eBike laws in Ontario expanded

I think we can all breathe a big sigh of relief here.

I don't know many eBikes that weigh more than 120 kg (roughly 265 pounds). I don't know my eBike's maximum stopping distance off-hand. but I'm sure it falls under these new regulations. So just don't modify your motor and you'll likely be just fine under these new regulations.

Your thoughts?

And here's the Canadian Press article with a quote from the Ontario Minister of Transportation.

And here it is again, straight from the Newsroom page of the Ontario government.

Fantastic news. One question. I received my GioBike 500w a few days ago. It does not have a label in a
prominent visible place as required. Any suggestions where I can get a approved label? Another question
arises. It says maximum continuous output most not exceed 500W. The 800W version is 500W continuous
and 800W when extra torque is needed but not continuous. Would this e-bike be legal? Zeide

Hey Zeide,

I think you're alright. The motor itself has to say it's 500W. There should be a serial number on your hub motor on the back wheel. It should look something like this 48V500-XXXXXXXXX. Just let us know what you see.

Fantastic news. One question. I received my GioBike 500w a few days ago. It does not have a label in a
prominent visible place as required. Any suggestions where I can get a approved label? Another question
arises. It says maximum continuous output most not exceed 500W. The 800W version is 500W continuous
and 800W when extra torque is needed but not continuous. Would this e-bike be legal? Zeide

Really surprised it got into the country w/no label... but I guess there is such a flood of them being imported now CRA Customs can't check every shipment any more Ya can just go ahead and have yer own label laminated and stick it on yerself... Correct wording is shown in the regulation.

Your 500W motor... any electric motor... can actually handle 1,000,000 Watts... for the millisecond before it burns up. The continuous rating refers to just that. How many watts of power the motor can handle continuously without the motor beginning to heat up. It's a function of how the motor is designed and how energy efficient it is. If motors were 100% efficient they would produce 100% rotary motion and zero heat. Heat (and noise/vibration) is just the product of efficiencies less than 100%... The motor you have might only be 80% efficient... So if it's generating 500W of power it would be soaking up 625W of power from the controller/battery and by design is able to continuously shed the heat of 125W...

Think of what that would be like if it were a 125W incandescent lightbulb... which are only about 20% (or less) efficient at generating light, so almost all the energy is wasted as heat... perhaps 100W. Those bulbs get pretty hot eh?

So anyway... That continuous rating for your motor is how they are rated by the manufacturer, and that is how they are defined in the legislation. In fact it is *normal* for any EV motor to put out more than 500W at times. When accelerating or climbing hills.

What really limits the power to the motor is the controller. EVen the batteries can be a limiting factor as depending on the chemistry and battery design there are limits to how fast the energy can be extracted from the cells without harming them... In a well designed EV the battery pack will be sized sufficiently that this limit is not reached. So really, again, it is the controller that determines how fast energy is extracted from the batts and fed to the motor.

And just like the motor, the controllers are designed to deliver some continuous level of watts w/out heating up, but also can deliver higher powers for limited periods of time.

So that's were the 800W reference comes in with your vehicle. The controller can deliver 500W continuously w/out heating up and its design (components and circuitry) is limited to a *peak* (temporary) power of (guessing you are running 48V of SLA batts) 16.67 Amps maximum.

Happy Motoring
Lock

Fantastic news. One question. I received my GioBike 500w a few days ago. It does not have a label in a prominent visible place as required. Zeide

I had the same situation as I bought my bike in Montreal 3 years ago. I made up the sticker myself and attached carefully to the faring using that heavy transparent packing tape. You're welcome to my artwork at:

http://files.meetup.c...
or
http://files.meetup.c...

I know most of the ones I see are white on black and a bit smaller and I was actually thinking of asking one of the vendors if they could spare one, but the one I have seems OK.

My sticker is clear with white writing and it actually took me a call to the store to find it. It was tucked up under the handlebars on the "steering column" for lack of a better term. It says what it is supposed to say, but it was hard to find :) a

Fantastic news. One question. I received my GioBike 500w a few days ago. It does not have a label in a
prominent visible place as required. Any suggestions where I can get a approved label? Another question
arises. It says maximum continuous output most not exceed 500W. The 800W version is 500W continuous
and 800W when extra torque is needed but not continuous. Would this e-bike be legal? Zeide

Are you sure? I own one of these and it has a label right below the glove box. For sure the bike is legal, but you will have trouble without the label. You should contact your distributor and ask them to send you a label.

Hi Zeide
If I were you I would take a picture of the glove box area and e-mail it to
the place you bought the bike to prove you don’t have any proper labelling .
Mine are right on the glove box door .
I`m positive that they can help you out .
Denis