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USB-C charging for electric bikes has arrived with the new Ampler Nova | BikeRadar
(www.bikeradar.com)
this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
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Forgive me if people already know this, but while the plug for USB-C is universal, the cables are not. You can't just plug any cable into a 45W or 100W wall wart and expect to get the power you need. Every cable has its own rating, and it needs to match or exceed the rating of the charger, or else you could cause damage to the devices, the cable, or even start a fire.
Exactly. So we're talking probably 45W+, or else long charge times.
Don't get me wrong, this is a good step away from proprietary chargers, but USB-C is kind of a mess in terms of having a unified or at least clear standard. Inb4 people unknowingly damage their bike battery by using the wrong cable.
USB in general is a mess, but it's the best mess we've got lol. That said, when I briefly perused the spec a while back, I understood that 100+ W operation requires active validation of the attached cables, to make sure they're built to a higher standard.
I'm hoping -- ignoring the issue of shoddy or counterfeit cables, which isn't a technical issue per se -- that this should be enough to prevent damage to end-devices. The newest USB PD spec simply hasn't been as widely deployed as earlier specs that were more than enough to charge a phone.
It will, however, be awesome when one day, an ebike can quickly top-up a friend's phone in the field. But I'm getting ahead of myself, dreaming of an all USB C world.
I'm with you. I hope we get there, too