Wattwagon E-bike World Record event in Halifax (Aug 3rd) + World's top battery scientist talks about batteries

Ravi Kempaiah

Ravi Kempaiah

Well-Known Member
Region
Canada
City
Halifax
Our team had a wonderful time over the past weekend in Halifax. Our main goal was to highlight the technology and efficiency of E-bikes through an unique event.

Electrek just published this article yesterday and our friend Sean posted the video from the event.

https://electrek.co/2019/08/05/tesl...eff-dahn-talks-100-kwh-cells-removing-cobalt/

In this video, Prof. Dahn talks about the batteries.


Prof. Dahn also officiated the event and test rode the Wattwagon Ultimate Commuter Pro.

 
JRA said:
Congratulations Ravi!!!! One question, did you get dizzy going around in circles like that;)

Best of luck there in Halifax working with Professor Dahn and moving the battery ball further along.
Click to expand...

Thank you, @JRA
I did not feel dizzy going on circles because the straight part of the track was long enough and there was banking at the bends. The issue was , the track was right next to the airport and we had strong winds throughout the afternoon to late night.

It was wonderful having everyone at the event. Prof. Dahn enjoyed the event.

Prof. Dahn took all of us on a lab tour and showed some latest results, which truly were inspiring.
There are cells and packs now that can last 20 years with over 95% remaining at the end of 20 year life (even at 1 full discharge/ day). If someone were to use those cells, an E-bike battery could easily last 10 years without any range drop whatsoever.
 
"If someone were to use those cells, an E-bike battery could easily last 10 years without any range drop whatsoever."

How far out from supply do you think they are? Perhaps the best that we can hope for going forward is a longer life as close as possible to 1.000 as possible cell. The fact that they already are that close to that goal is great.
 
JRA said:
How far out from supply do you think they are?
Click to expand...

One should be able to get them in bulk quantities starting later this year or early 2020.
They offer 20% less energy density compared to NCA chemistry but offer tremendously long service life. So, if you can settle for 665Whr instead of 800whr, then you can get 10+ years of life before the pack reaches 95% of its capacity.
 
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Congrats to Ravi
Ravi Kempaiah said:
One should be able to get them in bulk quantities starting later this year or early 2020.
They offer 20% less energy density compared to NCA chemistry but offer tremendously long service life. So, if you can settle for 665Whr instead of 800whr, then you can get 10+ years of life before the back can go to 95% of its capacity.
Click to expand...


What about cost estimates associated with this battery tech? Do you have any ballpark figures?
 
bob armani said:
Congrats to Ravi

What about cost estimates associated with this battery tech? Do you have any ballpark figures?
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It will be similar to what is available right now. Around $200/ KWhr and this will go down if the volumes are really high.
How many E-bike manufacturers are aware of it, I am not sure and it depends on their business decision but several grid-scale storage companies will be using them.
 
Pictures for those who could not attend the event. We had lot of people cheering and supporting us from different parts of the world. Thank YOU very much.
I wish we could all of them in one frame. The goal was to highlight the efficiency and technology of E-bikes and we are able to do that because of participation from everyone.

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The whole team (- Tony/Paul who took this picture).

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Prof. Dahn was super generous with his time and shared some latest results from his lab. There are 18650 cells that last 20 years or 6000+ cycles with less than 5% degradation.
It was incredible to see those results and see what the future may hold for battery powered vehicles.

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Our friend Tony from Electric Bike Action was present and was generous with his time and sharing his expertise.

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Lenny and his wife flew from Madison, WI to be part of this event.

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Canadian TV station - CTV Atlantic covered the event and these folks were excited about the event happening in Halifax.

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The bike - Wattwagon Ultimate Commuter Pro performed flawlessly.

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Two amazing people who made everything possible on that day: Paula and Pushkar.

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When we set a new record for the distance in 12 hours. It was ~240 miles...

https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17965723369286137/
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Prof. Dahn was happy to see someone as enthusiastic as Pushkar.

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Riding through the night, after 2 hr break in between..


 
drewberz said:
Congrats on the 395 mi. achievement! I'm sure the throttle was tempting to use!
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Thank you @drewberz and @opimax .
It was challenging for me but there are hundreds of elite athletes who could crush this record. The whole point was not about athletic performance but rather to highlight the efficiency of Ebikes. If you look at it the other way, we used 85 cents of electricity to go almost 400 miles and $1 worth of electricity on an E-bike makes even the best hybrid look pale.
It was also a powerful demonstration of the Wattwagon' abilities.
 
Not sure if this was covered: How many times did you need to do a battery re-charge during the 24 hr ride; Or did you keep swapping out different batteries for the entire ride? If so, how many did you actually use for the 395 mile ride?
 
Alaskan said:
Great post. Can you put up the ride statistics? average speed, rider power, distance covered per battery, average cadence, assist level used, etc.
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For the first 12.5 hours... here is the data:

Average without including breaks = 24.73mph
Average including breaks = 20.3mph

Distance covered 250.53 miles (Actually, it is slightly more, but the GPS had gone to sleep during the first few laps).

For the second session, the distance covered is 147.78 miles which puts us at 398 miles in total but the Guinness organization only counts the laps/distance, we will have to settle for whatever they decide.


We had an extra battery and a Satiator charger. We would drain one battery to last 10% and then swap it out.
So, I averaged 41-42miles of distance for each swap (around ~800whr).

In total, we had used 10 swaps ( 10 X 800whrs = 8 K Whrs) and we were on the 11th one when I stopped the ride next morning.

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(Link Removed - Attachment No Longer Exists)
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Session 2: Here, I took some breaks in between and had exhausted my energy...but I wish I had kept going for 20 more minutes and then would have crossed 405 barrier.

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@TForan , it is 55T Gates drive chain-ring I believe.
@bob armani, the battery , distance and other data is shared above.
 
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