How ION Energy is Powering 8000 Battery-assisted Bicycles in Europe
Our partner is a European battery pack manufacturer that manages the design, assembly, and distribution of batteries and energy storage systems. Based out of France, the company was founded in 2019 to develop battery solutions and mobile energy storage products based on lithium-ion batteries.
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About customer
One of the leading outdoor advertising companies worldwide, with a presence of over 75countries and 4,000+ cities. Based in France, this company has been continuously innovating and improving their street furniture offerings for more than 50 years. Predominantly in the outdoor advertising space, they have also ventured into the rental self-service bicycle space in Europe intending to promote multi-mode mobility and enable more open, connected, and sustainable cities.
A reputed and reliable European construction equipment and worksite technology builder, that has been enabling companies worldwide for over a century with high-end applications and innovations. They deliver a wide range of construction equipment that includes – cranes, excavators, forklifts, etc. They even undertake projects that require custom-design construction products, services, and solutions.
Outcome we delivered
100,000+
Units Deployed
85+
Customers
15+
Countries
How the all Electric Ride began
The city councils in Europe wish to deploy battery-assisted bicycles throughout major European economies. The plan is to have bicycles docked in so that anyone can walk up to these bikes and use them for a ride. They also want the batteries used inside these bicycles to double up as portable power banks which essentially means that the battery can be used for bike assistance and also as a power bank for users to charge their phones.
In Europe, consumer awareness and interest in buying an e-bike has been boosted through a straight forward financial incentive, offered nationally, or by local or regional authorities. In the Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria, e-bikes now account for 30% of all bicycles sold annually; and for 10-20% of all sales in Italy, France, Sweden, and Germany. In Sweden, in the last year alone, e-bike sales increased by 53% (from 67,500 to 103,000), and in France, their growth was 90% (from 134,000 to 255,000). Across Europe, sales of e-bikes are far higher than those of any other electric vehicle, including all hybrid and all-electric cars and vans combined. [Source]
Our partner was given the responsibility to design, engineer, and develop the battery pack for these e-bicycles, which started their search for a technology partner with the energy storage domain expertise to develop a customized battery management solution that manages these batteries. With this exciting innovation in mind, they approached ION Energy as they had just become our licensee. They are thrilled about taking up this project because of the massive scale at which it was envisioned to be deployed. As per the plan, these electric bicycles would soon be introduced in every major European city and that meant about 20,000 bicycles would be deployed in the first year and 50,000-100,000 every year going forward.
Challenge for Maxwell
The project is both challenging and exciting for the partner as is for us. The crucial challenges that we anticipated and identified include:
Powerful yet Compact Battery Pack: To build a multi-purpose battery pack, designing a Battery Management System (BMS) that fits inside the pack that was compact, portable, and would slide into the bicycle, was one of the major technical challenges. The power requirements for the BMS were also quite high for the compact size – 60W continuous for charging and 300Wcontinuous for discharging.
Doubling up as a fast-charging Power Bank: One interesting requirement of the project was to enable the battery to be used as a personal power bank for charging daily used electronics. This requirement was fulfilled by having an inbuilt charging module. In a typical power bank, there are different charging and discharging ports. What made this power bank even more special was its unique ability to charge and discharge through the same port. This meant that the BMS had to be smart to identify when it should charge or discharge the battery. For instance: If the user has to connect his/her phone to the power bank, the power bank should not start discharging the phone and start charging itself. It should charge the phone instead.
Sophisticated Yet Inexpensive Battery Technology: Adding onto the complexities of designing a powerful battery pack with fast charging power bank functionalities, was the challenge of achieving the target cost while optimizing the BMS for the application. Essentially, depending on the application that the battery pack is being designed for, the cost differs accordingly. For instance, a company that builds big battery packs for heavy equipment operators would be spending thousands of dollars on the BMS. But if the battery pack cells itself cost just $100, then they would not want to spend $100 more on the electronics. Hence we had to develop complex and sophisticated battery technology at a substantially lower cost.
Solution - Riding The Electric Transition
ION Energy’s advanced battery management and intelligence platform are designed with a focus on building technologies that improve the life and performance of lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles and energy storage systems.
Instant Activation & Deployment: We kickstarted the project with instant activation support and a dedicated team of engineers presented the first prototype in (3months). After multiple rounds of design validation, we rana pilot a few weeks later. Currently, we’re at the stage where the customer has deployed 100s of these batteries and are ramping up the deployment very quickly. We are in the process of deploying over 8000 batteries within the next4-5 weeks.
Customizing ION’s BMS FS-CT: The BMS for this project was built on top of ION’s existing BMS platform – the FS-CT. Designed for low voltage battery systems, the BMS is a perfect fit for light electric vehicles and small industrial and home storage systems. As per the current requirements, the smart BMS was already equipped with –
— Detection and protection for overvoltage and under-voltage errors
— 500uA supply current in power-saving mode
— State of Charge (SoC) and State of Health (SoH) estimations based on advanced algorithms— Ability to manage 3 to 10 cells in series
— Isolated CAN bus interface for charger control and system interfacing
The BMS has been designed in such a way that the battery not only integrates with thebattery-assisted bicycle but can be charged using any Type C USB charger and can be used as apower bank (see below for more details). All the above features were achieved within a size of 150mm x 75 mm x 25 mm. Even with the small form factor, the integrated charger on the battery canwork from a 10W to 60W Type C Universal USB Charger.
This means that the battery can be charged upto90% within an hour!
Increased Battery Life: Under usual circumstances, if a battery is fully discharged the BMS would continue to consume a certain amount of current since it needs a power supply to continue to perform important functions. This means that the battery continues to discharge to supply power to the BMS even if it is in the Under Voltage region. We designed a BMS which cuts power to itself once the battery reaches Under Voltage, bringing down the current consumption in the under-voltage region to zero. Instead of the usual 10-20 days that the battery would survive at under voltage, it survives for more than 3 months. Once the battery starts charging, the BMS powers itself ON again.
This feature was critical for the application in question. For instance, if someone uses the power bank to charge their phone, completely discharging it and then leaving it around for a few days, this could seriously cause irreparable damage to the battery. ION’s smart BMS ensured increased battery life for the 2-in-1 battery pack and portable charger to work effectively.Maximum Charging at Optimum Temperature: As the battery pack was a completely closed block, the heat transmission from the battery to the outside was slightly difficult. We introduced a derating algorithm inside the BMS that automatically controls the rate of charging, depending on the temperature and charges the pack quickly without heating the battery beyond its limit. For instance: If the temperature is 25°C, it allows the battery pack to be charged at full speed. Inversely, if the temperature is close to 40-45 °C, then the BMS decreases the rate of charging so the pack would never go above the over-temperature limit, but at the same time, it would ensure maximum charging for the longest period for the optimum temperature.
Minimizing Errors with EoL Testing: After having built the electronics board, we also developed an end of line testing system for our partner, because they wanted to manufacture these portable battery packs in high quantities. The target production rate was 200 batteries a day. The testing system had to be convenient, easy to use, fast, and efficient.
We built and deployed an EoL testing system that can test up to 2000 batteries in a week and was fully automated. ION’s EoL testing system minimizes the chances of human errors to zero. Asa process, the operator just needs to put the BMS for the test and click on ‘start the test’. Once the test is carried out successfully, it generates a report automatically that is stored in a computer at the manufacturing line. It also automatically updates the status of the electronic board on EDISON Analytics – ION’s battery intelligence platform, which means that it automatically takes care of inventory tracking.
Product deployed
BMS: FS-CT
An advanced BMS with high packaging density. Meticulously designed for light electric,hybrid vehicles, and energy storage systems.
6-10 cells (FS-CT 10S)
Typical FS-CT Application
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Trusted by the World’s
Largest OEM’s
Dedicated Engineering
Support across each step
Unparalleled Product
Configurability
Safe, Certified and
Reliable Systems
Commitment to
Quality
