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lead acid
Uh, wtf?
Yeah, they should have just gone to the frontier of technology with carbon-air cells. It’s weird, right? I thought China was a first mover in tech.
However, safety concerns regarding rare yet dangerous lithium-ion battery fires have put a pause on that proliferation.
Urging citizens to buy new and inferior instead of increasing safety standards?
I’m Swiss (europe) and it’s common knowledge here that chinese imported transportation devices can be russian roulette to use.
Are AGM batteries really inferior? Sure, they’re heavier, but they aren’t vulnerable to autoignition and thermal runaway. They also contain less conflict minerals than other types of batteries.
AGM are absolutely awful compared to even the absolute worst lithium batteries, and won’t last long at all if regularly cycled below even 50% SoC. LFP chemistries are a bit worse for energy density compared to NCA/NCM chemistries, but they don’t contain any nickel or cobalt, and won’t autoignite in the same way other chemistries will. Absolutely ridiculous they’re suggesting lead batteries over better lithium options.
The safety thing is 100% true but only part of the picture.
E-bikes don’t need maximum energy density because they’re not gonna be used for long trips and are significantly lighter than cars and trucks.
China has many, many more electric vehicles than any other country and a ton of electricity production to run them. At some point it’s gonna become important to save the lithium batteries for the stuff that needs that high density power.
Maybe these better chemistries that will replace lithium are just around the corner. I certainly don’t count unhatched chickens.
Wait, what? I drain my battery every day. I need more energy density, not less. I do use my bike for long trips, driving a car during rush hour sucks, parking fees are insanely high and parking spots are rare. I sold my car and do everything by electric bike. But after 2 hours of cycling at 32km/h I need to charge.
I meant the ~300 mile ranges common in electric cars. That’s a long trip. Plus if the car rolls to a stop by the side of the road you just gotta have it towed or charge it up in the field somehow, electric bikes have pedals.
It sucks to pedal a heavy ass ebike but you can do it in a pinch to get where you need to go.
Yeah, have fun peddling a heavy as fuck ebike when you’re 1 hour 32km/h drive away from home. That’s over 2h of super heavy cycling because you’re going super slow.
I have. It sucks but it’s possible and because I live in a mountainous area I avoid that problem by using less assist so everything lasts longer.
The broader point I was trying to make is that If you’re trying to allocate the limited raw materials to the types of transport that benefit people the most then pushing e-bikes to lead acid makes a lot of sense. Yeah, the bikes could benefit from a more power dense battery, but they have backup pedals and ultimately their rider is the majority of the loaded bikes weight.
Electric cars and trucks weigh at least ten times what a person does and are generally used for longer distances than e-bikes so it makes more sense to use very energy dense batteries in them.
Again, I’m speaking from a position that recognizes the proliferation of electric vehicles in China and recognizes that the raw materials used to make lithium batteries are finite and in high demand, not from the position of trying to optimize the e-bike.
Seems like cars don’t all need 300 mi range, but a 5 lb weight difference in a bike is huge.
Five pounds is the grocery bag dangling off my flat bar.
Anyone who actually has done that knows that it always ends up swinging around and ending up in the spokes if you go fast enough.
Also 5 lbs is not a big deal when it’s detachable, but it matters a lot more when it’s part of a large 30+ lb object you’re carrying up the stairs to your apartment.
I mean there are quite many fires in China started by those e-bikes but I thought it was because of bad quality.
Thermal runaway probably shouldn’t be a realistic consequence of bad quality in any consumer product.
