Battery Intelligence

[Deleted member 803]

I am a dealer who sells new bikes that are orderd, received, and built. We do not question the quality of the batteries that come with the bikes and assume that a new bike equals a new battery. Once a year we have a demo sale and occasionally get a question about battery life. What we provide is mileage on the battery and a guesstimate of the number of charges the battery has gone through.

My techs asked me if there was any available technology that could assess battery quality with a greater degree of accuracy. I could not answer them affirmatively.

Is it possible to design a lithium ion battery that can measure the condition of the cells and provide # of charges incurred, expected remaining life, and any measurement of how well the cells are holding and delivering a charge. Given that the battery is the most expensive replacement item you'd think this would be of relevant.

 

[Solom01]

Sure, even the relatively inexpensive Segway Minipro allows you to look at the condition of the battery (number of charges, voltage, amount of wear in the app and most (if not all) cell phones have a menu setting that also allows you to view this information. One of the sad things about the eBike industry (at least in the US) is how they're all about pushing maximum range because it looks good on ads while not taking elementary steps to at least enlightened customers about how to preserve battery life and providing the tools such as BMS that charge to a certain amount to make it possible for customers to realistically do this. As the industry matures a bit and customers have to replace $900 battery packs on mega-expensive bikes more often then expected this will not make for happy customers. In your case couldn't a Grin Technology charger with a few inputs be able to give you that information? It's a bit of a hassle but it should work, right?

 

[Va. Bch. Electric Bike Center]

Bosch and easy motion have diagnostic software available to dealers that show all of those parameters and more, like max battery temp and individual cell condition. Also accesses motor and sensor information.

 

[Deleted member 803]

Bosch and easy motion have diagnostic software available to dealers that show all of those parameters and more, like max battery temp and individual cell condition. Also accesses motor and sensor information.

I am familiar with battery temperature indicator but not cell condition other than a general statement of condition about the whole battery. I'll take another look at the bosch software. We do not sell BH products. I will also look at the Grin charger. While there is some further information about battery condition, my sense is that there is really nothing that can be used to confidently tell a customer an accurate estimate of remaining battery life.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

... maybe you could come at this from the opposite direction.

I agree that battery manufacturers should eventually include historical information that dealers and consumers can look at to understand how to extend battery life. However, if you just want to let customers know how "good" the battery is all you need to do is make a gadget that simulates the load from an electric bike under reasonable pedal assist. If you ran that simulator between, say, 80 percent and 20 percent charge and compared it to a reference (e.g. new) battery from the same manufacturer you could probably make a pretty good prediction of the performance of the battery.

 

[Va. Bch. Electric Bike Center]

I am familiar with battery temperature indicator but not cell condition other than a general statement of condition about the whole battery. I'll take another look at the bosch software. We do not sell BH products. I will also look at the Grin charger. While there is some further information about battery condition, my sense is that there is really nothing that can be used to confidently tell a customer an accurate estimate of remaining battery life.

Yea, the Easy Motion (BH) one shows a lot more info and is actually very cool, but just battery information. Bosch's system can do much more with the entire bike plus software changes.