How far can an electric bicycle really go on a single charge?
One of the biggest benefits of electric bicycles is that they can help riders go farther with the same amount of leg power. But with manufacturers citing wildly different range ratings for seemingly similar e-bikes, how can you know what an e-bike’s true range is?To get more news about 48v VS 52v ebike, you can visit magicyclebike.com official website.
It’s actually easier than you’d think. And after spending more than a decade working in the electric bicycle industry, I’ve gotten decently good at it, if I may say so myself. Here are my tips to get a true, honest range rating out of an e-bike.To get more news about electric bike, you can visit magicyclebike.com official website.
What are the factors in e-bike range?
First things first: One of the reasons e-bike range ratings seem to be all over the place is because they can be affected by a number of factors.
Everything from speed to rider weight to terrain style to wind conditions and even tire choice can impact an e-bike’s effective range on a single charge.
The second major factor is the presence (or absence) of a hand throttle. Most European riders won’t have to consider this since e-bike throttles aren’t common in EU countries. But for Americans and riders in other countries that allow hand throttles in addition to pedal assist, a hand throttle can be a quick way to drain battery and reduce range.
How to estimate e-bike range
To determine an e-bike’s approximate range, you first need to start with the battery capacity. It is usually measured in Watt hours (Wh). Sometimes you’ll see a battery rated in volts and amp hours, such as an e-bike with a 48V 10Ah battery. To convert to Wh, simply multiply the volts by the amp hours. A 48V and 10Ah battery is therefore a 480 Wh battery.
Next, you can calculate effective range by simply dividing the watt hour capacity of the battery by an average efficiency number in Wh/mi (or Wh/km if you prefer kilometers).
This is the slightly fuzzy part of the math, since efficiency numbers will vary based on the factors listed at the start of this article. But speaking generally, I find that most 500-750W throttle e-bikes ridden at an average speed of 20 mph (32 km/h) on only slightly hilly terrain get me around 25 Wh/mi (or 15.6 Wh/km). Thus an e-bike of this style with a 480Wh battery would provide me with around 19 miles of range (480 Wh ÷ 25 Wh/mi = 19.2 miles).
Pedal assist will always be more efficient. I find that most pedal assist e-bikes ridden around 15 to 18 mph in medium levels of pedal assist will get me around 15 Wh/mi (or 9.4 Wh/km). Thus the same 480Wh battery on a pedal assist e-bike will provide me around 32 miles of range (480 Wh ÷ 15 Wh/mi = 32 miles).
You can use the same math for various sizes of batteries to calculate an estimated range under real world conditions. However, you might want to make adjustments to the numbers to better fit your needs, as I explain next.