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In just 2 years I've had 2 new motors, both times very quickly replaced by Bosch. Seems its quite common across most makes so I wonder what happens to the broken ones surely not into landfill. I did ask Bosch but didn't really get an answer.
Probably on a slow boat to some 3rd world hell hole where some of it may be recycled, the rest dumped.
How much of the rest is reusable when the motor dies too?
It's bad enough changing 'standards' rendering old bikes obsolete over time but a dead motor or battery or even some control system electronics could kill one of these much quicker, how many otherwise good cars get scrapped because of an electrical gremlin?
I can't answer your question but I briefly started a course run by a Danish university about solar panels and part of that course went into the lifecycle of solar panels.
So design with the understanding that all products have a finite lifespan seems to be ingrained in some aspects of technology but not others. Obviously it needs to be ingrained into all technologies, but costs dictate research into recycling of the stuff these businesses manufacture with their primary target being to release their crap onto the market to make money.
There's no excuse for large profitable companies such as Siemens, Bosch, Honda, etc. They should all have a product lifecycle but then they'd be admitting to the fallibility of the shit that they produce. They need to be straight up with people. We all know stuff doesn't last indefinitely. These businesses need to reassure us that they have a system in place, when it eventually terminally fails, in order to extract the materials from their failed product and get those materials back in productive use. The higher percentage of said product the better. Government legislation is so weak in this area.
The aparent failure rate of these things is what is ultimately putting me off an e-bike. I will admit to being e-curious(is that a thing?) as I'm not getting any younger. I could probably just afford to buy an e-bike if I sold my main bike so I had a look around a month or so ago to see what was available used. I was surprised at the amount of e-bikes for sale that weren't very old by my standards but had dead motors or batteries. Had a look at the replacement costs and realised it would cripple me financially if I had to shell out for those very few years.
As above. Posted off to places like Indonesia to be 'recycled'.
My dead bosch motor is going back to bosch apparently, who knows what they do with it,hopefully they work out what went wrong and use that info to improve future versions, but at least it isn't just going in the bin at the bike shop.
I'm going to guess that they refurb it, ie replace whatever failed and then get it back into stock for warranty replacements.
Was told by my Bosch service centre yesterday that my dead motor won’t be reunited with its maker but going straight to hell* where it belongs**
* The bin, he said Bosch don’t take them back.
** how dare it die 15km from home
Does seem wasteful
I’m a bit surprised nobody is remanufacturing them yet. Given what can be done with alternators/ starter motors etc seems like a massive waste
What's the failure rate on electric cars? What happens to them?
Is it better? If so why, and what can bike makers do to catch up?
Is it worse, and if so is that yet another reason for me not to get one?(not a died in the wool petrol head, I will have hydrogen once the refueling infrastructure works)
Well, just got an email saying from my LBS a saying Bosch do want their motor back. It’s not going to hell after all 😉
Bosch motors get sent back to Bosch and are refurbished and used in warranty claims.
Brose ones will be the same. Returned to Brose. Specialized don't even open them. I think my 4th is on it's way out.