European Decsion on Ebike Power Ratings ...

[stephenbeetleman]

Hi Guys/Gals,

I was just reading the article on here about the European decision being delayed on the power rating of ebikes. I understand they have put off making a decision til July of this year. What is the general consensus on here on the power rating being uprated from the current 250 watt continuous power rating? Do you think it will have much of an impact on future offerings from the manufacturers? or do you think that battery technology will still be the 'achilles heel' restricting longer ranges in the higher power rated ebikes?

Sure its a good thing that an increase in the power rating will leave ebikes more accessible for those with disabilities etc but surely it must be a problem for first timers thinking of purchasing their ideal bike to think that the goalposts for spec may be moved in a few months time?

Thanks for reading.

Stephen

 

[oigoi]

I appreciate what you are saying, if all of a sudden ebikes are allowed to have more power who's going to want a lower powered one when they could have more power, and the market for the 250w ones will fall.

This isnt strictly true, because most ebikes already use more than 250w of power when under load climbing hills so there could be quite a few models that dont really need to change much at all.

I for one as a self builder look forward to the power ratings allowed being uprated - will help a lot for climbing hills with a cargo on board for example

 

[flecc]

It's not actually an increase Stephen, rather a proposal by the European Parliament to the EU commission for the power limit to be removed altogether. Of course the EU commission may not accept that and I understand that our DfT has already given the idea a frosty reception for the UK, indicating that 250 watts is the limit as far as they are concerned. Therefore it may well not happen.

However, lets suppose it does. Crank drive bikes which are usually pedelecs cannot use more power than they have at present, due to the limitations of the bicycle transmission, so it mainly affects hub motor e-bikes. Many of those have throttles and will need them with more power if the disabled are to take advantage of the new measure, but that introduces a new factor. Part of that European recommendation is that bikes with throttles will be limited to 25 kilos weight as a safety factor.

You can see the problem, bigger motors are heavier and eat more juice so need bigger, heavier batteries, but if the total has to be kept within 25 kilos, currently a common e-bike weight anyway, a serious limit is placed on how much bigger the motors and batteries can be. In view of this I doubt if anyone will bother to make anything over 350 watts anyway, not a big increase on the present one. Since a number of manufacturers already market both 250 and 350 watt versions for the different markets, not much is likely to change.

But as said above, I doubt we'll see any increase in the UK anyway.
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[stephenbeetleman]

Thanks for the replies guys, it was something that had just set me wondering. Range and hill climbing ability would definitely mean more to me than speed anyway but it is reassuring to think that any buying decisions made at the moment wouldn't consequently leave the buyer with a bike that would be underspec so to speak compared to future offerings.

Stephen