Stark Drives Intent Is To Keep Striving For Even More Affordable eBikes.

Hello Everyone,

Well today I had meetings that might help to further fight the high cost of electric bicycles worldwide. A little history about the current batch of Stark Drive:

When we originally set out to manufacture Stark Drive we had gone to several factories submitted to them RFQ's otherwise known as a 'Request for Bids' as it were to determine what the market prices were in various manufacturing facilities. The bid process is basically one where we would set out certain specifications and criteria that must be met and the factories would in tern (if they were interested) respond to our quotes with their best prices for various quantities of Stark Drive. As a logical part of this process we had decided to include all components including all electrical components in the quote. This included the battery pack for Stark Drive.

Of course if one analyzes the price of an electric bike in-depth as we had, you will quite quickly determine that the battery pack does make up for a substantial cost of the entire bike and this cost is something that can have a substantial impact on the final price.

For this reason I instructed our team in China to start investigating companies that specialized in battery pack production and our team found an excellent factory not far from our manufacturing facilities that had a branch whom are a major supplier for several industries including laptops, mopeds, electric bikes or basically anything that takes the standard lithium ion cell systems such as the 18650 packs that are so common today. For example these 18650 cells are the same cells that have been used in all Tesla vehicles up until the Model 3 debuts, after which they have created a new standard 2170.

Well I received a grand welcome, to put it mildly on arriving to this factory.

I then sat down to discuss our requirements and investigate more into the testing procedures of this factory as well as their capabilities. Its very important for us at Stark Drive to provide a quality product to our customers that will last and without the battery an electric bike is well, just a bike!

During the meeting i was informed that approximately 2 years ago the Chinese government had taken drastic steps to improve the operational battery properties of lithium ion cells that are sold on the open market due to the increased media attention on the so called 'exploding battery packs'. Before this, there was not much regulation on lithium ion cells in China and therefore people associated Chinese cells with low quality or counterfeit cells. It was then the Japanese and Taiwanese that dominated this market as they had much stricter requirements on their cells as well as independent inspectors that would visit their factories unannounced to inspect their facilities.

This has now changed. The factory that I am talking with is UL certified and inspected on a regular basis. They strive to break with the old prejudices that have been associated with Chinese cells in the past. Currently Stark Drive uses high quality Panasonic cells but if we want to have the lowest prices in the world for the upcoming $299 USD electric bike we have to consider all our options and if we are able to find a factory that adheres to our stringent quality principles as well as providing us competitive pricing we are not going to overlook the potential savings to our customers worldwide.

Here you can see a load testing machine which basically simulates the load that would be placed on these cells if they were installed in an electric bike. The discharge rate is then monitored digitally and recorded to ensure that it adheres to the pre established limits as per their design.

Further load testing albeit on a smaller scale, these would be used in cellular phones or other smaller electronic components.

Here you see a device that is used to quickly solder together battery packs. This is only for used for laboratory testing purposes. They have an automated machine that moves faster then the eye can see in their larger factory about 20km away.

It was an excellent discussion and we are pleased that we are closer to developing the ultra affordable electric bike that we can distribute to everyone in the future. As I have predicted in the past with the increasing energy density of cells as well as their miniaturization, in the future all bikes will be electric with it being up to the user whether or not they want assist and how much.

After visiting China, which is somewhat of a leader in electric transportation solutions, i will now add to that prediction to coincide with the upcoming paradigm shift that will soon be happening to the everyday automobile in that no longer will one own a vehicle, they will only hire one when they need one. China is already at the forefront of this type of system with hundreds of thousands of bikes all across the country just sitting on the street with one of the major players below.

This is a bike you dont own, you simply scan a code through your smartphone and it unlocks and you can ride it to your destination and just leave it there for the next person. It's a paradigm shifting user experience and one that Stark Drive wants to help to bring worldwide, with the primary requirement being that the bikes must be so affordable that they become common place an thus ubiquitous.

Signing off here for today.

Stark Drive Team
Stark Drive LLC