New open source e-bike and e-scooter battery standard

[FlatSix911]

A step in the right direction...

Could this new open source e-bike and e-scooter battery standard finally bring order?

The Teleport Mobility swappable battery system, a newly designed open source standard, hopes to create some order in the Wild...

electrek.co

The Teleport Mobility swappable battery system, a newly designed open source standard, hopes to create some order in the Wild West of e-bike and e-scooter battery packs.

Electric bikes and e-scooters are great, hands down. But what about their batteries? With each company operating their own proprietary batteries, these packs are often the weak links. Replacements are annoying to find and the packs themselves often die sooner than the vehicles, especially in the shared e-mobility markets. In those shared mobility markets, charging is a constant problem that is often solved by an army of independent contractors or dedicated charging teams who carry scooters around in gas-guzzling vans.

Swedish startup Teleport Mobility’s battery system makes sense as a way to solve the issue of dozens of different batteries and finding ways to charge them. The team has more than 100 years of experience combined working in the transportation/mobility sector and is preparing to solve one of the biggest problems in the industry. As Teleport Mobility’s CEO Simon Fellin explained in a statement provided to Electrek:

The harsh treatment that shared e-scooter and e-bike batteries receive is the cause of more than half of life-cycle emissions of the industry. Battery pack production accounts for about one-third, or approximately 60 kg CO2-eq of the total production emissions of a shared vehicle. However, since batteries are sensitive to both temperature and impact, they do not last nearly as long as the frame of the shared vehicle. Driving back and forth to central warehouses, often in a diesel truck, to swap batteries, also accounts for the majority of the operational emissions and almost half of the cost of the mobility operators.

Teleport will be launching battery swapping pilot programs in northern Europe with select partners next month, with a more extended launch planned for the 2021 season. The batteries themselves are 14S packs, roughly equivalent to 52V nominal voltage, which is common in many electric bicycles on the market. The packs use 21700-size cylindrical cells from Teleport’s development partner Northvolt to create a 666 Wh pack, which is slightly more than the current average size for most e-bike and e-scooter batteries.

 

[JRA]

"The batteries themselves are 14S packs, roughly equivalent to 52V nominal voltage, which is common in many electric bicycles on the market."

I always thought that the EU standard was more like 36v. Obviously this effort is going towards new market items for share systems. But if some manufacturers get on board with the rather plebian battery style which probably lends itself best to under the rear rack fitment. I could see cargo type bikes piggy backing this format however and easy to design a place for it and be able to have a smaller battery for less weight it there is easy access to the battery system.

 

[FlatSix911]

So those are for ebike share right?

The picture of scrambler and scooter are confusing

The concept is for battery sharing on multiple platforms... if you look closely you can see the aluminum battery box mounted under the seat of the Scrambler.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

"The batteries themselves are 14S packs, roughly equivalent to 52V nominal voltage, which is common in many electric bicycles on the market."

I always thought that the EU standard was more like 36v.

AFAIK it is 48 V maximum allowed in the EU. Most of manufacturers for EU use the 36 V batteries though. Strange thing, the 52 V batteries are not allowed for EU ebikes, perhaps these are for e-scooters.

 

[Explorer-1]

I saw on the Juiced website that in the US, up to 60V is allowed.

But 52V is 58.8V for lithium ion so they said that 52V is as high as they could go.

They are just covering their butt, many companies are not really adhering to the 60VDC maximum so I expect the laws are not really clear or it is mostly because they are not US companies, but still selling in the US. Customs are not seizing the shipments though. Of course 72V e-bikes are out there and fast EUCs have been running at 100VDC for a few years, with most basic models having standardized on 84V. Even higher voltage ones are in the works, but since they like to make them cheap, so it's been a challenge, but they will get the cheap controllers eventually to work I'm sure. As competition increases, 2021 might be the year we see 120V in the EUCs. Not that this means e-bikes are moving up any time soon, they are much more conservative than the rest of the EV industry.