charger4?

If your Charger4 manages itself with the Flow app, it is on Smart System and the new charger will work. If it uses the older Bosch eBike Connect app, it is the previous generation and the new charger is not compatible.

Can I keep my existing 4A charger and use both?

Yes. The 4A is still useful at home; the 12A becomes the one you take with you.

My bike is a Pinion or a UBN Five. Does this affect me?

Not directly. Pinion uses the FIT system; UBN Five uses Fazua. Both have their own charging arrangements separate from Bosch's announcement.

When will ebikeist actually have it?

End of 2026 at the earliest, in line with Bosch's launch. We will publish a follow-up the moment we receive ours, and a Dan-led video comparing real-world charge times against the 4A.

Get in touch

If you ride a long way on your R&M and want to talk through whether the 12A makes sense for the kind of riding you do, drop us a line at hello@ebikeist.com or come and see us in Little Dartmouth. The hills around here are a good place to think about charging strategy.

Browse our in-stock Riese & Müllers | Charger5 | Superdelite5 | Load5 |