My Trek T80+ bike is now two years old (review) and the battery is getting weaker. The Bionx battery system design seems to be something like seven years old.

A replacement battery for this bike costs $819, i.e., substantially more than what a Chinese consumer would pay for an electric bike with a similar battery capacity and a healthy fraction of the $1,300 that I paid for the (discontinued) bike.

Given the reductions in costs and improvements in battery technology that we’ve seen in the electric car world, it seems reasonable to expect cost reductions and improvements in the electric bike world, but there is a bewildering array of battery sizes, shapes, and connectors. Our local bike store has bikes costing from $2,500 to $5,000 with at least 10 different types of mutually incompatible batteries. Next year’s battery might be better, but it seems unlikely to fit on last year’s bike.

Readers: Is the lack of a standard for batteries, with the possibility of lower prices and better quality every year, keeping smart American consumers from spending $2,000+ on an electric bike?

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