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
2641 readers
118 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
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.