Merida are a large Taiwanese brand using Shimano motors, good stuff, wish they sold them in the US where I live but Merida own 49% of Specialized so they probably have an agreement not to distribute in the US market where the big 3 brands are Trek, Specialized, and Giant. Orbea are a Spanish brand known here for their lightweight hub motor road bikes, although this year they introduced a step-through. Merida’s Shimano Batteries will be larger capacity and so have longer powered range, but Orbea’s are light enough to ride comfortably unpowered on paved roads. Just depends on how you intend to use it, if you’re intending riding off road on bridleways you could get a Merida FS eMTB but it’s probably overkill and you would be fine with matching his and hers eSpresso trekking models, they have a suspension fork so consider getting a suspension seatpost or sprung saddle.
