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