Charging E-Bikes or Zeros from Solar?

[Badmiker]

Hey friendly people!

I am starting to do the basic layout and timing for a multi year build of our expedition rig.

I currently live in Shanghai and the number of electric bikes/scooters/motorcycles is mind melting.

I spoke with Zero motorcycles and they state the 120 vac charger draws a maximum of 15 amps or 1800w

I think we can get ~1800 watts of solar on our roof.

We'll also have a diesel gen on-board and a healthy battery bank as we want to be off grid as much as possible.

Does this seem like it would be chargeable? Over several days if needed of course.

We can also leave the bigger Zero and go with a much smaller Chinese made ebike/scooter thing, they are ~3000 watts of motor so much less power hungry than the Zeros.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

 

[luthj]

What is the kWhr capacity of the bikes battery? What is the capacity of your rigs battery? What type is it?

 

[DiploStrat]

Having just ridden a Go Cycle, this subject interests me as well. (https://gocycle.com)

For giggles, I once charged a Chevrolet Bolt from my truck and the drain was tremendous.

Remember 15A @ 110v is about 150A @ 12v. So an electric bike that wanted a three hour charge would pull 450Ah. That is a lot of juice.

If you can actually cram 1800w of solar panels on your roof, you can expect between 90 and 100A @ 12v under perfect conditions. (Based on the rule of thumb that 100w generally delivers about 5A to the batteries.)

Without any real world experience, and allowing that I am just working with your numbers (that is, I have not actually measured the amp draw of a real electric bike), I would speculate that you will want to be sure that you have a healthy alternator and a way to charge while driving. "Healthy" in this case means an alternator that has a sustained output of over 100A.

Be interested to hear the experiences of others.

 

[dwh]

I seem to recall.that Overland Journal did an article where they took their Zero on a trip and charged it from...what? Foldup solar panels?

Something like that. Can't seem to find it now. Maybe it's just the heatstroke messin' with my mind.


Even with 1800w of solar, I'd expect a good portion of that to go toward recharging the truck's house battery bank and running normal loads, like a fridge.

"Max of 15a" just means that it's limited so it won't pop a standard North American 15a breaker. In other words, "plug it in anywhere".

For this situation, I'd be more interested to know what is the minimum it can draw.

 

[Badmiker]

Hi All,

Thanks for the discussion around this subject.

For more info this is the actual details I got from Jeff at Zero:

Below is information on both charger types

Level 1 Onboard 120V stock charger

• · Pulls 15 amps when battery is empty then tapers off to a couple of amps when it’s almost done charging
• · Input of this charger is 120 or 240 Volts so you can use in in Europe just by changing the charge cord
• · Can take 4.5 to 11 hours to charge depending on battery size
• · Super easy to use by just plugging the bike into the wall

Level 2 Charge tank

• · Fits into the storage area on the TANK portion of the motorcycle
• · Uses 240 V and pulls about 30 amps
• · Almost all public charging stations use this type of connector
• · You can still use the onboard level 1 charger
• · You will need to be setup to charge on this type of network.(member ship and or credit card required depending on network)
• · Will charge the battery in about 1-2 hours depending on battery size
• · Level 2 J1772 charging is looking to be the standard for years to come

I think in looking over this a bit more we would be hard pressed to charge a pair of bikes using the solar array. Using a genset might be doable but I don't know if it would be just better to add an extra 20-40 gallon tank for petrol on the diesel vehicle and carry a small 125cc trail bike.

Second option is to 'downgrade' to lighter bicycle type e-bikes that have less power/weight/energy requirements. We would primarily be looking for a little more mobility while camped. Run into town for shopping/dinner whatever and maybe explore the local area a bit in something smaller than a EX truck. When we lived in a 27' class A motorhome, we dragged a motorcycle on a trailer for the same use. We don't want another trailer and realized we only need 50-100km of range.

 

[dwh]

There are some pretty powerful ebikes out there with decent range. Those you could do with solar.

You could do the Zero with a generator. Say a 4kva unit that puts out 220v. Then you could do the 2 hour charge thing.

 

[skyfree]

The Zero DS with 53 combined miles of range weighs 317 lbs. A 4kv generator to charge it will weigh somewhere around 200 lbs. Rather than carry all that weight you are probably better off with a gas powered conventional motorcycle.

My Haibike E-mountain bike weighs 48 lbs and requires 4A at 120V to charge from 1/3 to full in under 3 hours, but you've got to pedal it some .

 

[Badmiker]

Unless there is a significant shift in solar and battery tech, I am thinking Zeroes are out of the picture. But e-bikes or small petrol bikes are likely.

Sent from my MI 6 using Tapatalk

 

[F350joe]

I have an ebike and use it for exactly what you described as well as to run errands around home. It’s great to have while camping. You can run into town, start further down a trail for a hike, ride to a trial head, to the bathroom, or as a way to grab parts if you break down. Mine gets used by everyone a couple times a day usually. I have a 600w motor with 36v/ 14ah battery which is good for about 15 miles in dirt with little effort no problem, double that on the road with some pedaling. Weighs about 50Ibs. It gets plugged into an auxiliary battery with a small inverter when not being used to keep it topped off. The aux truck battery gets topped off by the alternators when the engine is running. All that said, I would suggest putting the money into extra ebike batteries that can be charged while driving or at home. You can then Leave one battery charging or bring it with when you need extra range. You can also top off batteries while in town eating or stay a night at a campground with hookups. At campgrounds, use the ebike to get away from the hustle and bustle. Get up early and peel off several miles of a trail and you will be out of range of any other day hikers.

You can convert most bikes to an ebike with a kit In just a few hours. You will save a lot of money, get the bike you want, and have more money left over to buy more batteries. I suggest a mid drive and full suspension for balance and trail comfort.

these guys are supposedly coming out with a 12v water/wind turbine version some day soon.

https://waterlilyturbine.com/products/waterlily-turbine.

Remember to be extra careful and courteous when riding the ebike around people. A few parks in the U.S. have already banned them.