Looking for e-bike battery repacker

I have been helping out a local e-bike store here on the west coast.
We discussed how they could save a lot of money by repacking faulty battery packs.
Does anyone know a company in the USA that does a decent job at a decent price?
I would strip out the faulty batteries and they would send the case with BMS for repacking.
I could gear myself up to start doing this for them but would rather refer them to someone who does this professionally.

aerialking said:

I have been helping out a local e-bike store here on the west coast.
We discussed how they could save a lot of money by repacking faulty battery packs.
Does anyone know a company in the USA that does a decent job at a decent price?
I would strip out the faulty batteries and they would send the case with BMS for repacking.
I could gear myself up to start doing this for them but would rather refer them to someone who does this professionally.

Click to expand...

I have done a few of these but there is a fairly significant liability issue going on if the remaining 'good' cells are reused.

If you are talking about just replacing the cells with new ones, then that's easy....

My advice to Your E-Bike dealer is:

Dont do it. Do not sell Your customers refurbished e-bike power packs. All You get is angry customers. When an e-bike battery fails, chances are that the customer is far from home with plenty of miles to go, and the weather is bad.
Sell him a new pack and his e-bike is as good and as reliable as a new one.
(When Your car battery is bad, You dont replace cells, You buy a new one.)

What about me, You ask. I use these old worn cells for my power-wall. Yes, and I know they die more frequently, but when one of my banks die, I dont loose power alltogether. My Batrium tells me to remove the faulty pack, and I can repair it in the comfort of my work-shop.

If You want to sell refurbished e-bike packs, all cells must be replaced, and now Your price cant compete.

Its that simple.

ChrisD

I've repacked a few ebike batteries with used Samsung ICR18650 cells. I pull all cells for capacity test then reassemble using the repakr tool, stick to the same manufacturer and use only those which have lost very little capacity (>2000mAh on the -22's, for example). With a few hundred loose cells at my disposal, I can build packs fairly quickly.

You can easily compete on price even if you replace all the cells as you can recycle all those with good capacity, though I doubt it's possible using new cells. Depending on capacity, Luna Cycle's batteries are $750+/kWh. Even taking into consideration the cost of labor, a sell price of half that would still provide plenty of margin (again, I'm talking used cells). However, you'd really need the dealer to assume the risk of battery failure (including fireworks) and offer some sort of warranty to allay customers' fears. They would also need to inform customers of potential for reduced life and not using repacked batteries in hot-rod builds, such as limiting sales to applications pulling well under 2C/cell.