Design and Fabrication of an E-Bicycle Conversion Kit

Abstract

The end of the 20th century saw the warmest decade ever on record. Typically linked to the increase in the use of fossil fuels for transport and energy generation, the phenomenon of global warming caught everyone’s attention. Several studies predicting the earth’s temperature to rise beyond bearable limits in future, since the start of 21st century have forced the concerned global institutions to enforce policies limiting the use of fossil fuels. The United Nations General Assembly has outlined a set of goals for a sustainable future for the nations to implement, to cut down the excessive dependence on fossil fuels. The transport sector alone is the world’s largest consumer of fossil fuels. Therefore, globally it was agreed that a safer and cleaner mode of transport must replace the conventional fossil energy-based transport system. Thus, the start of the 21st century brought about a revolution in the transport sector. Subsequently, the implementation of Electric Vehicles (EVs) technology has been on the rise. Global automobile giants are in a competition to dominate the automobile markets with their EVs, courtesy to the support from respective governments. The evolution of EV technology is a welcoming step towards the goals of a sustained safer future. A normal E-bicycle would cost somewhere between 600 to 1000 Dollars. Moreover, these factories assembled bikes don’t provide the customer with the liability to install or remove the E-bicycle equipment according to their will. Thus, buying a dedicated E-bike is expensive. This calls for an affordable alternative to these expensive electric bicycles. Therefore, this project aims at the design and fabrication of an “Electric bicycle conversion kit” that would allow its customers to convert their already available bicycles into electric ones within minutes. The kit comprises of the necessary components like a DC motor, a lithium-ion battery pack with battery management system, motor controller all packed inside a single kit at one place instead of them being installed at separate parts of a bicycle like in case of available electric bicycles. The kit would be easy to install and remove for its customers within minutes and would provide a sufficient distance to travel with one charge. Moreover, the kit would be integrable with the already available bicycles on the market and would cost a lot less than the available dedicated electric bicycles.