Charging Ebikes on EV Charging stations

[Gionnirocket]

Roads are only for cars, parking is only for cars, charging is only for cars, country is only for cars! So much wasted opportunities for US with this crazy car-centric mindset.

I want to live in America
Washiń machines in America
Cadillac zoom in America
Everything free in America

 

[PedalUma]

The sign says electric Vehicle charging station. Not CAR. I jumped from page one to page three. Someone might have already pointed this out. I use 110-250 international chargers. A fast charger will burn up batteries. I learned that early when I thought it was cool. I would just use a multi-plug adaptor and two 3Amp chargers. I would rather go to a cafe to plug in than a charging station. The power draw is about the same as a laptop charger and it would be a nicer environment to hag out in for a couple of hours. One with no cars.

 

[Roamers]

Around 200miles tops range for an electric car NEEDS about 60-70KWH !!!! About 40-50$. Maybe it's 150$ in Europe as we speak....

Sucks to pay over $2 per kwh. Last I checked we were paying ~$.12 in the Heartland. I think my backup generator costs much less than $2 per kwh to run(never really calculated it). Can I sell you some electricity?

 

[Readytoride]

Around 200miles tops range for an electric car NEEDS about 60-70KWH !!!! About 40-50$. Maybe it's 150$ in Europe as we speak....

Uh....no.

Real world: last month I logged 1,511.6 miles in my electric car (40kW battery - 150 miles of range). Total monthly kWh consumed for charging: 282.74. My utility charges .11 cents per kWh. $31.10 was the cost to "fuel" my car for last month's total of 1,511.6 miles.

Compare that with the fossil fuel costs for a car buying gas at $4.00/gallon. Or a truck buying diesel at $5.00/gallon. Let's see - if I spent that $31 on fossil fuel that would be 8 gallons for a car, and 6 gallons for a truck. My truck gets 13mpg. That would get me about ...oh, 80 miles give or take. Now, my non-electric car is a Prius hybrid that gets 50mpg. So 8 gallons of gas would net me 400 miles. Not too shabby. But still not even close to 1,500 miles.

I agree it would be nice if more people considered switching to an ebike for transportation. But in the real world, and in the right seasons, it only works in a suburban/urban environment with stores/businesses close by with safe places to store/lock up the bike. And with roads or municipal paths that are sympathetic to bikes.

 

[K PierreR]

I tour with my e bike and have a four-battery setup and 15-amp charger. The most reliable place I have found enroute to charge is a park pavilion, park office or town square gazebo. I look on google before I go for those pavilions. You are under cover and have a picnic table to eat lunch etc while you charge your bike. Almost every town has one. Screw sitting in a hot parking lot taking abuse from drivers. Gas stations and McDonalds are very unreliable. A lit billboard or an oil well is more reliable for a plug-in outside than fast food. Churches are not reliable. Autoparts stores are generally reliable. I charge at 1 mile per minute

 

[K PierreR]

Uh....no.

Real world: last month I logged 1,511.6 miles in my electric car (40kW battery - 150 miles of range). Total monthly kWh consumed for charging: 282.74. My utility charges .11 cents per kWh. $31.10 was the cost to "fuel" my car for last month's total of 1,511.6 miles.

Compare that with the fossil fuel costs for a car buying gas at $4.00/gallon. Or a truck buying diesel at $5.00/gallon. Let's see - if I spent that $31 on fossil fuel that would be 8 gallons for a car, and 6 gallons for a truck. My truck gets 13mpg. That would get me about ...oh, 80 miles give or take. Now, my non-electric car is a Prius hybrid that gets 50mpg. So 8 gallons of gas would net me 400 miles. Not too shabby. But still not even close to 1,500 miles.

I agree it would be nice if more people considered switching to an ebike for transportation. But in the real world, and in the right seasons, it only works in a suburban/urban environment with stores/businesses close by with safe places to store/lock up the bike. And with roads or municipal paths that are sympathetic to bikes.

Something does not add up here. From your monthly bill you car consumes 187 watt hours per mile including power losses. Your stated range is 150 on 40 Kwh or 266 watt hours per mile after charging losses. Much more believable. $.11 per Kwh has got to be the best in the states. I live where there is cheap power but still $.1427 per Kwh all charges included.

 

[BeltzerNYC]

I tour with my e bike and have a four-battery setup and 15-amp charger. The most reliable place I have found enroute to charge is a park pavilion, park office or town square gazebo. I look on google before I go for those pavilions. You are under cover and have a picnic table to eat lunch etc while you charge your bike. Almost every town has one. Screw sitting in a hot parking lot taking abuse from drivers. Gas stations and McDonalds are very unreliable. A lit billboard or an oil well is more reliable for a plug-in outside than fast food. Churches are not reliable. Autoparts stores are generally reliable. I charge at 1 mile per minute View attachment 134676

very intriguing. how many AH you running total and what's your range? 15A is crazy high how do you manage it? id love to run a trailer like that but worry about tight navigation. I've seen some chicanes made with fences and I know it can't make it thru. I guess you just unhitch and walk it thru? can you throw your charging locations into the outlet finder app? I feel like people are overlooking just how many outlets are out there.

 

[K PierreR]

very intriguing. how many AH you running total and what's your range? 15A is crazy high how do you manage it? id love to run a trailer like that but worry about tight navigation. I've seen some chicanes made with fences and I know it can't make it thru. I guess you just unhitch and walk it thru? can you throw your charging locations into the outlet finder app? I feel like people are overlooking just how many outlets are out there.

I am running 52-volt 49 Ah.
First of all, you will notice in the picture that I have a Kill-O-Watt meter plugged into the outlet first. This lets me monitor power draw by the charger. Power draw starts out down around 800 watts and climbs to over 900 watts about the time the batteries reach 85%. Then the power starts to drop and the charger reaches max voltage output for tapering the batteries off. I generally unplug when it reaches 750-800 or so when touring as I am not longer willing to wait. Probably around 88%. I have two ways to charge. First way is faster but more dangerous. I can plug in direct and charge through the discharge ports. The power cable has a breaker in it. The second way has a harness that I hook up to each battery and charge each battery through its respective BMS. I have a 6 amp fuse for every power line to a battery. Each can blow individually but if two blow or if one other of the batteries is not taking power, all four fuses will blow. I carry spares. If I accidently hook up batteries with the harness plugged into the charger, the fuse will blow when I plug into the battery to protect the BMS. I have to plug all four in before I connect the charger.
Is what I am doing smart? No. My system is not a system that you walk away from or play around with unless you are very knowledgeable.
Edit: Forgot range. Range is anywhere from 35 to 340 miles (58-567 Km). The trailer is a QuietKat fat bike trailer with a capacity of 100lb. Total rig is almost 12' long and yes, AI have had trouble with the chicanes you mention. I get through rather than detour around. I have not disconnected the trailer. I have gotten off and pick the back of the trailer up and swing it around a little then move forward and repeat until around.

 

[retiredNH]

through rather than detour around. I have not disconnected the trailer. I have gotten off and pick the back of the trailer up and swing it around a little then move forward and repeat until around.

The Lay's chips bag in the trailer and the coffee mug on the bike are nice touches! Makes me think even ebike touring folks are human too....

 

[Ebiker01]

My utility charges .11 cents per kWh. $31.10 was the cost to "fuel" my car for last month's total of 1,511.6 miles.

that's b/c u charge it @ home. on the road , the rates are much higher- 0.40-0.50cents/kwh

 

[Ebiker01]

Sucks to pay over $2 per kwh. Last I checked we were paying ~$.12 in the Heartland. I think my backup generator costs much less than $2 per kwh to run(never really calculated it). Can I sell you some electricity?

U can try selling it to folks living in Eu.

It costs 0.44cents/kwh at an Electrify charger @Walmart. 70kwh batt= 35$.

 

[K PierreR]

The Lay's chips bag in the trailer and the coffee mug on the bike are nice touches! Makes me think even ebike touring folks are human too....

It's worse than you thought. There are no water bottles on the bike. There is a cooler with ice in the trailer and I refill the mug. At least this time its potato chips instead of hot pork rinds and beer for the camp. 15 amps between 4 batteries is only 3.75 amps per battery. The time savings is that I am charging 4 at once so the miles I am putting in = fast charging.

 

[retiredNH]

It's worse than you thought. There are no water bottles on the bike. There is a cooler with ice in the trailer and I refill the mug. At least this time its potato chips instead of hot pork rinds and beer for the camp. 15 amps between 4 batteries is only 3.75 amps per battery. The time savings is that I am charging 4 at once so the miles I am putting in = fast charging.

You might as well take your charging breaks in style! I understand the need for the trailer now - the cooler. Makes sense...

 

[DavidRvR]

Battery Charging... Someone gets mad that a guy is 1) trying to help the environment 2) slow his carbon foot print and so on... And some complain... Its all fun and games until your day is interrupted by someone suing the EV station..

California wants to ban Vehicles with gas motors. but dont have the infrastructure to support it... Simpleton thinking ... But no one on here complaining about there having to turn up the thermostat? Maybe I missed something..

Thought the collective was to save the planet.. So what if you have to wait for the guy who is in front of you? learn some patients .. The world is on fire anyways. Try to save it please.. OAC said its over in about 10 years so hurry up and wait. Pls

 

[JRA]

You've ridden your bike so much K PierreR that you wore a big hole in your saddle!

I toyed with the idea of using a trailer like above and having a pancake pack made that would fit the bottom of the trailer and be around 50Ah's. An onboard charger for an outlet situation with a similar charge rate as above but also a Type II charge plug that would be able to access charge stations as well. Only useful for long distance touring but for that it might work?

An option would be to install a hub motor wheel on the trailer. This would allow for any touring type bike to hook up to it as well as shed it when wanted to just have a bike to ride around on which could in reality also be an eBike.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

I can't think of a single place other than maybe a turnpike rest stop where there's EV stations near me. I have traveled all over the state and the surrounding states, and I've seen a car at a station exactly 3 times. Two of those were at a turnpike rest stop, the other was at a Walmart in Indiana.

Maybe there's more cars using them in other parts of the country. I did find this thread humorous though. Someone comes up with an innovative way to charge their bike and immediately gets yelled at. Even though the person doing the yelling wasn't inconvenienced at all by the OP's actions. I doubt that this is going to become so common that anyone is going to be troubled by it. Shouldn't we all be working towards getting the infrastructure changed so that we can all use the power instead of shouting down someone that's leading the way?

The correct people to be yelling at would be the ones that control the purse for the infrastructure so that there's more charging areas available so those of you with EV's don't suffer even more mileage anxiety.

 

[TrevorB]

Thanks for all the info. For European riders Aliexpress sell Type2 (Mennekes) plug to 220-240VAC socket for about €30. Few different socket types to choose from.
Google "type2 to domestic socket"

I have 3 4A chargers and 3 batteries so that is 450wh an hour roughly across 3 batteries. Couple stops a day and I never need campground with power, but one with showers is must.

 

[K PierreR]

The saddle with the middle missing is an Infinity Seat Saddle. No point in huge range until I installed that saddle.

 

[Muso]

The idea of car drivers, electric or otherwise, bitching about bicyclists "taking something away from them" is bloody laughable. Mr. "I'm saving the environment with my Tesla" complaining about waiting in line at the charger, in his nice air-conditioned cage, behind a bicycle that consumes some orders of magnitude less resources and is stuck riding over in a painted bicycle gutter wherever he goes... gimme a bloody break.

 

[Bike Addict]

Hello everyone!

I want to share my first experience with charging my ebike on EV charging station. I am going to share as much details as I have so far and will answer any questions you might have. Would also love to hear about your experience if you tried doing same with your ebike!

Goal. My interest in ability to re-charge my bike on EV station is related to my interest to do longer rides (200 miles and more), which means ability to re-charge on the route. Regular outlets are not uncommon, but difficult to spot and relay on - even when resources like https://nyceboarding.com/map exist. EV stations location is well known, their statures are monitored in real time and these facts allow to plan longer routes with re-charge points.

Station. I did the experiment with one of the Volta L2 EV stations I have just in few miles from my home. L2 (Level 2) here means that station voltage is 240V (in comparison to 120V for L1). This is important, since voltage limits the selection of chargers you can connect.

Equipment. I did some research online, so I came pretty well prepared to the experiment.

• Ebike. My customized Bosch-powered Gazelle C380+ HMB with dual battery kit (500 Wh + 500 Wh)
• Charger. I have few charges for Bosch (stock one for 4A and portable one for 2A), but just few days ago I received another super fast 6A charger from Europe. There is good reason this charger is not sold in US - it expects 220-240V input voltage, which is common is Europe and not common in US. However for using with EV L2 stations this is perfect choice!

View attachment 132677​

• Adapter. This piece is very important, since EV stations are using very different plugs to connect to vehicle. One of the common standards is J1772, which is used by Volta stations as well. To connect my Bosch charger to this plug, I bought J1772 to NEMA 5-15/5-20 EV Charger Adapter, which takes care about communicating to charger station to actually start the charge (some signaling is involved in order to convince charging stations you are ready to accept the charge) and provides standard for US NEMA interface on other end.

View attachment 132678​

Process. Here everything was straightforward - ride to the station, connect bike and wait while it being charged. The most complex thing was to spot the free charger, since we have lots of electric cars in the area and chargers are located at the parking near large playground.

View attachment 132668

Results. I left bike connected for 2 hours - mostly because this is the limit defined for these stations. One thing I observed is that station status with connected ebike is shown as "Plugged in...", while connected car is shown as "In use". My theory is that load created by ebike charger is very low and station is not considered it to be an active consumer, which probably mean 2 hours limit can probably be ignored.

So, I arrived to the station with 22% battery level:

View attachment 132670

I captured first level update in an hour:

View attachment 132671

and 2nd in two hours:

View attachment 132672

Final batteries state after 2 hours:

View attachment 132673

As you see, the results are pretty impressive - I was able to add 50% to my 1000Wh setup in just a two hours. I believe using super-fast 6A charger was a key thing here, but I am very happy with the result. I noticed some battery level dis-balance after charge (which I never saw when charging with 2A and 4A chargers at home), but this is probably result of super fast charging speed. As far as I know Bosch dual-battery setup works well with any charge level in both batteries.

Final verdict. Total success! The charging set is not very bulky, so I can take it with me to long rides and stations availability in my area should help me to re-charge my bike pretty easily when needed. Looking forward to try this all in real ride.

Thanks for reading! Happy to answer any questions! Have a safe ride everyone!

Hi,
Very grateful for you as it was one of the best ebike information I read. I have 2 questions please as follows:
1- Regardless of the money, for the fastest charging time, is there another faster connection, setup or hardware?
2- How much per KWH if will pay for the charging on average?