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FAQ: Can I get more range on my cargo bike?

One easy way to extend your range on an electric cargo bike is to run a dual battery system, which we highly recommend if you can afford it. Obviously, there's a big price jump of the batteries of the most expensive part of the bike, but it's a nice peace of mind when you're out on a longer trip. Most of our bikes you can get dual battery systems that would bring your typical range up to about 60 kilometers. For a lot of people that's a full weeks commute. 

 

 

Here's some examples of brands/bikes within our range that can run dual battery systems:

The Yuba Spicy Curry has the option to add a second battery. It's a kit that doesn't come standard on the bike but we can add it before or after you have purchased the bike. You can choose whether you want to put a 400 or 500 watt hour battery as a supplement.

The Tern GSD already comes with the dual battery kit fitted, but you need to buy the battery seperately and again, you have the option of either a 400 or 500  watt hour battery.

Riese und Müller have the option of dual battery as well, but you can't add it after purchasing the bike so you need to choose whether you would like a second  battery from the start. It's about $1400, and that comes set factory with the battery and with the kit.

One advantage of having a dual battery system is that the batteries are charged and discharged evenly. So every 1% of charge used, they will swap from one battery to the other. The same goes when they're recharging. That means that both your batteries will be evenly used, so you don't end up with one battery, which has more use and has deteriorated quicker than the other. Batteries don't like to be left unused for a long time either, so if you're running on a spare battery system and you've got one battery sitting in a cupboard, you need to actively ensure that you're swapping it out on a weekly basis. And even whilst doing this, you're never gonna end up with batteries in as good condition is as if you had a dual battery system.

Another other advantage to dual battery system is that when you plug the bike in, it will charge both batteries at the same time. You don't need to charge one battery and then plug the charger into the other battery and or you don't need to have two chargers, which is handy.

 

 

Using dual batteries doesn't completely eliminate the chance running out of battery however, as you may get complacent about how often you charge your bike that you'll forget when you've last charged, and then all of a sudden if you're unlucky, you'll be halfway up the hill and you'll be out of juice.

With dual batteries sometimes you can go four days without a charge whereas when you've got a single battery, you're always quite religiously plugging your bike in at night because you always want to leave the house with a full charge. So that complacency can creep in. But that's kind of a nice problem to have.