Several years ago Spinning Magnets did a nice article on batteries that looked into the future of cell technology as well as what was currently available. https://www.electricbike.com/new-21700-cells/ Excellent article I thought at the time and still do. But all it did was wet my appetite for the new cells, especially the 5A ones 
So awhile went by and Eric started dropping hints about a new battery code named Wolf Pack: https://www.electricbike.com/luna-cycle-announces-wire-bonded-ebike-battery-packs/ This got me all excited even more as I thought it would be a 21700 cell battery. It took awhile to undergo development and ended up with 30Q's anyway so of no interest to me personally with the new cells on the horizon. Not a fan of the potting thing either as it adds weight to an already weighty part of the bike and I have never had moisture issues with sharks here in the PNW to begin with. The whole steel plate/magnet thing while a cool concept adds even more weight. I'm no weight weenie but I do kneel to the alter of power to weight ratio when thinking about anything motorized.
Another year has gone by and it is showtime so looking at the specs for the 2019 model years bikes I was surprised to see that there weren't any of the new cells being advertised. However I have recently learned that in fact they are being speced on the new Haibike line, Bulls, BH, Focus and some Specialized bikes. All upper end entries that are not of interest to me as a cheapskate who has a bike already with a 18650 battery that would have no problem keeping up with any of them on the uphill at least. And not have the dt look like a bloated Cobra. The odd thing is that they are not saying anything about it. To me the new cells are perhaps the biggest advancement in eBiking today and into the foreseeable future. It would be first on my marketing plan to advertise the new cells and their virtues but everyone is glomming over the TQ motor and halving batteries to save weight i guess.
Auto companies like Tesla who make their own at the Giga Factory, love that name, and others require between 5000-8000 cells per car and are now using the new cells so you do the math on how many the world is using every day in that sector. Also a good share of them go into the vape market and have been in use there for a few years. Not to mention that a certain company based in Germany has spoken for all the production of the cell I used for the spreadsheet below. This makes them hard to get in small batches, unless you are one of the big bike playas at least, so to this point the open source battery I have been waiting for still isn't available.
But it has got me thinking and I worked the spec's of a LG 5A cell battery against a Chinese battery based on 48v/15ah:
I know that the comp battery is no MJ1 or GH cell but it does represent what many are buying because they are cheap and look just like ones with better cells. They are supplied by the thousands on bikes like the wildly popular because they are cheap Rad products and their many spinoffs for instance. Still the comp battery was listed for $297 with free shipping on AliExpress. But comparing the two on any level the 21700 one is way better in all categories. Of course you can extrapolate from this what a 14s battery would be like or the best 3.6A 18650 cells etc. etc. and I don't know about you guys but I can't wait to get my mitts on one with a clean BMS that only monitors temp and cell balance with a LVC. Not a bunch of proprietary communication shite. Big problem being they don't fit any existing cases but there is always shrink wrap, the new duct tape.
The elephant in the room are the 25% tariffs that now apply to eBike components such as motors and batteries as of 7/6/18. Hasn't quite fully developed yet but when it does that $297 battery is going to go up close to $60 and won't provide an ounce more of energy either. Battery pricing has always been high for ones with quality cells like the 30Q. GH and MJ1 and those will go up correspondingly also. I was curious the other day about the median cost of the big bike playas batteries and found a pretty good list of them on the Motostrano site: http://www.motostrano.com/E-Bike-Batteries-s/8329.htm As you can see there are some pretty spendy batteries in there. I do wonder how they are going to keep them all at a state of charge sitting on the shelf that won't allow them to default past the BMS but that's their problem, not mine. I did it to a duct tape LiFePo4 battery years ago and I learned my lesson.
Discuss?
So awhile went by and Eric started dropping hints about a new battery code named Wolf Pack: https://www.electricbike.com/luna-cycle-announces-wire-bonded-ebike-battery-packs/ This got me all excited even more as I thought it would be a 21700 cell battery. It took awhile to undergo development and ended up with 30Q's anyway so of no interest to me personally with the new cells on the horizon. Not a fan of the potting thing either as it adds weight to an already weighty part of the bike and I have never had moisture issues with sharks here in the PNW to begin with. The whole steel plate/magnet thing while a cool concept adds even more weight. I'm no weight weenie but I do kneel to the alter of power to weight ratio when thinking about anything motorized.
Another year has gone by and it is showtime so looking at the specs for the 2019 model years bikes I was surprised to see that there weren't any of the new cells being advertised. However I have recently learned that in fact they are being speced on the new Haibike line, Bulls, BH, Focus and some Specialized bikes. All upper end entries that are not of interest to me as a cheapskate who has a bike already with a 18650 battery that would have no problem keeping up with any of them on the uphill at least. And not have the dt look like a bloated Cobra. The odd thing is that they are not saying anything about it. To me the new cells are perhaps the biggest advancement in eBiking today and into the foreseeable future. It would be first on my marketing plan to advertise the new cells and their virtues but everyone is glomming over the TQ motor and halving batteries to save weight i guess.
Auto companies like Tesla who make their own at the Giga Factory, love that name, and others require between 5000-8000 cells per car and are now using the new cells so you do the math on how many the world is using every day in that sector. Also a good share of them go into the vape market and have been in use there for a few years. Not to mention that a certain company based in Germany has spoken for all the production of the cell I used for the spreadsheet below. This makes them hard to get in small batches, unless you are one of the big bike playas at least, so to this point the open source battery I have been waiting for still isn't available.
But it has got me thinking and I worked the spec's of a LG 5A cell battery against a Chinese battery based on 48v/15ah:
I know that the comp battery is no MJ1 or GH cell but it does represent what many are buying because they are cheap and look just like ones with better cells. They are supplied by the thousands on bikes like the wildly popular because they are cheap Rad products and their many spinoffs for instance. Still the comp battery was listed for $297 with free shipping on AliExpress. But comparing the two on any level the 21700 one is way better in all categories. Of course you can extrapolate from this what a 14s battery would be like or the best 3.6A 18650 cells etc. etc. and I don't know about you guys but I can't wait to get my mitts on one with a clean BMS that only monitors temp and cell balance with a LVC. Not a bunch of proprietary communication shite. Big problem being they don't fit any existing cases but there is always shrink wrap, the new duct tape.
The elephant in the room are the 25% tariffs that now apply to eBike components such as motors and batteries as of 7/6/18. Hasn't quite fully developed yet but when it does that $297 battery is going to go up close to $60 and won't provide an ounce more of energy either. Battery pricing has always been high for ones with quality cells like the 30Q. GH and MJ1 and those will go up correspondingly also. I was curious the other day about the median cost of the big bike playas batteries and found a pretty good list of them on the Motostrano site: http://www.motostrano.com/E-Bike-Batteries-s/8329.htm As you can see there are some pretty spendy batteries in there. I do wonder how they are going to keep them all at a state of charge sitting on the shelf that won't allow them to default past the BMS but that's their problem, not mine. I did it to a duct tape LiFePo4 battery years ago and I learned my lesson.
Discuss?
