I own an ebike tour company in a developing country. I have been doing this for a few years now and have always used batteries built from 18650PF cells. They have been doing fine but I wonder if I might be missing an opportunity to use a more appropriate cell type.
So I hope some of the generous people of this forum might make a suggestion based on my use case and goals. This is how my batteries are used:
Motor: magic pie edge 500W motor at 48V
Batteries: HL1 case, Panasonic 18650PF 48V 10.8Ah
Charger: 2A
Usage:
Bikes do 2 tours a day. Each tour uses about 30% of the battery's capacity. When the morning our comes back (battery at 70%) we charge them for about 2 hours with the 2A charger so they are ready for the afternoon tour. I estimate that we get close to 100% charge from that. The bikes go on another tour and come back around 70%. They are then charged to 100% for the next day's morning tour.
So as you can see this is not strenuous usage (at least I don't think so). I don't need the best of the best and price is important to me. What I'm hoping for is a cell that might have an even longer cycling life.
Over the years I have lost a handful of batteries due to individual cells failing but the attrition rate is not drastic considering some of my batteries have had around 2000 cycles. But I am always looking to improve.
I have to buy 7 new batteries and I am wondering if I might do even better with a different cell. I wonder if based on my usage, someone might have a recommendation.
Any and all advice is welcome. Thank you!
So I hope some of the generous people of this forum might make a suggestion based on my use case and goals. This is how my batteries are used:
Motor: magic pie edge 500W motor at 48V
Batteries: HL1 case, Panasonic 18650PF 48V 10.8Ah
Charger: 2A
Usage:
Bikes do 2 tours a day. Each tour uses about 30% of the battery's capacity. When the morning our comes back (battery at 70%) we charge them for about 2 hours with the 2A charger so they are ready for the afternoon tour. I estimate that we get close to 100% charge from that. The bikes go on another tour and come back around 70%. They are then charged to 100% for the next day's morning tour.
So as you can see this is not strenuous usage (at least I don't think so). I don't need the best of the best and price is important to me. What I'm hoping for is a cell that might have an even longer cycling life.
Over the years I have lost a handful of batteries due to individual cells failing but the attrition rate is not drastic considering some of my batteries have had around 2000 cycles. But I am always looking to improve.
I have to buy 7 new batteries and I am wondering if I might do even better with a different cell. I wonder if based on my usage, someone might have a recommendation.
Any and all advice is welcome. Thank you!