Answer: Range.
The ECO kit has a battery capacity of 5.2Ah (187Wh) and an expected range of 35km on medium power.
How far can I go?
The short answer to this, is that with hilly terrain, without pedalling and an old heavy bike you won’t go very far even with a motor and battery.
However, if you put a motor and battery on an efficient bicycle, then you could go dozens more miles without breaking a sweat. Increase your pedal power and mechanical input and this increases as well.
There are so many variables that determine range, that it is not straightforward to answer the question “how much range will I get?” - especially if you want the answer in kilometres.
However, as we will explain, it is very easy to tell you your range in hours. That’s simple and just depends on your battery capacity.
Physics Behind Range.
A 250W motor at 36V draws about 8A or current. So that means that in one hour it will use 8 amp-hours (Ah) of charge. So an 8Ah battery will last you for one hour.
Similarly if you use it at half power (4A) then it will last you for 2 hours.
“A 250W motor draws about 8A of current at max power, so an 8Ah battery will last you 1 hour.”
So if you put that on a really efficient bike and pedal lots, then you will go far. But if you put it on a old, heavy bike and don’t pedal, we're sorry to say that you won't be going very far at all...
We have put together a table below giving you indicative range in hours for the different battery capacities that we sell, at different power levels.
Battery Capacity | Full power range (250W) | Medium power range (120W) | Low power range (50W) |
5.2Ah | 45 mins | 1hr 30 mins | 3 hours 45 mins |
7Ah | 1 hour | 2 hours 5 minutes | 5 hours |
14Ah | 2 hours | 4 hours 10 minutes | 10 hours |
Rough Km Estimation.
If you really want to be given a rough indication of how much range you will get, then OK, we can give you an estimate.
Let’s assume you are able to cruise at 25kph on average – we can convert the times above into rough distances.
Remember – if you are using the motor on low power, then you will need extra pedal power to keep up the average speed of 25kph!
Battery capacity | Full power range (8A) | Medium power range (4A) | Low power range (2A) |
5.2Ah | 19km |
38km |
94km |
7Ah | 25km | 52km | 125km |
14Ah | 50km | 104km | 250km |
Other Considerations.
- Weather: the temperature effects how much juice you get out of your battery. In cold climates you get less than in warmer cilmates.
- Hills: going up hill uses a lot of energy, so adding in hills to your commute makes a big difference. (Unless you have regenerative braking, check out our blog here on the pros and cons of regen: Regen braking on eBikes is it worth it?)