At first glance the thought, should we standardize batteries in e-bikes sounds like a case of creeping government to avoid. There is already some progress, albeit slow, to regulate battery quality in e-bikes and scooters.
It could be wiser to let free enterprise continue reaching out towards the perfect battery. After all, it is an old adage that many heads are better than one.
Battery Swapping Using Standardized Batteries
The Indonesian government wants all e-motorbike batteries to be similar, to enable swapping-out according to Dev Discourse website. This makes a deal of sense to them, considering there are more than 122 million combustion motorcycles in their country.
Officials reason that exchanging flat batteries for recharged ones would be faster than recharging electric versions on the spot. And moreover, this could encourage Indonesia’s transition to electric transport, and a greener society with fewer emissions too.
The program to standardize batteries for e-bikes should also be a priority, Indonesian officials insist, because of gasoline fumes clogging busy city traffic routes. But how would this work in practice we wondered, as we followed the Dev Discourse report.
How Might This Idea Pan Out in Indonesia?
We could imagine a series of complications to iron out first, on the way to achieving a universal Indonesian motorcycle battery. Factors that spring to mind include battery terminals, output, as well as case weight, range and dimensions.
Indonesians currently favor fast-recharging their own batteries at street facilities, or regular replenishment at home after hours. Battery swapping could become popular, if there were a work around the problem of swapping-in a dud battery.
Perhaps the answer lies in never actually owning an electric motorcycle battery, but hiring a fully-charged one with a refundable deposit instead. However, the Indonesian government would first have to put the infrastructure in place, and that would be a job in itself.
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