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Olympia unveil huge 900Wh 'super battery' with up to 290km of range

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Jack Sexty's picture

Jack Sexty

Jack is the news editor here at eBikeTips, and also edits the live blog and writes tech news over on our sister site road.cc. Jack first became fascinated with e-bikes when an elderly gentleman breezed past him without a care in the world up a big old hill in North Wales - thus realising e-bikes are the real deal! Although he genuinely enjoys time trials and lung-busting climbs without assistance, Jack likes nothing more than cruising round town on an e-bike during his days off.   

5 comments

3 years 8 months ago

Definitely. Case in point - my wife. Fit enough to do the 16 mile round trip to the office, unwilling though more than max. 2 times/week. 
Put her on an ebike and she rides EVERY DAY. 

 

WRT Lithium Carbonate production in S America, yes,  there are some very real and very nasty hazards for the locals, polluting water etc. I don't know what % of world lithium production goes into e-bike batteries. 

3 years 8 months ago

Langsam: Thanks for the thoughtful reply. It was the South American production which was on my mind. I've heard horror stories about working conditions and pollution although I've a lot to learn to be sure. There's no denying that most people I see on ebikes are capable of riding a normal bike though.

3 years 8 months ago

there's only a single distributer for these bikes in the UK, and when I tried to find the mistral GT 900 which would be perfect for my sister to see what it would cost... it's not listed as available to buy  >.>

 

waiting for a response to my email.

3 years 8 months ago

 

 

It's complex!

1) Lithium production in South America is pretty easy, it's present in huge brine pits, but supply there cannot meet global demand. Producing lithium from sources (eg rock in Australia) are more energy-intensive. 

2) progress is being made to simplify the recycling process for lithium batteries but up to now it's been more economical to dispose of them. 
 

There is a bigger environmental problem with e bikes in China, which typically use lead batteries- these are properly nasty. 
 

E bikes aren't a fad, are definitely here to stay and are (rightly) taking their place in an integrated transport solution. 
 

Hope this helps - any other questions just ask  

 

simon

3 years 8 months ago

It's all great (every ebike is one less car etc.) but how is all this battery production affecting the environment? What happens when they reach the end of their life? Surely they have their uses but largely the explosion of ebikes is just a trend and, in fact, most of the time a regular bike does the same job without all the faff!