Riding an e-scooter or an electric unicycle is a great experience, especially for adults, but maintaining it is also important. Here we have discussed all the basics about how to maximize electric scooters and electric unicycles lithium-ion battery lifespan to sustain them for a longer period of time.
Table of Contents
Understanding Lithium-ion
1. What is a Lithium-ion battery?
A lithium-ion battery or Li-ion battery (abbreviated as LIB) is a type of rechargeable battery. Lithium-ion batteries are commonly used for portable electronics and electric vehicles and are growing in popularity for military and aerospace applications.
2.How Does a Lithium-ion Battery Work?
A battery is made up largely of four main components: the cathode, anode, electrolyte, and separator.
- “Cathode” determines the capacity and voltage of a Li-ion battery
- The cathode is the positive or oxidizing electrode which acquires electrons from the external circuit and is reduced during the electrochemical reaction
- “Anode” sends electrons through a wire
- The anode is the negative or reducing electrode which releases electrons to the external circuit and oxidizes during an electrochemical reaction.
- “Electrolyte” allows the movement of ions only
- The electrolyte carries positively charged lithium ions from the anode to the cathode and vice versa through the separator
- “Separator”, the absolute barrier between the cathode and the anode battery separators provides a barrier between the anode (negative) and the cathode (positive) while allowing the lithium-ion exchange from one side to the other.
3. Battery life
The life of a lithium-ion battery is generally defined as the number of complete charge-discharge cycles to reach a failure threshold in terms of loss of capacity or increase in impedance.
The typical estimated lifespan of a lithium-ion battery is approximately two to three years or 300 to 500 charge cycles, whichever occurs first. A charge cycle is a period of use from full charge to full discharge and full recharge.
4.Battery Cost
Even after all the efforts being made by top manufacturers, such as Tesla and Samsung to reduce its cost; Lithium-ion batteries are still expensive. In the PEV industry, the battery alone easily costs 35 to 55% of the total manufacturing cost of electric scooters or electric unicycles.
Industry analysis reports suggest that the cost of lithium-ion batteries will decline as Li-ion batteries find extensive use in powering electric vehicles and provide flexibility to power grids following large renewable generation capacity addition.
Proper maintenance extends the life of the Li-Ion battery
We believe that a lithium-ion battery is like a human. It has a dead life but if we take care of it and use it properly we can extend its lifespan, here is a list of best practices to preserve the life of lithium-ion batteries as long as possible.
- Room temperature
Lithium-ion batteries hate extreme temperatures, always avoid exposing your battery to high and low temperatures, especially while charging, as this can cause degradation of your battery components. If your PEV, electric scooter or electric unicycle is hot on the charger, please remove it. Likewise, avoid charging it in very cold conditions.
Try not to charge if the temperature is outside the range of 50 to 95 ° F (10 to 35 ° C).
- Batteries hate being too full or too empty
We don’t recommend charging more than 80% or discharging less than 20%, consider using partial charge which restores the battery to 80% instead of 100%. If you need the endurance of a fully charged battery or cannot limit the charge to 80%, unplug the device as soon as it reaches 100% as it is outside the 80-20% range on each side, puts stress and degrades a lithium-ion battery.
- Avoid fast charging and discharging
We recommend using a certified standard charger instead of a quick charger for these high currents will heat and degrade the battery faster than a normal standard load.
The same goes for a high discharge rate, the discharge of the battery will result in degradation of the battery and will reduce its life.
- Storing an e-scooter or e-unicycle
if you plan to store an electric scooter or electric unicycle for a short or a long time, be sure to discharge the battery to approximately 40% and avoid storing it in high-humidity environments
In short, Freemotion believes that not all batteries pack made equal, so if you are looking to buy an electric scooter or electric unicycle (EUC) and you want to benefit from it for a long time make sure to watch the temperature, charge, and discharge, don’t leave the batteries on the charger, and try not to exceed 80% or less than 20% unless having no choice.
In short, As a leading Electric Vehicle online store, Freemotion believes that not all battery packs are made equally, and there are many aspects that affect the life-cycle of Lithium-ion batteries. So if you are planning to buy a Personal Electric Vehicle (PEV) whether it is an electric Scooter or electric unicycle (EUC) and you want to keep it riding for a long time, you need to take care of temperature and charge and discharge time. Additionally, Due to lithium-ion battery technology, we would also like to suggest that the batteries must not be fully charged i.e. above 80% and also not be undercharged (overused) below 20% to maintain a stable battery cycle across the lifespan.
Do you want to read more about Electric Scooters And Electric Unicycles? Check out these articles.
- Unveiling the InMotion RS Electric Scooter: A Fusion of Performance and Versatility
- The KingSong KS-S16 Electric Unicycle: A Game Changer?
- The Inmotion V14 Adventure: A New Era of Electric Unicycles
- Electric Scooter Commuting: Prioritizing Safety
- KingSong Unveils the Future of Urban Commuting: The KS-S19 Electric Unicycle
- Why Electric Unicycles Are Your Next Big Move
