A complete guide to Lithium Batteries in 2020

The importance of lithium batteries.

Indeed, the li-ion battery is a fundamental part of the circuit that makes up our electric vehicle and, not surprisingly, it makes up for about 40% of its total cost. So, you should you be asking yourself very seriously which battery to buy for your personal mobility vehicle.

In order to aid you with this, here we are going to present you with a complete guide to lithium cells batteries, so that you can get to know this very important element in electric mobility in depth. Now, when you want to buy an electric motorcycle, you will know perfectly which lithium battery to choose.

How to make a lithium battery?

To manufacture a lithium ion battery, we will need deep discharge 18650 lithium cells. There are two basic concepts that we need to take into account when designing our battery pack:

• Series: The series number will give us the battery voltage (24v, 36v, 48v etc.)
• Parallel: It will determine the sum of amperage AH.

In addition to the batteries, the li-ion battery pack is made of the BMS. And also the protective case. Also, a charger is usually included in order to be able to recharge it.

What is a BMS?

BMS or "Battery Management System" is an electronic board whose main function is distributing the charging and discharging energy evenly across all 18650 cells inside de pack. Something like a “controller” that ensures the safety of the battery and prevents accidents from happening.

Advantages of lithium batteries.

It is also important to highlight the advantages of this type of battery:

• Low cost: Although it is true that they are more expensive than other types like lead batteries, they are good value for they last about 4 times more.
• Lightness: Batteries generally are heavy elements, however lithium ones weigh less than a 1/3 of their acid-based counterparts.
• Durability: As mentioned above, they have a working life of about 3 to 4 years.
• Safety: Lithium technology is much safer than other types.

Now that we have the basic principles, let’s list the lithium battery options for our catalogue of personal mobility vehicles, or electric vehicles.

In the table below, we will detail the technical aspects of the battery, as well as the estimated range we can expect taking into account external factors such as riding speed, user weight and type of terrain.

Lithium batteries for electric motorcycles

As you can see, we have put examples with different voltages and motors. This is because the controllers within each electric vehicle work at a specific voltage.

In this case, our classic electric scooters and electric city motorcycles correspond to the voltages exemplified.

Lithium ion batteries for mobility scooters for the elderly and disable

It is also important to consider the motor rated power when calculating expected ranges.  As it happens with combustion engines, the higher the motor power (W) is, the greater the consumption will be. But a more powerful engine is very valuable feature, especially for e-mobility formats that need to go uphill or carry heavy loads, such as our special mobility scooter MOTO800W.

Li-ion batteries for electric scooters

It should be noted that, as a general rule, the vast majority of the electric scooters available in the market (such as Xiaomi) have less powerful motors than those presented here. For example, Fotona Mobility’s 3200W electric skate – TITAN3200 – has got a top speed of up to 90 km/h, which is massive for a e-scooter.

The generic electric skate usually features a motor around 250W. Also, they come with smaller batteries of only 280Wh, so although they promise to reach 30km of autonomy they rarely do, even with their "energy saving" ECO mode (average 18km/h)

If you're completely new to this type of electric mobility format, it might not be a bad option, but if you want to get it right the first time around with a very reliable scooter, you'll probably opt for a model like the 500W Jailbreak, with the latest technology, antitheft system and twice the power.

18650 Li-ion packs for electric skateboards

In reference to the electric 4x4 skateboards, we have to say that the capacities of the batteries are more limited due to the lack of available space. However, the 1650W offroad Longbard still reaches a range of 40km, way beyond it’s competitors.

Lithium batts for electric bikes.

In this case, all our available electric bikes are equipped with 250W motors.

However, we also offer powerful 1000W hub motors within our range of electric bike kits. Our e-kits can be used to convert your bike into a fully equipped electric bike and are compatible with virtually all models on the market.

Finally, we invite you to contact us should you have any technical questions and we will try to solve them.