Fast-Charge Aluminum Battery Module Applied to Electric Bike

Abstract

The main goal of this work is to prolong the endurance and reduce charging time of electric bike (e-bike) with aluminum battery. The comparisons of aluminum battery from Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and commercial 48V1Ah lead-acid battery for e-bikes were investigated in this study. When lead-acid battery was charged at 1C, the charge capacity was 0.5Ah and the endurance performance of e-bike was 2km. As charging rate of lead-acid battery got higher to 5C, capacity decreased to 0.3Ah and the endurance performance of e-bike was 1km. From the result, it shows that the capacity of the lead-acid battery is decreased obviously with the charging rate increasing. Aluminum battery is a good candidate for e-bike with long vehicle range. At a current 100 mA/g, the capacity of 48V Al battery pack is 1Ah. When the charging rate is up to 5C, the capacity is 0.85AH (e.g., 85% capacity retention as compared to its 1C charge) and the endurance performance of e-bike achieves 3.4km. According to previous studies, Al battery shows the good performance at high C-rate application to offer the better endurance performance of electric bikes in the same charging time. Keywords：Aluminum battery, Battery management system, Vehicle