Electric bikes have been on the market for several years and are becoming more and more popular. I am all the more surprising that so far no one has come up with charging them from the USB-C socket.
Ampler is a small Estonian company that has been selling electric bikes for several years. They mainly became famous for creating their bicycles from publicly available components, which are easy to service in the name of broadly understood ecology. The same goal guided them when creating a Nova model, which is equipped with an electric drive and a USB-C charging socket. Thanks to this, we can charge this bike with a smartphone charger, and if necessary, it can also be used as a powerbank.
Ampler Nova with USB-C socket
Electric bicycles have different batteries, engines and types of drives. Each of them, however, usually has a dedicated charger, which you need to take with you if we are going on a longer journey or a few days trip. Ampler wanted to simplify this by using a universal USB-C socket, which is currently becoming a standard in Europe in the matter of charging electrical devices. This is how the Nova and Nova Pro bicycle project was created, which have just been pre -sale. These are city bikes with fenders, optional trunk and 9-10 gears, equipped with a 250 W electric motor, which supports the user to a speed of 25 km/h. Most importantly, however, you will be able to charge it almost anywhere.
Ampler Nova/Nova Pro bikes are equipped with a small 336 Wh battery, which should be enough to cover from 50 to even 100 km with electric support. Its biggest advantage is the possibility of charging via a USB-C cable with a power of up to 140 W. Thanks to this, the full charging cycle is only 3 hours. However, nothing prevents you from using a weaker charger that you use with your smartphone or laptop. As if that was not enough, the port in a USB-C bike also has a return charging, so if necessary it can recharge your phone with maximum power of 15 W.
Unfortunately, Ampler Nova bikes are not cheap, for the basic model you have to pay 2990 euros, which is over 12 thousand. PLN. At this price you get a quite neat trekking bike with an aluminum frame weighing just over 17 kg. This is certainly not a small amount, and you still need to add shipping costs to Poland, which amount to 79 euros. Pre -sale has currently started, delivery is planned for July, and the order can be placed on the manufacturer’s website.
