Visiting the little-known Chinese controller maker behind the biggest e-bikes: Lishui factory tour
On a recent trip to China, I visited a wide range of companies and factories in the micromobility industry. Many had big names and bigger reputations, but one company surprised me as a silent, relatively unheard-of force behind many of the biggest e-bike companies in the world.
Meet Lishui, the company you’ve probably never heard of but have almost certainly used their products.
Inside the controller maker’s nondescript buildings are a series of laboratories and manufacturing halls where R&D and production occur. The company designs and builds controllers, essentially the brains of an electric bike, as well as other electronic components used in e-bikes and e-scooters.
To get your own look behind the curtain, follow on my tour in the video below. Then keep reading for all of the details!
As I explored the facility, it was impossible to miss the hundreds of electric bicycles parked pedal to pedal, mixed in and around the labs. Many were made by some of the biggest e-bike companies in the industry, both from North America and Europe.
Yes, the companies you’re thinking of right now, their bikes were there. So were the others. It was a veritable who’s who of e-bike movers and shakers. I can’t name names because Lishui doesn’t publicly announce who uses its products. And I’ve had to blur them all in the video and photos, both to protect their identities and because many of the bikes are new, unreleased models that arrive at Lishui early for testing with the company’s newest controllers and drive components.
But the numbers speak for themselves, with Lishui touting over 1,900 clients worldwide and selling over 13 million controllers to date. According to the company, 1 in 3 e-bikes in Europe are rolling around with a Lishui controller.
That success hasn’t come easily or quickly. The company has actually been around since 1979, getting its start making motor controllers for other industries. As the nascent e-bike industry came into fruition, Lishui switched over to purely micromobility controllers by 1997.
Unlike many other e-bike component makers, Lishui differentiates itself by doing all of its software and hardware development in-house. There’s no outsourcing here, they have their own team of nearly 60 engineers working on both the hardware and software side.
Many of those engineers have been with the company for over a decade, helping them retain the kind of talent and experience that tends to float to the top.
Lishui’s products cover three main markets: low-power 250W controllers for European e-bikes, higher-power 500W to 2,000W controllers for the North American market, and specialty controllers such as those with custom designs to fit inside battery cases and other specific use cases. For that last group, the company has developed deep connections with major battery makers over the past decade to help integrate its controllers directly into their battery cases.
And while many companies build controllers, Lishui further differentiates itself with a custom IoT suite, essentially making their controllers connected devices that allow companies and even end users to connect to the controllers over their phones and set or change parameters at will.
Along the way, Lishui has expanded its scope to include designing and building Bluetooth-enabled handlebar displays to take advantage of its sophisticated controllers further.
But designing such components is only half the battle. Lishui also handles in-house production of its high-tech components, using processes that are rooted in repetitive quality checks and spot tests to ensure all components are produced properly.
Much of the circuit board production occurs on-site here, with Lishui operating their own massive industrial soldering machines. A few hand soldering tasks are performed for larger components though, such as for the thicker power cables.
The circuit boards move to the mounting stages next, where they are enclosed in an extruded aluminum case and then filled with potting material to protect the electronics from water.
Next, the controllers are passed to the inspection stage, where they are connected to a testing rig that runs a series of 76 unique tests on the controllers. Each controller runs through these tests, ensuring that every product that leaves the factory has been electronically inspected for conformity and performance.
Interestingly, I even got to see a few aspects of the factory that I wasn’t expecting. For example, the company’s founder Mr. Xu, who it turns out has a major gardening hobby, has basically turned every bit of ground in the factory complex into sprawling gardens.
He’s got his own greenhouse for ornamentals but also large greenhouses for growing food throughout the winter months. Vines and trees dot the property, and a good-sized farm is tucked behind one of the warehouses, which is used to grow food used in the factory’s cafeteria for the workers.
In fact, Mr. Xu actually eats the same food in the same cafeteria as the workers, which was a refreshing sight to see. In other factories, I’ve seen VIP areas off to the side for the bosses to eat, and so it’s great to see that everyone from a new hire to the company founder all share the same lunch together.
Does it have any impact on the quality of the controllers? Maybe not. But the good morale that comes from walking among trees and flowers all day, as well as knowing that your boss doesn’t sit in an ivory tower, sure helps lead to a nicer working atmosphere. And so perhaps that does ultimately impact the quality of the work after all.
In the several hours I spent visiting Lishui, I went from not knowing much about this obscure powerhouse of a controller manufacturer to having a much deeper understanding of how they can supply millions of controllers to the world’s largest e-bike brands.
It all comes back to their depth of knowledge and experience in the field, their dedication to in-house development, and rigorous quality inspections.
And as an interesting final note, after seeing all of those secret e-bikes lining the halls and sides of the company test track, I now realize that I’ve had a few Lishui controllers sitting in my garage back home this whole time!
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Mitsubishi is partnering with Ample and Yamoto Transports to deploy an innovative new battery swap network for electric cars in its Japanese home market — but it’s not just for electric cars. Mitsubishi Fuso commercial trucks are getting in on the action, too!
Despite a number of early EV adopters with an overdeveloped concept of ownership, battery swap technology has proven to be both extremely effective and extremely positive to the overall EV ownership experience. And when you see how simple it is to add hundreds of miles of driving in just 100 seconds — quicker, in many cases, than pumping a tank of liquid fuel into an ICE-powered car — you might come around, yourself.
That seems to be what Mitsubishi thinks, anyway, and they’re hoping they’ll be your go-to choice when it’s time to electrify your regional and last-mile commercial delivery fleet(s) by launching a multi-year pilot program to deploy more than 150 battery-swappable commercial electric vehicles and 14 modular battery swapping stations across Tokyo, where the company plans to showcase its “five minute charging” tech in full view of hundreds of commercial fleets and, crucially, the executives of the companies that own and manage them.
A truck like the Mitsubishi eCanter typically requires a full night of AC charging to top off its batteries, and at least an hour or two on DC charging in Japan, according to Fuso. This joint pilot by Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks, and Ample aims to circumvent this issue of forced downtime with its swappable batteries, supporting vehicle uptime by delivering a full charge within minutes. The move is meant to encourage the transport industry’s EV shift while creating a depository of stored energy that can be deployed to the grid in the event of a natural disaster — something Mitsubishi in Japan has been working on for years.
Trucks like the eCanter already serve a number of roles throughout the global truck market, including municipal waste collection, regional delivery support, and more.
The pilot is backed by Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “Technology Development Support Project for Promoting New Energy,” with local delivery operator Yamato Transport testing swappable EVs for delivery operations on both its eCanter light-duty trucks and Mitsubishi Minicab kei-class electric vans.
Electrek’s Take
Electrifying the commercial truck fleet is a key part of decarbonizing city truck fleets – not just here in the US, but around the world. I called the eCanter, “a great product for moving stuff around densely packed city streets,” and eliminating the corporate fear of EV charging in the wild just makes it an even better product for that purpose.
Here’s hoping we see more “right size” electric solutions like this one (and more battery swapping tech) in small towns and tight urban environments stateside somewhat sooner than later.
SOURCES | IMAGES: Mitsubishi, Fuso.
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After becoming the first European brand to offer fully electric versions of every model it sells — and at the same price as the ICE models — Opel is going even further, with a new, AWD electric SUV that should give American Jeep fans hope for a new electric Cherokee!
Now part of the Stellantis, rather than GM portfolio of brands, Rüsselsheim-based Opel showed off the first official pictures of its new Opel Grandland Electric AWD — the company’s first all-electric SUV to feature the “Blitz” performance emblem and all-wheel drive.
“Our top-of-the-range Grandland SUV is a milestone for Opel,” says Opel CEO Florian Huettl. “Customers already have a choice of battery-electric drive, plug-in hybrid and hybrid with 48-volt technology. We are now offering even more choice with the Grandland Electric AWD and thus ensuring that our customers can enjoy maximum efficiency and safety in diverse weather and road conditions, combined with plenty of driving fun.”
Stellantis gets it right in Europe
Opel says its new, AWD Grandland is its most aerodynamically efficient model yet, with a drag coefficient (Cd) of just 0.278. That efficiency, paired with similarly efficient electric motors and a 73 kWh li-ion NMC battery give the electric crossover a 501 km (311 mile) WLTP range, while a combined 325 hp and 375 lb-ft of torque should make for suitably spirited acceleration to go along with all that green cred.
Suspension and handling, too, are promised to deliver on what Opel claims is a “typical” Teutonic driving experience in the Grandland AWD:
Both driving pleasure and comfort are further emphasized by dampers with frequency selective damping technology. This unique technology comes as standard on the Grandland Electric AWD and incorporates a second hydraulic circuit in the damper chamber to mechanically adapt the damping force in relation to the frequency. Depending on the situation, road surface conditions and driving style, it enables different damping characteristics for comfortable gliding at high frequencies – i.e. with short impacts such as on cobblestones or a manhole cover – as well as for a sporty, ambitious driving style with more direct contact with the road at low frequencies. The Grandland reacts even more immediately and directly to any command from the driver and, as is typical for Opel, remains stable when braking, cornering and at high speeds on the Autobahn.
OPEL PRESS RELEASE
The Opel Grandland Electric AWD ships with four standard drive modes that include “normal,” eco, sport, and 4WD mode, which simulates locking axles and true 4×4 off-road performance. The ESP and traction control systems adopt specific settings to enhance grip in 4WD mode as well, and maximum power and torque are instantly available.
Electrek’s Take
As you maybe could tell by now, feeding European Stellantis EVs into an AI image generator and asking it to “make them into Jeeps” is one of my new favorite things to do. This new Opel is no different, and the resulting image (above) paired with the models’ stated specs give me hope that the next wave of Jeep EVs will do better than the Wagoneer S at attracting buyers. All they really need, I think, is the right name — and the right price, to be winners.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Opel.
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Like a 90s “gifted” kid that was supposed to be a lot of things, the electric Jeep Wagoneer S never really found its place — but with dealers discounting the Jeep brands forward-looking flagship by nearly $25,000, it might be time to give the go-fast Wagoneer S a second look.
SKIP THE STORY: get straight to the deals.
Whether we’re talking about Mercedes-Benz, Cerberus, Fiat, or even Enzo Ferrari, outsiders have labeled Jeep as a potentially premium brand that could, “if managed properly,” command luxury-level prices all over the globe. That hasn’t happened, and Stellantis is just the latest in a long line of companies to sink massive capital into the brand only to realize that people will not, in fact, spend Mercedes money on a Jeep.
That said, the Jeep Wagoneer S is not a bad car (and neither is its totally different, hideously massive, ICE-powered Wagoneer sibling, frankly). Built on the same Stellantis STLA Large vehicle platform that underpins the sporty Charger Daytona EVs, the confusingly-named Wagoneer S packs dual electric motors putting out almost 600 hp. That’s good enough to scoot the ‘ute 0 to 60 mph in a stomach-turning 3.5 seconds and enough, on paper, to convince Stellantis executives that they had developed a real, market-ready alternative to the Tesla Model Y.
With the wrong name and a sky-high starting price of $66,995 (not including the $1,795 destination fee), however, that demand didn’t materialize, leaving the Wagoneer S languishing on dealer lots across the country.
That could be about to change, however, thanks to big discounts on Wagoneer S being reported at CDJR dealers in several states, according to our friends at the Car Dealership Guy podcast.
- Jimmy Britt Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Georgia, has a Wagoneer S with an MSRP of $67,590 listed at $43,104 ($24,486 off)
- In Florida, Taverna Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Fiat has a $67,590 Wagoneer S slashed to $43,138 ($24,452 off)
- Chris Nikel Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Fiat in Oklahoma has a Wagoneer S listed for $43,425 ($24,165 off)
“Stellantis bet big on electric versions of iconic American brands like Jeep and Dodge, but consumers aren’t buying the premise,” writes CDG’s Marcus Amick. “(Stellantis’ dealer body) is now stuck with expensive EVs that need huge discounts to move, eating into already thin margins while competitors focus on [more] profitable gas-powered vehicles.”
All of which is to say: if you’ve found yourself drawn to the Jeep Wagoneer S, but couldn’t quite stomach the $70,000+ window stickers, you might want to check in with your local Jeep dealer and see how you feel about it at a JCPenneys-like 30% off!
Jeep Wagoneer S gallery
SOURCES | IMAGES: Car Dealership Guy, CarScoops, and CarsDirect.
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