71
USB-C charging for electric bikes has arrived with the new Ampler Nova | BikeRadar
(www.bikeradar.com)
this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
71 points (98.6% liked)
micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
2651 readers
162 users here now
Ebikes, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, longboards, eboards, motorcycles, skates, unicycles, heelies, or an office chair: Whatever floats your goat, this is all things micromobility!
"Transportation using lightweight vehicles such as bicycles or scooters, especially electric ones that may be borrowed as part of a self-service rental program in which people rent vehicles for short-term use within a town or city.
micromobility is seen as a potential solution to moving people more efficiently around cities"
Feel free to also check out
It's a little sad that we need to actually say this, but:
Don't be an asshole or you will be permanently banned.
Respectful debate is totally OK, criticizing a product is fine, but being verbally abusive will not be tolerated.
Focus on discussing the idea, not attacking the person.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Forgive me if people already know this, but while the plug for USB-C is universal, the cables are not. You can't just plug any cable into a 45W or 100W wall wart and expect to get the power you need. Every cable has its own rating, and it needs to match or exceed the rating of the charger, or else you could cause damage to the devices, the cable, or even start a fire.
Exactly. So we're talking probably 45W+, or else long charge times.
Don't get me wrong, this is a good step away from proprietary chargers, but USB-C is kind of a mess in terms of having a unified or at least clear standard. Inb4 people unknowingly damage their bike battery by using the wrong cable.
I could be incorrect, but I don't think this is the case with USB-C. I believe fast-charging power bricks are generally able to detect the capabilities of the cable and device to prevent damage.
You're right, but not if the cable is unable to deliver that expected power. If it's rated too low, the wattage will heat up the cable, and you'll get unexpected behavior due to how heat and electricity interact.
It's possible that the charger or battery might have some way to monitor and mitigate that, but it's not something I would recommend testing on your expensive ebike.
This is fair, but one would hope that manufacturers see the writing on the wall: if using USB C as the charging input, the products (ebikes, phones, laptops, etc) have to be resilient, because we already have a world where the USB C connector is the "lingua franca" but each charger's capabilities are different.
Phones already have logic to detect "slow chargers" or poor cables, by way of sensing the voltage drop when ramping up the charging current. That's the minimum level of sophistication I would expect in a production ebike, and it'll certainly have to be more than that for 100+ Watts.
Fortunately, charge controller chip manufacturers are mostly on top of this, marketing their wares for very advanced charging profiles and feedback inputs. Especially for an ebike, I would further expect variable charge rates, so that users who know that their charger isn't high power -- or if they're concerned with the slightly elevated risk of battery fires at higher charge currents -- can choose to use a lower level, or to prolong battery life.
But I'm not an electrical engineer; I just watch in awe the things they produce.
The USBC PD spec requires cables to be able to pass 3 amps minimum.
Unless you're buying non-spec cables it should be fine.
USB in general is a mess, but it's the best mess we've got lol. That said, when I briefly perused the spec a while back, I understood that 100+ W operation requires active validation of the attached cables, to make sure they're built to a higher standard.
I'm hoping -- ignoring the issue of shoddy or counterfeit cables, which isn't a technical issue per se -- that this should be enough to prevent damage to end-devices. The newest USB PD spec simply hasn't been as widely deployed as earlier specs that were more than enough to charge a phone.
It will, however, be awesome when one day, an ebike can quickly top-up a friend's phone in the field. But I'm getting ahead of myself, dreaming of an all USB C world.
I'm with you. I hope we get there, too
Trickle charging is still better than no charging at all, and you would more likely to have a charger that works with you if fast charging is important.
Also, even 120W USB chargers tend to be smaller than their ebike equivalents with the typical barrel pin connectors.
To be fair, this is probably a voltage difference. The max a PD charger can go is 20V, while some ebike chargers go up to 48V.
USB-PD 3.1 can go up to 48V 5A for a 240W output.
Granted, almost none exist yet even though the spec is four years old, I know of one 180W charger and a handful of 240W rated cables, but the possibility is there.
And while 36V & 48V are the most common ebike batteries, they go up to 92 volts for the "not sure how this isn't just an electric motocycle" ones (Surron etc).
Oh sure. I'm not saying this is bad, per se, but the author presents it like some panacea, and it's not (yet?).