Electric bikes are surging in popularity like never before. They’re portable in nature and affordable to buy and operate. In case you are new to the concept, here’s a brief explanation of how does an electric bike work.
How Does an Electric Bike Work?
An electric bike is basically the electrified version of a regular bicycle. It has a motor to assist your pedaling effort, a battery to supply electricity to the motor, a sensor system that detects your pedaling to regulate the motor output, and some other complementary electronics.
Electric bikes can be operated in three ways.
Riders can use them solely on motor power to move around without any pedaling. Or, they can use them like conventional bicycles without any assistance from the motor. The third way lies in between the two – riders can move with the combined action of their pedaling effort and motor power.
To have a better understanding of how does an electric bike work, let’s have a look at its three main components: the motor, the battery, and the pedal-assist sensor.
Motor
There are two main types of electric bike motors that are used today. The hub motors, as the name suggests, are fitted inside the hub of either the front or rear wheel to directly spin the wheel.
The other type of motor is known as the mid-drive motor. It’s placed at the bottom bracket of the electric bike, midway around the frame, where it rotates the crank.
Unlike hub motors, mid-drive motors are directly linked to the bike’s drivetrain, which allows them to use the mechanical advantage of gears to amplify the torque output. However, they’re expensive and are found in premium bikes.
To find out how powerful or capable an electric bike motor is, you need to see how many watts (W) and torque (Nm) it has. For instance, Engwe Engine Pro has a 750W motor with a peak output of 1000W.
Battery
Electric bikes use rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries to fuel the motor. The batteries can have different shapes, sizes, and configurations, but they’re all similar internally.
The more capacity (measured in Ampere-hours or Ah) a battery has, the longer you would be able to go on a single charge. The batteries can be integrated inside the frame or can have a removable design for out-of-frame charging.
As for the configuration, they can be placed in the front tube, in the downtube, behind the saddle, or above the rear wheel.
For instance, Engwe C20 Pro has a 36V 19.2Ah removable battery, which is one of the largest in its class and can enable a range of up to 150km on pedal-assist mode.
Sensor
The third main component of an electric bike, the sensor detects your pedaling input to regulate the motor power accordingly. It’s because you don’t need the same level of motor assistance at all times.
For instance, you will need more assistance when climbing hills than when descending from one… or when taking a turn.
The sensors can either detect your pedal speed or pedal intensity to sense how much assistance you need. This message is then sent to a controller that decodes it to determine how much current to pull from the battery and push into the motor.
So, the harder or the faster you pedal, the more assistance you will get from the motor!
