A week ago, the battery on my Wife's 2015 Izip Zuma died. It was 26 Months old. The Advertising Literature told glowing reports of, at least, 500 charges. When I called the Dealer, it was a new story, of shelf life, and that this was fairly normal. I checked with Raleigh, the Owner of Izip and several others, and heard the same. This battery had no more than 50 charges on it, and I maintained it in strict accordance with the Manual. With shipping, about $800.00. That's $400.00 a Year! Just food for thought!!!
Battery Life
- Thread starter Al V
- Start date
I have a 2012 Zuma E3 with about 4900 miles on it, still running the original battery (36V). I've long lost count of the number of charges but no question it's in the hundreds. If I stay off the throttle I can still get a 20 mile ride out of it. Just did it a few days ago. The bike cost me $2100 or 43 cents a mile or $420 a year. Far less expensive than my car (insurance alone is more than that)!
I recently asked my dealer about a replacement battery and they recommended a rebuild from http://www.rechargeablepowerenergy.com/. Would cost about $500. I have also found http://www.batteryrefill.com that states a costs of $399 to rebuild the battery. I have not decided whether to rebuild, or just buy a new bike.
I recently asked my dealer about a replacement battery and they recommended a rebuild from http://www.rechargeablepowerenergy.com/. Would cost about $500. I have also found http://www.batteryrefill.com that states a costs of $399 to rebuild the battery. I have not decided whether to rebuild, or just buy a new bike.
Hi A1 V, unfortunately part of the problem (assuming you just didn't get a bad battery pack to begin with) may be that you followed the Manual. Bike vendors totally ignore the reality of lithium batteries and consistently give advice that makes their range and charge times look better even though it can drastically reduce battery life. You're kind of on your own since reviews and vendors don't help much. Some potential issues:
(1) Vendors always tell you to fully charge the battery and to "top it off" after every ride - this is nonsense and will greatly reduce the life of the battery. You should only charge the battery up to 80% of capacity and never, ever discharge it fully. Doing so will drastically reduce battery life. Reputable electric car makers like Toyota and Chevrolet do this with their battery management systems and never allow the battery to be stressed. Unfortunately Bike vendors have battery management systems that charge to 100% and most allow the battery to fully discharge - this makes their range look better but it shortens the lifespan of the battery by a huge amount.
(2) If you have a choice charge the battery slowly, at 2amps or less. Yes, it sounds cool to be able to charge the battery with a fast charger, but it is incredibly hard on the battery. If you read the fine print in the Tesla manual using superchargers more than 10% of the time substantially reduces battery lifespan.
(3) The temperature you operate the battery (or charge it in) is important. Extremes of cold and/or heat are bad news. There isn't too much you can do about this in terms of when you are out riding, but try to charge the battery in a cool place. Take a look at what happened to Nissan Leafs in Arizona - there were lots of premature failures and their range degraded to half of the stated range in no time.
(4) Although the number of cycles is important, lithium batteries have a shelf life. Even if you don't use them they wear out. You can minimize the wear by charging them to about 50% and maintaining that charge by recharging once a month or so while they aren't in use and keeping them in a cool environment, but even if you follow those precautions simply aging will decrease their capacity. Kind of like tires on a car, even if you don't use the car the tires will eventually dry rot from age.
Anyhow, all of the above sounds simple but is incredibly hard to do with the tools vendors give us, there are good chargers sold by companies like Grin Technologies that let you et maximum charge rates and amounts, but they are expensive and most people don't know about them. Hopefully some day there will be bike vendors and manufacturers that try to be more honest about the care of batteries, but until that time we're on our own.
mrgold35
Well-Known Member
Is there a possibility of failure with the battery electronics or you just have a bad cell(s)? I've notice these types of batteries are only as strong as the weakest cell. I don't know if one bad cell or cells will kill the entire pack? I know one dead/dying 18650 will kill my LED flashlight that takes 3 batteries compared to having just dimmer light with old alkaline batteries.
Hi Drew. I recently had the same situation with an iZip bike and ended up just dumping it, but although I'm not that much of a green nut it did make me feel really bad to throw out a perfectly good bike just because the battery went bad. I have a regular bike that is over 20 years old and is in great shape, when a part goes bad it's easy to change and to upgrade. I guess it's upsetting to me to hear how good ebikes are for the environment while being put into a position of filling landfills when one part goes bad. I'm starting to think that in reality a gas scooter with parts that are easy to find like a Vespa is actually more earth friendly.
Oh I donated it to Goodwill, but I have no illusions about where it will end up. The battery was a stealthy in the frame battery. Changing it out since iZip no longer supports it would entail finding a place to re-build it which is cost prohibitive, so anyone who buys it from Goodwill will either toss it or use it as a regular bike, but it's not a good regular bike since it's just too heavy. It's kind of like the waste that Apple creates. Yes, you can have the battery replaced if you pay quite a bit or, if you're good at it replace it yourself, but everything I've ever read about it says that the vast majority of their product ends up in landfills after the battery dies and after it is taken apart under hellish conditions in poor countries for any valuable components. I guess the disposable economy is just the nature of the beast.
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