{"id":34993,"date":"2022-04-05T09:00:05","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T07:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bikeradar.com\/?p=669583"},"modified":"2022-04-05T09:12:15","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T07:12:15","slug":"swytchs-new-conversion-kit-includes-a-700g-smartphone-sized-battery-that-will-electrify-any-bike","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/rss_feed\/swytchs-new-conversion-kit-includes-a-700g-smartphone-sized-battery-that-will-electrify-any-bike\/","title":{"rendered":"Swytch\u2019s new conversion kit includes a 700g, smartphone-sized battery that will electrify any bike"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Stan Portus\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 05 April 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Swytch Technology has announced a new kit that it says will turn any bike into an electric bike<\/a>, with a hub motor, pedal sensor and battery.<\/p>\n

Based in London, Swytch first debuted a conversion kit in 2017, raising $500,000 on Indiegogo.<\/p>\n

It then re-launched with a similar electric bike conversion kit<\/a> in 2019, which was said to be the \u201csmallest and lightest electric bike conversion kit\u201d available at the time.<\/a> Swytch says it sold 9,000 of these in 2020.<\/p>\n

Officially launching in May, Swytch\u2019s latest conversion kit tops this claim with a \u201cpocket-sized\u201d battery said to be around the same size as a smartphone and with a claimed weight of 700g.<\/p>\n

This battery powers the hub-based 250Wh motor built into the front wheel, with a pedal sensor then used to detect when you are pedalling.<\/p>\n

Power and range for your daily commute<\/h2>\n
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The new battery weighs a claimed 700g.<\/span><\/figcaption> Swytch <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Cycling can play a key role in reducing carbon emissions<\/a>, but the prospect of cycling to work<\/a> \u2013 or wherever you may need to go \u2013 isn\u2019t always appealing.<\/p>\n

Swytch was founded in 2017 by engineers Oliver Montague and Dmitro Khroma, who identified a gap in the market for power-assisted, sustainable city transportation, with the belief that transport shouldn\u2019t be prohibitively expensive.<\/p>\n

This new kit, and particularly the battery\u2019s size and weight, is designed to achieve that goal.<\/p>\n

The battery is said to weigh 700g and provide 250 watts of power for up to 15km (9 miles), which Swytch says will be enough for many urban commutes.<\/p>\n

Swytch also claims the battery can be charged in an hour, and it can be removed from the bike when you need to charge it.<\/p>\n

There is a larger battery with a claimed 1,100g weight, which is said to provide 30km (17 miles) of range.<\/p>\n

Both new batteries are lighter than the previous Swytch kit\u2019s battery, which weighed a claimed 2kg.<\/p>\n

The new battery is \u2018flight-safe\u2019, meaning you can take it in carry-on hand luggage.<\/p>\n

By allowing customers to up-cycle an existing bike and make it electric, Swytch says the kit will help to reduce waste. (Something some riders might find appealing considering the comparatively high life cycle emissions of an electric bike<\/a> when compared to non-assisted bikes.)<\/p>\n

The brand also says the kit costs around four times less than the price of a new electric bike \u2013 although it hasn\u2019t provided BikeRadar with actual prices for the new kit at the time of publication.<\/p>\n

How does the Swytch conversion kit work?<\/h2>\n
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The system uses a power pack, motor wheel and pedal sensor.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Swytch uses a powered front wheel to convert a non-assisted bike into an electric bike.<\/p>\n

The conversion kit comprises of a battery pack, battery mount, pedal sensor and motor wheel.<\/p>\n

The motor is concealed inside the front hub and powered by the battery pack, which fits into the mount and can be fixed to different locations on the bike.<\/p>\n

The system is pedal-assist, so it provides power as you pedal. The pedal sensor detects when you are pedalling and a motor controller in the mount draws power from the battery for the motor.<\/p>\n

This system does require you to have a front wheel built with the motor. This is a service offered by Swytch, and it says the motor wheel can be built to order to any size, including the smaller wheels typically found on folding bikes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve swapped in the front wheel and connected the relevant bits, Swytch says your bike will be ready to go.<\/p>\n

A growing market<\/h2>\n
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Swytch Technology has recently received \u00a33.8 million in investment.<\/span><\/figcaption> Swytch <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

There\u2019s no doubt the electric bike market is expanding and Swytch offers a strong case study of that growth.<\/p>\n

Since it began operating in 2017, Swytch says it has seen sales volume grow at a rate of nearly 300 per cent per year and that it has grown from six employees in 2019 to more than 50 in 2022.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Swytch sold more than 9,000 conversion kits to the UK market. Based on available data for total electric bike sales from market research company Mintel, Swytch says its sales are likely to represent over 5 per cent of the entire UK electric bike market.<\/p>\n

The brand now has distribution centres in Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia, and in March 2022 it opened its first office in New York to service the US market.<\/p>\n

Swytch says its customers have ridden more than 1.5 million miles on bikes fitted with its kits. Swytch estimates this has saved 17,000 tonnes of C02e, as a result of the emissions associated with up-cycling an existing bike compared to purchasing a new one, plus the emissions saved by cycling instead of driving.<\/p>\n

While Swytch started on Indiegogo, behind this growth lies some serious money. Swytch Technology says it recently closed a \u00a33.8 million investment round, which will be used primarily to increase production from 20,000 units to 50,000 and then to 100,000 as demand increases.<\/p>\n

This investment round follows \u00a3800,000 of seed funding in 2018 from angel investors.<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n

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By Stan Portus Published: Tuesday, 05 April 2022 at 12:00 am Swytch Technology has announced a new kit that it says will turn any bike into an electric bike, with a hub motor, pedal sensor and battery. Based in London, Swytch first debuted a conversion kit in 2017, raising $500,000 on Indiegogo. It then re-launched […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":34994,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"5"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/04\/swytchs-new-conversion-kit-includes-a-700g-smartphone-sized-battery-that-will-electrify-any-bike-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/04\/swytchs-new-conversion-kit-includes-a-700g-smartphone-sized-battery-that-will-electrify-any-bike-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/04\/swytchs-new-conversion-kit-includes-a-700g-smartphone-sized-battery-that-will-electrify-any-bike-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/04\/swytchs-new-conversion-kit-includes-a-700g-smartphone-sized-battery-that-will-electrify-any-bike-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/04\/swytchs-new-conversion-kit-includes-a-700g-smartphone-sized-battery-that-will-electrify-any-bike-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/04\/swytchs-new-conversion-kit-includes-a-700g-smartphone-sized-battery-that-will-electrify-any-bike-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/04\/swytchs-new-conversion-kit-includes-a-700g-smartphone-sized-battery-that-will-electrify-any-bike-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Stan Portus Published: Tuesday, 05 April 2022 at 12:00 am Swytch Technology has announced a new kit that it says will turn any bike into an electric bike, with a hub motor, pedal sensor and battery. Based in London, Swytch first debuted a conversion kit in 2017, raising $500,000 on Indiegogo. It then re-launched…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/34993"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}