Samsung SDI unveils e-bike Li-ion battery pack with 100km per charge
26 August 2015
At Eurobike 2015, Samsung SDI unveiled a 500Wh e-bike Li-ion battery pack that can run for 100 km on a single battery charge. Samsung SDI is exhibiting six types of standardized battery packs that can either be built inside or installed on the outside for immediate use.
The company will also display 12 types of battery packs that are currently being supplied to global manufacturing companies and the cells of various specifications. A Bluetooth function which will enable users to check on their smartphones for residual battery, remaining distance, and other data, while riding their bicycles.
Samsung SDI also unveiled a battery pack product equipped with 21700-type batteries, noted for their upgraded energy capacity compared to previous cylindrical types. The 18650 battery, or rather the small cylindrical battery of 18mm diameter and 65mm length, has been in dominant use until recently. However, the creation of new battery applications has boosted the demand for high capacity batteries. In response, Samsung SDI has come up with a battery that has upgraded a maximum of 35% of energy volume, now known as the 21700 battery, and has successfully applied it onto e-bikes for the first in the world.
The 21700 model can have various applications other than e-bike, such as in electric tools, laptops, and more. It is expected to become the new standard in small cylindrical battery usage.
Japan’s secondary cell market research company B3 has estimated that Samsung SDI will follow up its past record of being No.1 for two consecutive years since 2013 in the e-bike lithium-ion battery market and will also come out as the leader this year with a total market share of 25%.
According to market research companies such as Navigant Research and Bike Europe, the global e-bike market is estimated to have reached the number of around 34 million bikes this year. B3 stated in their data that the replacement rate of lead-acid batteries in China has been on the rise and as a result, the demand for e-bike lithium-ion batteries will mark 163 million cells by the end of 2015, which is a 14% increase from last year.
Samsung (and LG) may be showing the way to go for improved batteries for the new Panasonic-TESLA mega-factory?
Posted by: HarveyD | 26 August 2015 at 06:48 AM
Well Harvey, 21700 is not going to make much odds for car batteries in terms of energy density, in the absence of better chemistry.
They make a few less bits to solder together, which reduces manufacturing costs a bit, and they pack a bit differently, as they are taller, but there is not much in it in terms of energy density in the cylinders and the spaces between them.
Posted by: Davemart | 26 August 2015 at 01:58 PM
Visually this 0.5kWh battery pack comprises 30 21700 cylindrical cells.
The diameter of a ~3.3Ah 18650 cell having been increased by one-sixth - 21/18.
Giving an increase in area of some 36% ((21/18)^2) - so one might presume that the increase in cell length of 5mm allows for protection circuitry, to safeguard longevity.
Posted by: OzActuary | 30 August 2015 at 04:54 AM
Okay, I'm confused.
1. My Pedego Interceptor uses a 48V / 10-Ah (480 watt hours) 18650 lithium-ion pack. So why is this so much better? Is it lighter? Smaller? This article says the batteries are bigger. How is that better? And,
2. How do they derive bicycle distance from battery power? What kind of yardstick are they using?
Posted by: DerekBell | 01 September 2015 at 06:42 PM