Electrek.co
by Micah Toll
If you’ve owned an electric bike, e-scooter, or other personal mobility device (and especially if you’ve owned more than one), you know they all have a charger that pretty much fits nothing else you own.
I have several electric bikes, scooters, skateboards, and other e-rideables, and almost none of them can share chargers.
But don’t fret! There’s already a convenient solution here, and it’s called USB-C. Electric bike battery USB-C charging needs to become a thing.
So listen up, electric bike companies. This one’s for you.
We’ve seen this problem before Remember a decade ago when every cell phone had a different charger? USB saved the day (or at least, micro USB did), finally ridding our kitchen junk drawers of the handful of various DC barrel plug chargers that were turning into a rat’s nest of e-waste.
Well thanks a lot, e-bike companies, because you’ve brought us right back to the dark ages with electric bike battery chargers.
Every e-bike has a different charger, and it’s even worse than the cell phone days because not only do they all have different connectors, but they also have different voltages.
And using the wrong charger with the wrong voltage significantly raises the stakes of having a very, very bad day should the Battery Management System (BMS) ever fail.