Could these simple, secure e-bike charging stations be the solution America needs?
There’s no doubt that the issue of safely charging e-bikes is a growing topic of concern in the US. And while the media frenzy around relatively rare e-bike fires is often overblown, it doesn’t rule out a real risk associated with lithium-ion batteries. Now, a new charging solution designed in the US could provide an answer to the problem.
I recently stumbled upon these two different models of e-bike charging stations when visiting Austin, Texas-based electric bike maker MOD Bikes.
The company just released several new models of e-bikes and updated their entire lineup with impressive features like torque sensors, color displays, dual battery support, and more. I had the opportunity to try several of them and I’ll have some in-depth reviews coming soon. But as impressive as the new e-bikes are, I found another surprise lurking in a corner of the company’s warehouse: a pair of in-house designed e-bike charging stations.
The two patent-pending charging stations offer a pair of divergent yet equally easy-to-install options that solve the problem of safe, secure charging.
The first style of charging station is intended for fleet use by MOD Bikes’ customers. For cases like law enforcement, where several bikes all using the same charger type are operated as a fleet, the primary charging station essentially works like a multi-pronged charging pedestal.
The chargers are designed to match MOD Bikes’ batteries, but they could be built to work with any specific type of e-bike battery, even with voltages or connection styles different from those used by MOD Bikes.
I learned that Tesla’s Gigafactory in Texas uses a fleet of e-bikes from MOD Bikes to get around the sprawling campus, including by the food staff for delivery catering all around the facility, and this type of charging station is intended to make it easy to charge such fleets of similar e-bikes.
But a second and perhaps more interesting charging station design offered much more versatility.
Designed for public use instead of by fleet operators, the second style of station includes a method to not only charge the bike, but also lock the charger and/or battery in the charging station.
It consists of a door with a latch that passes over the handle. Opening the hatch reveals a hollow space large enough to fit an e-bike charger and many different styles of e-bike batteries. There’s also a standard 120VAC electrical outlet in there, making this a BYOC (bring your own charger) type of affair.
To charge an e-bike, the rider’s own charger can be plugged into the outlet before closing the hatch door. As the latch slides over the handle, locking the bike to the pedestal will also lock the hatch closed, meaning no one can steal the charger. The charger’s wire can exit through a small gap, and the handle provides a secure location to lock the e-bike.
In cases where the rider wants to leave the battery but not the bike, such as overnight charging, the entire battery and charger can be placed in the unit and locked with a bike lock.
When I tested it, the pedestal was just large enough to barely fit the MOD Bikes charger and battery, though the company explained that they can build them to any size in order to accommodate larger batteries and chargers.
This would be an ideal solution for riders who don’t want to risk their bike sitting outside all night as an enticing target to bike thieves, but who also aren’t allowed to bring their battery indoors for charging, such as at many campuses and other areas now passing charging restrictions related to e-bikes.
Both of these solutions require a very small footprint, roughly 1 square foot of space for installation, yet provide a huge service for those who don’t have access to charging at either the ground level or in their homes and apartments.
Such public charging areas have long been the norm in China, where e-bikes are a much more common daily commuting vehicle than in the US.
These MOD Bikes designs adopt the same utility as Chinese models, but with increased security required in most American cities (in China, people usually just leave their chargers sitting on or next to their e-bikes and no one steals them).
MOD Bikes is currently looking for partners who want to run pilot programs to install the charging stations, either for fleet use or public charging. The company is able to produce them to fit various clients’ needs, with different charging voltages and connectors customized for various e-bikes.
Electrek’s Take
I think we are still in the early days of e-bike adoption in the US, and so charging is still being figured out in real-time. But in Asia and other countries with large e-bike adoption rates, public charging stations for e-bike batteries are already normal.
Just the other day I was walking through Dizengoff Center, a mall in Central Tel Aviv, when I spotted e-bike charging lockers that allow riders to deposit and charge their e-bike battery while they shop (seen below). It’s a different style, and also intended to be locked by a user-generated combination instead of using a bike lock, but it accomplishes the same goal of offering a safe charging location for the public.
I could see MOD Bikes’ solution being a simpler and more robust alternative for widescale parking, locking, and charging solutions as an all-in-one offering.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a decade from now, these charging and locking pedestals are commonplace in US cities.
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After investing nearly $1 billion over the past several years, Porsche launched electromobility at its production site in Saxony. The investment was designed to expand the facility so Porsche could ramp up Macan EV production.
Porsche ramps up Macan EV production at Zeipzig plant
On Tuesday, the company announced the official start of electromobility at its production site in Saxony, Germany.
Porsche has invested nearly $1 billion (600 million euros) to upgrade the facility to prepare it for Macan EV production. New additions include a new body assembly line. Porsche says production of the new Macan is currently being ramped up.
“At Porsche, we’re convinced that electromobility is the future,” CEO Oliver Blume explained. Following the Taycan, the Macan is Porsche’s second all-electric vehicle.
Despite this, Porsche wants to “remain flexible” by making gas, hybrid, and electric cars on the same production line.
“In production at Porsche, we have implemented the ‘smart, lean and green’ approach at all our factories,” Porsche executive board member for production Albrecht Reimold said.
“This means that we have the vision of an intelligently connected factory with the lowest possible environmental impact.” The Porsche Macan is produced with a carbon-neutral balance sheet in Leipzig.
Porsche is working toward a carbon-neutral balance sheet across its entire value chain for new cars built by 2030.
Porsche will begin deliveries of the new Macan EV in the second half of the year. Blume boasted in March, “We already have 10,000 orders, and these customers haven’t even been able to drive the car yet.”
Meet the all-electric Macan
The Macan EV is available in two options: the Macan 4 and Macan Turbo. The Macan 4 generates up to 402 hp (300 kW), while the Turbo model packs up to 630 hp (470 kW).
With that, the Macan 4 can sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds, while the Turbo model takes just 3.1 seconds.
As the first Porsche based on its new 800V PPE platform, the Macan EV can charge from 10% to 80% in under 21 minutes (with 270 kW charging).
Inside, the electric Macan gains luggage space over the gas model with up to 18 cu ft capacity behind the rear seat.
Porsche equipped the new Macan EV with its latest-gen infotainment, including a 12.6″ curved instrument cluster and 10.9″ central display. For the first time, passengers are offered a personal 10.9″ touchscreen.
The new infotainment is based on Android Auto OS and compatible with Apple CarPlay. The starting price for the Macan 4 is $78,800, while the MSRP for the Macan Turbo is $105,300.
Both do not include a $1,650 delivery fee. While EPA range figures will be released closer to deliveries, Porsche says the Macan EV 4 gets up to 381 miles (613 km) WLTP range. The Turbo version gets up to 367 miles (591 km).
Orders for Porsche’s new electric SUV are open now. You can use our link to view deals on the new 2024 Porsche Macan EV and Macan Turbo in your area.
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Environment
This retail fueling giant is about to integrate DC fast charging at a lot of gas stations
Gas pump and convenience store equipment technology giant Gilbarco Veeder-Root (GVR) has launched a DC fast charging system that can be seamlessly integrated into its retailers’ gas stations.
GVR, which has over 500,000 installations globally, co-developed the turnkey Konect DC fast charging system with EV charging tech company SK Signet. Seoul-based SK Signet will manufacture the EV charging equipment in the US and Korea.
Konect assists with site selection, funding options, and point-of-sale equipment. It provides hardware and software solutions, integrates onsite energy storage, and sets up loyalty schemes.
Konect’s DC fast charging system isn’t designed to be shoved in the back of the gas station on a separate network – it’s integrated into GVR’s existing full-site fueling payment and service systems.
GVR’s network connects multiple onsite cloud-based services, from point-of-sale payment and loyalty systems to localized energy management and off-grid charging solutions.
GVR has made its Konect DC fast chargers compelling to fuel retailers by minimizing upfront capital and ongoing operating expenses and boosting ROI.
Om Shankar, vice president & general manager of Konect, said:
[W]e aspire to remove hurdles and build an incredible business case for fuel retailers to play a major part in the EV transition.
… Konect is fully integrate-able with our existing full-site solutions, and is poised to help supercharge the transition to electric mobility.
Konect’s system is available now in the US and Europe, with more markets to come.
Read more: Tesla drivers, EVgo is about to begin NACS deployments on its DC fast chargers
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Tesla has lost a top AI engineer in charge of “planning, imitation learning & RL team for Tesla AI” amid a broader talent exodus.
Over the last few weeks, Tesla has been conducting several major waves of layoffs throughout its entire organization.
On top of the layoffs, we recently reported that some Tesla employees are leaving the company due to low morale.
There appear to be a clear exodus of talent at Tesla at the moment.
Another example is Paril Jain.
Jain spent the last 9 years at Tesla where he became an important part of Tesla’s autonomous driving effort.
Most recently, he was tech lead for “Planning, Imitation Learning & RL team for Tesla AI.” He listed the responsibilities of his team on LinkedIn:
- Build the Foundation Models for autonomy that can scale to vehicle as well as humanoid platforms
- Leverage millions of miles of driving data and interventions to build a robust and scalable end-to-end learning based self-driving system.
- Research on cutting-edge techniques in generative models, reward models and reinforcement learning to improve the safety and comfort of our driving models.
- Experiment with synthetic data generation and network driven data collection approaches to enhance the diversity and quality of training data
- Ship production quality, safety-critical software to the entirety of Tesla’s vehicle fleet
Today, he announced that he is leaving Tesla to co-found ‘The Bot Company’, a startup to build robots founded by Kyle Vogt, co-founder of Twitch and Cruise.
Super pumped for the next phase of building. We have spent the last decade building robots that give people some of their time back, and it’s time to take it to the next level with The Bot Company.
Jain has good words for the Tesla team:
As for Tesla – it has been an incredible 7 years building the best self driving product on the market. You’ll love the upcoming versions of V12 and Actually Smart Summon. The team is on an amazing trajectory to continue pushing forward more improvements on the road to being driverless
Nonetheless, Tesla’s autonomous driving team appears to have lost another engineering leader.
Electrek’s Take
As I have been saying for a while, Tesla’s biggest strength has always been its capacity to attract and retain talent. The company always scored in the top places engineering students want to work.
I think the way Elon handled the latest round of layoffs, and the talent exodus that is happening now, shows that this capacity is eroding.
I hope that they can turn this around.
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