We've built the Ultimate e-Bike Battery that you can Repair and Refill | Hacker News Reader

We've built the Ultimate e-Bike Battery that you can Repair and Refill

get.gouach.com

71 pointsoulipo120 comments

The Infinite Battery is made to be repairable and refillable:

It's launching as a Kickstarter in September (disclaimer: I'm affiliated), and there is an offer for early-backers here https://get.gouach.com/2 for a 33% discount on the shipping price!

- refillable in 5 minutes (put new cells every 3 years, costs $48 instead of buying a new battery)

- change the electronics easily

- connected (sends data and safety alerts)

- FIREPROOF casing! there's been waaaaaay too many lithium fires!

The battery has already been produced for 1500 bikes running in shared mobility for multiple years in France!

Don't forget to register on the pre-launch if you want to have a discount on the price when we launch in September! ($330 instead of $450)

You don't mention the battery chemistry on the website. What is it?

Whatever type you buy to replace the cells.

The cells are standard 18650 cells with according chemistry. You are supposed to supply them yourself!

(maybe not initially, but they emphasize multiple times that you can/should change the cells inside the pack every three years)

I'm a chemical guy but that's not really a question to me.

Looks like it's supposed to be the same kind of cells as "90%" of all other ebikes.

The big difference is that the cells are not welded together like ordinary power packs are, allowing for straightforward exchange of cells individually.

Kind of a brilliant engineering design which lots of users should be able to accomplish the task using minimal tools, without having to go to a repair shop for a renewed battery.

Plus you could make sure you used only the best cells having an impeccable reputation and highest reliability.

The guy is a physics PhD, and for me it's still measurement & testing 24/7, so I would wonder what kind of test equipment he has at his disposal, or maybe has his own lab without relying on outside facilities, if any.

I'm no battery expert but that would probably give me an idea of what kind of readings I would like to see.

It would be great if we could count on a level of technical documentation far in excess of what's out there from the non-PhD-run companies.

A possible deficiency that comes to mind is the convenient, but small number of tools that are supposed to be enough for routine maintenance. If it doesn't already exist, maybe there should be a PhD-level cell checker that is affordable for the user also, to go along with the hand tools. Also a final assembly test rig would be good and that would seem to allow a layer of quality control to reach down to the user (re-)assembly process.

The "physics PhD" is also posting fake reviews on his website...

which one ?

All of them presumably. The first one claims that the customer in 2022 has had used the battery for a year already, meaning he has received it in 2021.

He specifically claims that it is the battery which is promoted on that site, which will get a Kickstarter in a few months. Obviously that can not be a genuine review.

Fake endorsements are a very common tactic on scam sites, where some snake oil is sold and you have "real people" giving extremely nice quotes about how great the product is.

What's so snake oil about this? This is not claiming something impossible or outside of realm of engineering. It's just a battery case.

Hi! Thanks for your comment!

We are a legit company, and we exist for 3 years (we even fundraised: https://www.breega.com/gouach-secures-e3-3m-seed-funding/)

The battery that we sell on the Kickstarter is our final product (the "v3" of our battery), but we had many initial clients (who came for bike electric conversion in our shop) and B2B customers on our previous prototypes, hence the reviews

We just thought we had a product which worked great now that we can open it to the general public, hence the Kickstarter: as we're still a startup, the economic model of the Kickstarter where we get the cash upfront will allow us to build a large batch of batteries for much cheaper

classical NMC cells. In our case DMEGC 32E

> FIREPROOF casing!

Have you tested this, perhaps by shorting a few unprotected cells in a full pack? Have a video? :)

A lithium ion cell in thermal runaway produces a LOT of heat that must go somewhere. An aluminum case would get hot enough to start a fire, even if it doesn't catch fire itself.

I think the cells will just burn through the cast aluminum. Maybe enough if lifepo4?

No! We've managed to design the casing such that it can sustain the fire (and exhaust the fumes with vents), check our doc here https://docs.gouach.com/fireproof-casing

The casing is fireproof, but that doesn't mean the things around it are fireproof!

Of course! But at least your house doesn't burn down, the casing contains the fire and dissipates the heat, check our doc here https://docs.gouach.com/fireproof-casing

yes check this out https://docs.gouach.com/fireproof-casing

If you’re finding 18650s in bulk so cheap that $48 fills the entire pack, I’d be amazed.

$48 would require some pretty large order quantities and probably low end cells.

https://www.18650batterystore.com/collections/featured-produ...

Currently that is the lowest price I can find for a cell at low quantities, that puts it at $62 to fill the pack which is not too far off. Looks like you would need a 33% discount on those cells to get to $48 which is within the realm of possibility if you purchase in large volumes.

To get a decent quality samsung cell you are looking at $118 to fill the pack. https://www.18650batterystore.com/products/samsung-30q

hello, we have selected a few tier 2 cells suppliers after many testing. One of them is DMEGC that had a much better results in terms of performance and impedance spread than Samsung or LG (based on 40k cells)

> a 33% discount on the shipping price

33% of how much? Why is there no price listed anywhere? Saying there's a percentage discount but not saying how much the price will be makes it feel very scammy.

if you move on to the next step you'll see the price (330$) https://get.gouach.com/reservation

Why would they need a Kickstarter if the product already exists?

Hey! The product does exist but the financials to bring it to the market for B2C customers is a bit complicated

The kickstarter allows us to get the cash upfront to start the orders

Who are the people endorsing your battery pack? Are these real people? Why did they say that in 2022 they have used the "Infinite Battery" already for a year? Your product has not launched yet.

>- FIREPROOF casing! there's been waaaaaay too many lithium fires!

How do you substantiate that claim. On your website you are claiming that Bosch packs are a fire hazard, what tests have you done which Bosch hasn't. What certifications do your Batteries have which the Bosch ones do not?

Specifically since your packs can have various types of cells, how do you make sure that different cell types and chemistries are all safe?

as we manage a lot of batteries in free floating we had fires after some batteries where massacred by users. We worked a lot on the fire issues and if you want to learn more read this: https://docs.gouach.com/fireproof-casing

Where in France? Can one find them somewhere over here?

Edit 1 -- Tried to do the reservation using Google Pay, it didn't work. The browser blocks the popup by default. If the popup is manually allowed, it appears entirely blank.

Edit 2 -- Tried again. Google Pay did work but said "Your billing details will also be shared with the merchant", which means the CC number is sent to the merchant. Thanks but no thanks.

Thanks for the report! We’re using a third party framework for this pre order site so I’m not sure where the bug comes from I’ll report it!

hello, thanks for this. We had a lot of orders without issues. The process goes through stipe and the only information we get is the name and email adress of the paying customer. tell me if you have any problem: alex@gouach.com

They got me until I read about a smartphone app.

Also, how can they get testimonies from customers when it hasn't launched yet? Sounds like a scam.

> Proudly powering 1500+ rental bikes Since 2022, Gouach Infinite Battery has powered free-floating fleets in the roughest environments: snow, rain, heat, cold, shocks. Now that we have figured out the perfect battery, we want the public to access it.

It doesn't look like a scam to me. What's wrong with the app?

The battery pack's usable life is determined by how long the company offers and maintains the app. I'm willing to bet that the app will not be around for more than 3 years.

That would be solvable by making the app open source, or by publishing the protocol so third parties can make software for it.

Hi! We might open source it at some point, although the app itself is just a thin client, and most of the code is on the battery and the backend

The main concern is confidence that the product will remain usable even if the company goes out of business or pivots and abandons this product. Being a thin client is great from that perspective because there's little incentive to keep it proprietary, and it should be easy for a third party to maintain if the company abandons it.

Hi! Thanks for your comment! The app does exist, and the video of the app is from real data! It’s our « admin app » and a « client app » just for end users is being developed

hello, not really, the app just gives you info about the cells and is useful to update the firmware but you can live without it. If we die before, will put it open source

I don't want yet another app on my smartphone just to manage a battery. I don't want yet another smartphone app that tries to collect data from me. I want to be able to use it even if the company goes bankrupt, the app disappear from the playstore and I have a new phone. I want to be able to use it even if android and iOS disappear from the landscape because smartphone tech change.

Or at least give me an api documentation and an open source SDK.

You can thank apple for that. If they would just implement WebBLE all of these remote config apps could just be webpages. Currently no one is doing that because you'll need an iOS app anyway, which coincidentally lets apple claim their 30%.

But Apple would collect 30% of zero. Unless remote config apps want to adopt a subscription model which would be even worse IMHO.

The app is not needed at all! The battery works perfectly fine without it don’t worry!

It’s just used if you want to have extra features like safety alerts

I'm interested in the security of the app. Is it authenticated? How? Can an attacker change cell types and start a fire or other dangerous situations?

Yes it’s authenticated, and no you cannot make random changes to a battery!

Yeah, this is a deal-breaker for me. I would rather have a single button I have to click exactly 35 times to encode the battery type I read out of a manual over needing smartphone infrastructure. The point being, please give us an alternative even if it requires very technical work.

the app is just if you need to go deeper but you can definitely use the battery without the app

For those complaining on this topic it’s stated on the site that there is an API available, which I presume means you don’t need the app. Personally I think this is a really nice design and I’ve been hoping for something like this for ages.

Thanks for your comment! Indeed the app (or even the API) is not needed to use it, it’s just for extra features like safety alerts

hello, what's the problem with the iphone app ? you can go on the app store and see it exists

we are launching this new model but we make batteries since 2021 check https://docs.gouach.com/ you'll se we worked a bit

Sorry for the testimonies they look bad but they are true! We’ve been mostly working with our B2B clients for the past two years but we have had B2C customers on our first prototype and requested their comments!

You can see that we’re a real company, we even fundraised 3M two years ago for initial développements !

https://www.breega.com/gouach-secures-e3-3m-seed-funding/

I wonder what happens when you do things you're not supposed to. Like when some of my expensive 3000 mAh samsung cells are worn out i'll replace them with the cheapest aliexpress "10 000 mAh" (actually 1500) cells in the same series. Or i'll mix LifePo4 with Li-Poly cells.

What stops you from doing that in any battery operated device?

The cells are welded together in ordinary ebike packs. The packs are basically designed to be disposable as a unit, even if some shops can replace those cells for you.

There is a barrier to entry with repairing current battery packs. Someone that opens up a sealed battery pack and buys nickel strips and a spotwelder to repair a battery pack probably knows the things you're not supposed to do.

Very dubious website. The battery doesn't appear to be available for purchase, so who is this customer who, in 2022, has been using it for an entire year?

The marketing claims also are ridiculous. Zero evidence that your battery are safer than Bosch battery packs. I have zero doubt that Bosch has done very rigorous testing on their batteries. Have you? Apparently the cells are switchable, so there could be different types, capacity and chemistries involved, have you done testing regarding that?

It does seem like their batteries may be available for sale in europe? https://www.daurema-batteries.com/en/products/gouach-batteri...

And this twitter post is from early 2022 https://twitter.com/Gouachbatteries/status/15149892871414865...

The alleged customer talks specifically about the "infinite Battery", which is promoted on that website.

Neither the Battery on the shop nor in the Tweet are that Battery, the "infinite Battery" is clearly a different product and clearly not a product you can buy right now.

If the "infinite Battery" is "launching soon", why was it available to "People" in 2021. Another comment mentioned that in 2023 he replaced the Cells, the same website claims the cells need to be replaced every 3 years, so when did "Victor B." receive his Battery?

I see no way in which these comments are from real people who bought that Battery with their own money and are giving their own thoughts on the product. "Fake endorsements" are a very common tactic on scam sites, even including them makes me not to want to buy anything from such a website.

This is also ignoring their fire safety claims, which I think are very dubious. Specifically because they mention a particular rival brand, which they claim is significantly more dangerous than theirs. With no evidence substantiating that.

You're right. This does make the whole thing look very scammy. And the complete lack of any pricing information anywhere makes it all that much worse.

you got us on this. These testimonials are free adaptation of what our beta testers told us. We had only about two dozens of them since 2021. However, we do have thousands of batteries on the field. Has you can see on this post it's the previous version of the pack that is being produced: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/getapony_d%C3%A9couvrez-les-c...

Hi! Sorry for the confusion! The customer comments are real, and came from our initial battery prototypes which we sold to people (by converting their bikes in our shop)

We did mention Infinite Battery because it’s the new name we’re giving to the product (which is now the « v3 » of that battery)

But you are right that they are confusing we will remove those

We are indeed a legit company! You can see that we’ve fundraised two years ago https://www.breega.com/gouach-secures-e3-3m-seed-funding/

And our batteries are running every day on shared mobility bikes!

hello, yes we have been selling batteries for a while but not really to the consumers more to fleets of vehicles. Concerning the safety, Bosch batteries are among the best but if one of your cell does a thermal runaway, you're screwed, the plastic casing will just burn. Our aluminum casing withstands the complete burn down of the pack without letting one flame out. Checkout the test: https://docs.gouach.com/fireproof-casing

Sorry for the confusion!

We are a legit company and have been operating for more than three years, with B2B clients using our batteries for about 2 years!

We’ve even fundraise two years ago https://www.breega.com/gouach-secures-e3-3m-seed-funding/

The current post is because we are selling a new battery focused on e-bikes with a fireproof casing and easy to repair design

We’re also opening it to anyone who wants to install it on an ebike, rather than just B2B!

> compatible with all major brands

How does the compatibility work ? For my experience as an e bike mecanist, most of the brand have their own plug (with different number of pins). Event for those that use the standard shimano/bosch/bafang there is a new plug every two years. This plug market make me think of the mobile phone in 2000’s.

They make you undo the plugs and connect the wires from the motor to their battery mount.

I wonder how they managed that. My understanding was it was all computerised, proprietary, and DRMed.

I was wondering that too. Trek, for example, has the batteries in a compartment that is part of the bike. What happens in that case?

And since you work on this stuff let me ask you: who makes the Toyota Camry of ebikes? In other words, who makes the it-just-works-and-its-fine ebike for people who don't really care about ebikes? I've thought about getting one for commuting to work but every time I've started to look I get decision fatigue and give up for another year.

Building your own ebike with a Bafang motor and an ordinary bike you have lying around (or a used one you buy specifically for that purpose) is easy and cheap, and works very, very well.

It's true that ordinary Chinese battery packs don't last much more than three years though.

(Edit for the downvote: I have built three of those already for myself, plus a couple of others for friends, never had any problem whatsoever. Transformation takes less than two hours.)

I support this. Bonus points : you can revert back to a normal bike whenever you need and you can swap motors for replacement/upgrade. Beware to use a frame that can handle the motor power.

The last thing in the world I want is another hobby.

I want something with a warranty and a local dealer who will service it.

There are many shops all over the world that can install Bafang motors and service them should something break. (But it almost never breaks.)

Kalkhoff is well known and I enjoyed working on them because they use quality, standard pieces, everything is strong and well designed without any fancy custom made parts. Lowest prices around 1500€ and you definitely shouldn’t by a bike cheaper than that. By the way avoid startups that create the “revolutionary IOT magic bike“ most of them are fantastic in marketing but a pain to maintain.

That being said, the most reliable bike is a bike without motor. You get ~3x the quality of an e bike for the same price (because 2/3 of an ebike price is the battery/motor).

Unfortunately, they won't ship to the US.

I mentioned Trek because that's what Wired recommends. Specifically the Trek FX+ 2 which is something like $2500 which seems fair. Does Trek have an okay reputation? There are 5 bike shops selling and servicing Trek in my city so that's why I was leaning towards them.

Trek has a good reputation and the FX+ 2 seems very nice although i did’t find the exact specs on the composants used (!). If you’re in a wet state check carefully the sealing around the motor and the one between the battery and the frame. When the falls rains come many bikes stop working. The ones with wide joints covering and without much motor aeration tends to handle better.

> For my experience as an e bike mecanist, most of the brand have their own plug (with different number of pins). Event for those that use the standard shimano/bosch/bafang there is a new plug every two years. This plug market make me think of the mobile phone in 2000’s.

Let's hope the European Commission addresses this one as well then…

Somebody else mentioned power tools. I'd love for governments to start to address the lack of battery standards with power tools.

Indeed!

hello, the battery comes with a docking support so you'll have both side of the connector (femal on the battery, male on the dock). Inside the docking you'll have a PCB with wago that enables you tu just plug the bare cables inside. Once done, the only thing you need to do is t select the write CAN protocol (with the app or we can ship it with the right protocol in case you d'ont want to use the app).

I need something like that for my Makita power tools

Why? The main point of this is that E-bike batteries are a dime a dozen, built poorly, and hard to replace. Your Makita or better yet a Ryobi, uses their very specific battery that can be used in 50 different tools. The only real thing saved by making it replaceable like this would maybe be the plastic housing around the battery. Considering their batteries have all batteries under one shielding etc. there is less waste by doing it they way they already are as their batteries are universal to a bunch of their tools.

This is great. Always thought ebike batteries should be more or less standardised (i.e. shark kinda does it but it's only on low end bikes).

The other one is charging limits. EU/govs should regulate every charger has 80% (for daily use) and 50% (for storage) limit. It's winter here now and ebike is mostly sitting. Keeping it at 100% charge would be quite bad for battery. Hope these guys add charge limit (with added occasional automated "calibration charge" to 100%).

Speaking as someone who's extremely tempted to build his own e-bike from scratch, and also as someone who adores the idea of user-repairable hardware components, the battery of my e-bike is the one and only component that I do not trust to build myself. As much as possible, I want a tested and certified battery from a known, respected, susceptible-to-lawsuits manufacturer. The peace of not worrying that my battery is going to catch fire and explode while charging overnight is worth it.

We will also provide batteries that are pre-built in our factories

Building it yourself is only an option

This is convenient for bike shops mostly

The way this is written makes it feel like a scam. I'm left wondering, what's the catch? I wouldn't trust this company, not based on this page anyhow. Seems dodgy.

It's not new, that's mostly the catch. If this were to be successful, the battery has to be really good quality.

Yes! It’s our third iteration on the design and we’ve fixed all the flaws we’ve been identifying in the last two years

We’re really proud of our current product, as we want to bring to market a battery that is more sustainable and hope we will manage it!

We did a lot of effort on the engineering and the software quality

Sorry for the confusion!

We are a legit company, we even fundraised 3M two years ago

https://www.breega.com/gouach-secures-e3-3m-seed-funding/

We are doing this kickstarter as we are now targeting B2C consumers in addition to B2B

Great idea.

Is the companion app open-source and free of tracking/surveillance? Does it work with no internet connectivity?

Is the BMS communication protocol open, so one could write their own client for it? How about the BMS firmware itself?

How do you handle the user installing un-balanced cells in parallel to each other?

The app is not open source but we could, as it is mostly a thin client

Most of the code is on the BMS and backend

We are having a reflection on open sourcing the BMS code

The BMS protocol will definitely be open sources at some point! We love open soirce

While the case may be fireproof, is it still fireproof when someone is poking around the battery contacts with a metal screwdriver? Also do you have to carry around a full set of replacement cells so you can "Never be stuck with a dead battery again"?

Stuck in the sense of "your battery doesn't hold a charge anymore".

Sourcing a replacement battery is a challenge.

I take "never be stuck with a dead battery" to mean: You can replace individual failing cells rather than having to buy a whole new pack. By "dead" they mean "unable to be recharged". As opposed to "dead" meaning a "flat" pack that needs to be recharged.

It feels a little weird to word it like that, if I say "dead battery" or "my phone is dead", I would almost certainly mean "it is out of charge" not "it is unable to be charged"

Cars are pretty safe from spontaneous combustion but if you do stupid stuff like lighting it on fire then bad things happen.

You can’t make technology 100% safe, you need to educate people.

Here's some more information I found linked through the reservation process: https://docs.gouach.com/

Yes indeed! This is our documentation! Happy to give you more info if needed at contact@gouach.com!

I once build a 8s20p battery for a drone using nickelstrips and a spotwelder. At one point the battery looked exactly the same as the one in this article. I made a dumb mistake by letting my scissors fall on the exposed battery cells. Causing a huge spark and flames with black plumes covering my whole 100m3 garage in black ash and other crap. Always have a metal case, and fire blankets nearby.

Sounds real interesting to me - and I don't even have a bike (yet)! Wish you the very best.

Thanks for your comment!

We started this project because we love bikes and we really want to reduce the battery waste!

We hope we will manage to bring it to the greatest number!

Oh boy, watching the assembly video… don’t put the batteries in the wrong way around! Boom!

The layout is not obvious so I wonder how they control for that.

The same way every other battery replaceable product controls for it, they write it on the housing.

yes but there is a fuse per cell so even updisde down there is no fire hasard: https://docs.gouach.com/eco-designed-batteries/additional-be...

The polarity of the 18650 cells themselves is not that obvious either. Each manufacturer marks their cells differently or not at all. Many cells are flat on both sides and do not have a "nipple" indicating the positive side.

The fuse solution mentioned here by the manufacturer sounds like a good solution.

Hi! Thanks for your comment! We have thought a lot about safety, and the battery is designed to make it hard to assemble the wrong way, and we obviously have safety features (fuse) which would prevent any damage if cells were put the wrong way

I really don't trust Kickstarter any more. Too many bad stories.

This is not Kickstarter? They have a waiting list for 1$ to get 33% off at launch. Their website states the battery packs are already used in rental bikes in France.

An account on here which claims to be affiliated says "It's launching as a Kickstarter in September (disclaimer: I'm affiliated), and there is an offer for early-backers here https://get.gouach.com/2 for a 33% discount on the shipping price!"

This is our launch page in preparation for a Kickstarter in September

The difference with most Kickstarters is that we have ALREADY built the product, so it’s totally de-risked

We are using a kickstarter because we are a small startup and we don’t have the funds to buy the materials to build the batteries in advance, so the economics of the kickstarter (people pay us upfront) makes it possible for us to build a large batch at a lower cost!

Feel free to ask us any additional questions you might have at contact@gouach.com

I tried to figure out what this is about. Lead-acid battery perhaps, only needs some water sometimes. Those batteries suck, because 1)lead and 2)acid.

Also there was a generation of cheap Chinese lead-acid E-bikes already and they did catch fire, mostly because of dodgy wiring.

Looking at the video it looks like 18650 batteries in a casing that allow them to be replaced without any soldering by just putting them in slots like you do on consumer devices with AA or AAA batteries.

Most consumer devices do not take 40 cells. Letting average joe play with 40+ amps of current at 48 volts is not a great idea.

The design of this pack seems to make it very easy to get right.

Right means that the cells must be installed in the correct orientation, must all be the same make, model, and age, and must meet the continuous discharge rate requirement for the application.

I'm sure someone will find a way to get it wrong, but people also find ways to mishandle fuel for internal combustion vehicles with predictable consequences. The accident rate doesn't need to be zero for this to be a good idea.

in cas the user puts it in the wrong direction, there is cell level fusing: https://docs.gouach.com/eco-designed-batteries/additional-be...

Actual soldering was determined to be unsuitable way back with Ni-Cd rechargeable/disposables because solder just isn't quite a good enough conductor of electricity for the duty.

Plus when current is flowing, where more resistance is encountered will be the places where more heat needs to be dissipated, and solder melts too easily. Which is why they factory-welded them at instantaneous temperatures beyond the melting point of the interconnection itself.

The Li-ion cells can be replaced quickly using hand tools. It appears to take forty 18650 cells, which cost about $5/cell for high-capacity cells purchased from reputable dealers in small quantities.

Given their suggestion of replacing cells every 3 years, I find their claimed operating cost of $16/year questionable. Using the cheapest Li-ion cells you can possibly find is a good way to test how fireproof that casing really is.

I like this idea, and I'd like to see user-serviceable batteries for nearly everything that uses one, but I don't love the marketing here.

we buy cells at 1,2$

What make and model of cell, and with what minimum order quantity?

The post has the weirdest comments. We have complaints about a need an app to recharge (clearly you don't), complaints about lead acid batteries (wot? - did you look at the cells), complaints about the danger of the voltage generated by 40 cells (hint: when you take it apart they are no longer connected), complaints it's a scammy web site (really - looks like a typical brochure site to me), complaints it won't withstand a fire (they have pictures a test incinerated battery pack), and complaints from new accounts. Somebody seems to have it in for this mob.

The idea seems worth trying to me. Single cells dying and taking out the entire pack is a thing. It's happened to me several times. I've pulled apart the pack to see why, and discovered all these welded batteries making DIY repair near impossible. Not to mention when they are welded together like that to create high voltages they are indeed dangerous. I wish all battery packs were made this way, but I'm guessing it's expensive. I wish them luck.

The problem with this was it reads like a scam. Now I realized it was perhaps written by French who are used to more decorative language.

Anyways. The idea of replacing individual cells sucks, sucks and sucks. When one cell dies in a pack, you can be sure the rest are going bad in a month. Especially this happens with good quality cells.

Samsung 3000mAh were like they had timer built-in. They just went ping-ping-ping when I tried to reuse a laptop battery cells recently.

Yes we're French sorry! We'd love any comment on how to rephrase things haha

The point of the design is not so much individual cell replacement, but more:

- replacing electronics (hard to do safely on a traditional battery, and electronics often breaks with shocks) - replacing all cells at once when they are drained (and then they are easy to reuse in second-life storage, or to recycle, because they haven't been welded and damaged)

Thank you for your comment!

Indeed, those are all valid criticisms that people ask us, but thankfully we have worked on this product for the last 3 years, iterating on the design, so we have answers!

Our battery is already running every day on free-floating e-bikes, and our data shows that our batteries are working great and are safe!

We've got extra doc here if interested: https://docs.gouach.com/fireproof-casing

We really care about bikes and electrification, we think it's the way forward for cities in a climate-changing world, so our (engineers) observation was that we needed batteries that people could TRULY depend on, meaning they could observe them and repair them

This is what we've set out to build, and we're very happy with our current product now, so this is the reason we're trying to push it to the general public now!

Thanks for your encouragement it is much appreciated!

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