Lower Battery Pack Prices

[George S.]

I've heard people say that there is no automation system for making ebike packs. To assemble a 48v Shark type pack might take hours of spot welding.

This machine does one side in a minute or two. The theory would be it would lower the price of packs and allow custom builds where a buyer could select the cells or the configuration, like the shape.

I figure the assembly now is done in Asia. With this machine? Who knows. No way to judge the actual performance of the machine. Not sure, but it seems like something that had to happen.

They really got into the music on this one.

 

[Eric Hicks]

spot welding packs is not the time consuming part at all.... cnc spot welders have been around for years.

 

[harryS]

Lower prices because that's only a 12S-4P battery? We're getting cheated out of 4.2 volts here.

 

[George S.]

spot welding packs is not the time consuming part at all.... cnc spot welders have been around for years.

Hi Eric,

It’s all a little new to me, and pretty fast moving. I had LiFePo cells in my Prodeco. I bought LiPo packs from HK for my first build, and then went to another LiFePo from China. These batteries worked well and held their voltage, but they were just big pouches soldered together.

Tesla must be assembling packs with machines. There were 7,000 in the first Tesla. A few years ago it seems like an ebike pack was 30 cells, so less motivation to move to automation. Luna is on the cutting edge of the bigger and higher voltage packs.

If you could get Tesla to release some of their cells from the Gigafactory into the ebike market, those would be US cells. (GM is making their pouches in Michigan). If you had a couple of CNC spot welders in Reno we could have US made ebike packs.

I started with pouches and I like pouches. Take a 20 amp hour pouch and solder a few in series and you have a battery pack. Easy to maintain, easy to troubleshoot. But if you can buy those $4 Samsung 30q cells on your website and assemble them with a machine in 3 minutes, what the heck.

The RC market is interesting. Titan is trying to shift that market from LiPo to quality cells like the GA. I like RC chargers and the external balance leads, versus a BMS. That is a market that could transition and could work for DIY ebike folks. If there are other significant costs in an ebike pack, then simple 18650 packs made for the RC market will work. Again, I'd like to see 15 amp hour pouches that are similar to what LG makes for the Bolt because it seems simple. I think Zero uses Farasis pouches, and they have made significant advances in their chemistry over the past few years.

There isn't much innovation in the ebike market. Endless Sphere used to be a place for ideas to develop, now it seems like more of a hospice for ideas. They go there to die. People selling stuff. I'm not selling anything. I'll just do what works for me.