I will show the possibilities for electron-ion studies offered by the proposed electron-hadron collider at CERN, the Large Hadron-electron Collider [1]. After a short introduction on open problems at small x, I will briefly present the machine and detector. Then I will focus on small-x aspects in electron-nucleus collisions, first on inclusive measurements and the determination of nuclear parton densities, and then on diffraction. I will finish by discussing some opportunities for final state studies. [1] M. Klein et al., Prospects for a Large Hadron Electron Collider (LHeC) at the LHC, EPAC'08, 11th European Parti cle Accelerator Conference, 23- 27 June 2008, Genoa, Italy; http://cern.ch/lhec.