Skip to main content

Gazelle Ultimate T10 review: The best commuter ebike

Exclusive: Gazelle's Ultimate T10 is an electric bike that makes you look twice

gazelle ultimate t10 electric bike review 5
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Gazelle Ultimate T10 review: The best commuter ebike
MSRP $3,799.00
“The Gazelle Ultimate T10 is the ultimate electric bike for commuters.”
Pros
  • Award-winning design
  • Comfortable ride
  • Smooth power delivery
  • Excellent brakes
  • Includes lights, fenders, and more
Cons
  • Modest LCD screen
  • No smart connectivity

Most electric bikes look a mess, but not the Gazelle Ultimate T10. It’s a stunner, and the best commuter bike I’ve seen yet.

Recommended Videos

Available in white or red, the Ultimate T10 ebike takes an unexpected road towards beauty. Instead of obscuring bulk with elegant lines, as does the Specialized Como, Gazelle built a bike that turns warts into beauty marks. Don’t just take my word for it. The bike is a 2020 iF Design Award winner.

It starts with the shape. Step-through frames don’t get hearts racing, but this bike uses its hefty, utilitarian downtube to ground the entire design. The blacked-out battery pack, smack in the center of the bike, contrasts with the frame’s bright red or white paint. It reminds me of the covers that dress up engine bays in modern sports cars. The same blacked-out look extends to the front fork, chain guard, and rear rack, tying the whole design together.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Still, it’s hard to argue with results. The Ultimate T10’s retail price of $3,799 is expensive, but not quite enough to guarantee a gorgeous bike. Even the most premium Pedgeo City Commuter looks a bore next to the Ultimate T10, while price competitive bikes from Trek and Giant have battery bumps that look like alien eggs growing from the frame.

Only Specialized can hope to compete on looks within this budget, but I still give Gazelle’s new bike the edge.

Here’s the real trick; the bike’s design is functional. The Ultimate T10 looks amazing yet doesn’t ditch features essential for a commuter. It comes standard with both lights and fenders front and rear, a rear rack, and a chain guard. The gang’s all here.

As a bonus, the Ultimate T10 has an integrated Axa Defender ring lock. It’s mounted to the frame and can be used to lock out the rear wheel, making the bike impossible to ride. You’ll still want a lock that secures the bike to a rack or another study object, but the integrated lock is a nice backup.

Great ride

The standard equipment list, along with the step-through design, make this bike’s purpose clear. The Gazelle Ultimate T10 is a commuter, and it makes no apologies for that.

That means a relaxed, upright seating posture. It’s so upright that I found it uncomfortable at first. My instincts told me to lean forward, which meant the handlebars were too close. Eventually, I learned to lean back and enjoy the ride.

And it’s a superb ride. A lot of credit goes to the front fork’s integrated suspension. The bike’s design hides it, but it’s there, lending some cushion between you and the road.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

This isn’t mountain bike suspension, so it’s not going to save your wrists if you drop off a curb. Still, it’s enough to absorb most bumps you’ll find. My usual route to the Digital Trends office has several tracts of rough pavement that can deliver bone-rattling impacts. The Ultimate T10 smoothed over those potholes with ease.

I even loved the saddle, a word of praise I rarely offer. It felt perfect for this bike. Wide enough to offer a lot of support, but not wide enough to interfere when it came time to crank out some watts. It’s the most comfortable stock saddle on any electric bike I’ve reviewed.

Don’t crush it, just cruise

A Bosch Performance Line Cruise motor powers the Gazelle Ultimate T10 up to 20 miles per hour, after which it cuts out. It does indeed cruise. The motor’s power delivery is balanced and gradual even at the highest of three power assist levels.

Want to go fast? This isn’t the bike for you. The motor isn’t for speed freaks looking to mix it up with city traffic, something that’s possible on a Specialized Como or Vado. It’s for commuters biking across town at a reasonable pace.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

It works for that purpose. I preferred Eco Mode, the least powerful assist setting. The power’s just enough to provide a boost, but not so much that I didn’t get a workout. Eco Mode also makes the most of the integrated PowerTube 500 battery which, in my experience, lasted about 60 miles on a charge. Switching to Sport Mode, the most aggressive, dropped range to about 35 miles.

Power is delivered through 10-speed Shimano XT hardware. It felt adequate to the task. Shifts were occasionally clunky, but ultimately reliable. I had no problem with missed shifts, or shifts occurring when I hadn’t asked for them.

The groupset also includes front and rear hydraulic disc brakes that swiftly bring the bike to a stop. I was also impressed by the brake handles. They always felt right underhand and actuated with great tactile feedback. It’s a small thing that made me more comfortable bombing down Portland’s steepest hills.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

I was less impressed by the black-and-white LCD that displays speed and battery life. It’s backlit, but not as large as I’d like, a problem that’s all too common on modern electric bikes. There’s also no support for an app to track miles, speed, or battery status.

Our take

The $3,799 Gazelle Ultimate T10 is pricey, but a solid value. This is a complete, all-in-one solution to daily commuting, and the best commuter ebike I’ve tested. Range, power, ride, lights, fenders, rack, even an integrated lock – this bike has it all right out of the box. Plus, it looks fantastic, which helps justify the price to your friends.

Is there a better alternative?

Every major brand offers a competitor. Specialized has the Como, Trek offers the Quick E+, and Trek has the Super Commuter. All three are solid bikes you’d likely enjoy, but the Gazelle is the most complete package for commuters.

How long will it last?

Gazelle offers a strong 10-year warranty on the frame, while the front fork is covered by a five-year warranty. There’s also a five-year warranty on paint for the frame and front fork. Other parts are covered by a two-year warranty.

Electric bikes require regular maintenance, though that shouldn’t cost more than a couple hundred dollars per year. The battery will eventually degrade after three to five years, and a replacement will be your most significant cost. Otherwise, the bike should last a decade or more.

Should you buy it?

Yes. The Gazelle Ultimate T10 is the ultimate commuter ebike.

Matthew S. Smith
Matthew S. Smith is the former Lead Editor, Reviews at Digital Trends. He previously guided the Products Team, which dives…
Google Gemini’s best AI tricks finally land on Microsoft Copilot
Copilot app for Mac

Microsoft’s Copilot had a rather splashy AI upgrade fest at the company’s recent event. Microsoft made a total of nine product announcements, which include the agentic trick called Actions, Memory, Vision, Pages, Shopping, and Copilot Search. 

A healthy few have already appeared on rival AI products such as Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, alongside much smaller players like Perplexity and browser-maker Opera. However, two products that have found some vocal fan-following with Gemini and ChatGPT have finally landed on the Copilot platform. 

Read more
Rivian set to unlock unmapped roads for Gen2 vehicles
rivian unmapped roads gen2 r1t gallery image 0

Rivian fans rejoice! Just a few weeks ago, Rivian rolled out automated, hands-off driving for its second-gen R1 vehicles with a game-changing software update. Yet, the new feature, which is only operational on mapped highways, had left many fans craving for more.
Now the company, which prides itself on listening to - and delivering on - what its customers want, didn’t wait long to signal a ‘map-free’ upgrade will be available later this year.
“One feedback we’ve heard loud and clear is that customers love [Highway Assist] but they want to use it in more places,” James Philbin, Rivian VP of autonomy, said on the podcast RivianTrackr Hangouts. “So that’s something kind of exciting we’re working on, we’re calling it internally ‘Map Free’, that we’re targeting for later this year.”
The lag between the release of Highway Assist (HWA) and Map Free automated driving gives time for the fleet of Rivian vehicles to gather ‘unique events’. These events are used to train Rivian’s offline model in the cloud before data is distilled back to individual vehicles.
As Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe explained in early March, HWA marked the very beginning of an expanding automated-driving feature set, “going from highways to surface roads, to turn-by-turn.”
For now, HWA still requires drivers to keep their eyes on the road. The system will send alerts if you drift too long without paying attention. But stay tuned—eyes-off driving is set for 2026.
It’s also part of what Rivian calls its “Giving you your time back” philosophy, the first of three pillars supporting Rivian’s vision over the next three to five years. Philbin says that philosophy is focused on “meeting drivers where they are”, as opposed to chasing full automation in the way other automakers, such as Tesla’s robotaxi, might be doing.
“We recognize a lot of people buy Rivians to go on these adventures, to have these amazing trips. They want to drive, and we want to let them drive,” Philbin says. “But there’s a lot of other driving that’s very monotonous, very boring, like on the highway. There, giving you your time back is how we can give the best experience.”
This will also eventually lead to the third pillar of Rivian’s vision, which is delivering Level 4, or high-automation vehicles: Those will offer features such as auto park or auto valet, where you can get out of your Rivian at the office, or at the airport, and it goes off and parks itself.
While not promising anything, Philbin says he believes the current Gen 2 hardware and platforms should be able to support these upcoming features.
The second pillar for Rivian is its focus on active safety features, as the EV-maker rewrote its entire autonomous vehicle (AV) system for its Gen2 models. This focus allowed Rivian’s R1T to be the only large truck in North America to get a Top Safety Pick+ from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
“I believe there’s a lot of innovation in the active safety space, in terms of making those features more capable and preventing more accidents,” Philbin says. “Really the goal, the north star goal, would be to have Rivian be one of the safest vehicles on the road, not only for the occupants but also for other road users.”

Read more
Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan hit the brake on shipments to U.S. over tariffs
Range Rover Sport P400e

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has announced it will pause shipments of its UK-made cars to the United States this month, while it figures out how to respond to President Donald Trump's 25% tariff on imported cars.

"As we work to address the new trading terms with our business partners, we are taking some short-term actions, including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid- to longer-term plans," JLR said in a statement sent to various media.

Read more