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I've looked into this "solar powered" solution for my heavy (Urban Arrow) cargo bike for those occasional long trips, and have always come to the conclusion tha
by avar 4y ago
I've looked into this "solar powered" solution for my heavy (Urban Arrow) cargo bike for those occasional long trips, and have always come to the conclusion that it's basically a overly costly and inconvenient idea overall.
The better solution is to lug around a charger, and failing that to simply carry around another battery to extend your range.
But the immediate problem is that extra E-Bike batteries are very expensive. Each OEM has their own little monopoly with their own chargers and customized plugs, and charges through the nose for replacements.
My E-bike uses a Bosch, and e.g. [1] has replacement cells for it that retail at 1/3 or even 1/4 of the full battery pack of the same capacity. The casing, charge controller etc. should add some cost, but not that much.
I think a much more practical solution is to work on bridging that gap, another commentator commented out that USB PD is stepping up to the 48v range from 20v.
But E-Bike batteries are so expensive that even if you had to carry everything with you to up-voltage portable batteries to 220v, carry the OEM charger, and then plug it into a portable standard outlet you might still come way ahead v.s. buying another OEM battery.
1. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33047384848.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33047384848.html
- Loudergood 4y agoWe desperately need standardization in medium sized batteries like tools and bikes that are easily replaced.
- Xylakant 4y agoEssentially you're looking for something like that: https://de.ecoflow.com/products/river-2-max-portable-power-station https://de.ecoflow.com/products/river-2-max-portable-power-s... - but the price point is in a similar range, and the package is substantially more chunky (inverter, ...). The issue is that I could not find any charger for bosch bike batteries that would work of USB-C PD. That would essentially cut down the package - no need for an inverter, ...
- avar 4y agoThanks, at €599.00 that's the same price as a mid-range Bosch PowerPack replacement, and that doesn't include the €150 charger for it. You'd need to stop to charge, but that's usually not an issues on longer trips. It's insane that this is even a viable option, but that's how overpriced these batteries are.
- Xylakant 4y agoYes, the space sucks. I'd spend significant money on a USB-C charger, but Bosch doesn't offer one and there's no third party vendors. One thing that might be of interest to you, depending on where you travel around might be this: A standardized charging cable that plugs into existing charging stations https://bike-energy.com/ueber-uns/ https://bike-energy.com/ueber-uns/, so you only need to carry the cable. Some adventurous folks even hacked up a cable that plugs into car charging stations.