My number 1 gripe about efoil is inability to take the battery on a plane due to large lithium ion. There seems no easy solution for this. I can ship it ground within the USA so that’s ok but if I want to go anywhere cool I cannot get it there.
I can take all other components on the plane as checked luggage so leaves on the battery. What if I want to fly to Caribbean, Maldives or Australia etc?
Solution seems to have a special “travel” battery made from NiMh or Sodium Ion.
My calculation says NiMh isn’t bad volume density almost the same eg 140-300 Wh/L vs Lithium Ion 200-300 Wh/L so probably fits in the same space.
Energy density is LiIon is 100-300Wh/kg vs 70-100Wh/kg for NiMh. Assuming 80Wh/kg then 1000 Wh battery would be 12.5kg which seems pretty reasonable eg about the same as my current flyer one plus battery which has 1600Wh.
It’s not ideal but enough to have fun vs no efoil at all. Any comments on this?
After looking at the numbers, this doesn’t seem that feasible. Best NiMh battery I could find was Toyota Prius which weighs 1kg for a module but only is 7.2V @ 6A = 42Wh so 10 of them would be 420Wh.
What about loose 18620 batteries? Not knowing much about them, I’m sure why everyone puts liion batteries in a package instead of a removable case other than manufacturing costs?
Seems it would be easy to make it so you could just pop them out?
Yeah I found those guys - they quote $200 preorder for the snap together 100wh batteries which isn’t available. I mean they buy some cells from China and hand solder them in Canada need to make money somehow but these cells are <$25 wholesale in China eg 8x$3=24 (where the batteries come from) and assembled by robots in high volume…
Size shows it’s possible and feasible eg 20x$200=$4000 is steep but the weight and size are reasonable eg 640grams x 20 = 12kg
$25x20=$500 for batteries in quantity. On alibaba efoil manufacturers from China quoted me 2400wh batteries sell for $840 in waterproof ready to go case so prob make standard 30% markup eg wholesale=<$500.
It’s expensive but Grin has a good name, western quality control and likely a robust bms design. Often i like their products but i find the price too steep, just like you.
I think best solution for chinese company to realize this is decent market and make it. Batteries come from China. PCBs come from China. Connectors come from China. Injection molds come from China. No point in some small company in Canada to put together Chinese parts by hand instead of robots unfortunately. Grin uses standard XT60 connectors. Ecowave and Jackery come to mind as companies that could make this work at reasonable price eg $20-50 each. They also make enough batteries to know what catches on fire and what doesn’t.
If Grin made their own cells or battery chemistry that would be a different story but these guys that put together Chinese parts are really no advantage. On the other hand same thing could be said about efoils eg the motors, battery and molds all come from China.
Most innovative thing I’ve seen is autolevel from Waydoo.