Design approach for electric bikes using battery and super capacitor for performance improvement

Abstract

The market for electric bikes, scooters and bicycles is growing. There are numerous brands of E-bikes emerging locally. All most all incorporate a rear wheel BLDC (Brushless DC) hub motor; lead acid battery pack, a light weight chassis, and a controller. The Vehicle achieves average speed of 30-50km/hr, range of 70km/charge. The other drawback is the long charging time of 6-8 hrs and short lifespan of battery pack i.e. around 2 years. Considering these limitations authors are modifying the existing design of an electric bike which will give a better performance with the use of a hybrid system of battery and super capacitor. The authors in this paper have tried to address the drawbacks observed in e-bike operations and have presented the results of their experimentations. Super-capacitor modules are used to provide the high current required during starting and acceleration, and eventfully will help increasing lifespan of battery. A secondary source, like regenerative braking or a small solar panel module could be availed onboard so as to charge battery/ super capacitor.

Are Personal Electric Vehicles Sustainable? A Hybrid E-Bike Case Study

“…term) 4,5 Seconds-hours (short term, <1 h) 4 Hours-months 4, ** Minutes-days 4,5 Discharge time at power rating seconds-hours (up to 10 h) 4 * Response time refers to reactivity of fuel cells (FCs) after the startup period, which depends on the FC type, ** storage duration depends on the reservoir capacity, 1 according to reference [48], 2 according to reference [49], 3 according to reference [47], 4 according to reference [34], 5 according to reference [50], 6 according to reference [51]. [52], 2 according to reference [53], 3 according to reference [54], 4 according to reference [55], 5 according to reference [56], 6 according to reference [57], 7 according to reference [49], 8 according to reference [45], 9 according to reference [58], 10 according to reference [59], 11 according to reference [60], 12 according to reference [61], 13 according to reference [62], 14 according to references [62][63][64]. [65], 3 according to reference …”

“…The lowest prices were obtained for the hybrid storage implementations (battery-FC and SC-FC) and the highest for the FC implementation. * According to estimations and average values, 1 according to reference [69], 2 according to reference [25], 3 according to reference [17], for the tested pedelec, 4 according to reference [33], 5 according to reference [39], for the tested models, 6 according to reference [70], 7 according to reference [49], 8 according to reference [71], 9 according to reference [22], 10 according to reference [72], 11 according to reference [73], 12 according to reference [21], 13 according to reference [74], 14 according to reference [75], 15 according to reference [76], 16 according to reference [77], 17 according to reference [23], 18 according to reference [58], 19 according to reference [60], 20 according to reference [78], 21 according to reference [79], 22 according to reference [67]. Table 9.…”

“…Most e-bikes (pedelecs) present the following features: the motor is placed on the rear wheel [17], have a 26 inch wheel [17,18], the charging time is between 4 and 6 h [17,18,72], the number of life cycles is between 500 and 1000 [17,18,69], and the overall efficiency is 86% [75]. There are also e-bikes that use SC as a storage element, such as [58,60,74]. SCs have a greater number of life cycles (see Table 5) and the charging time is much lower: below 1 min [74].…”

An Intelligent Control System for an Electrically Power Assisted Cycle (EPAC)

“…Lithium ion polymer is another contender, with the distinct advantage of allowing for slimmer battery packs due to easy stack ability (Gohm and Cruden, 2012). Another alternative is super-capacitors (Hatwar et al, 2013), which are still held back by their cost. They provide rapid charging, but the voltage drop during discharging is problematic in EPAC applications.…”

Preference of e-Bike by Women in India–a Niche Market for Auto Manufacturers

“…However, pure electric vehicles that were po wered solely by the battery could contribute to a great extent to the reduction of the same. Hatwar et al (2013) projected a new approach in the design of ebike which consists of hybrid system of battery and super capacitor for increasing speed, and avoid the complaints of long charging time and short lifespan of battery.…”