The Lectric XP Lite has one of the smaller batteries we’ve encountered, at 48V, 7.8ah, or 374 watt hours. However, we often see more budget-oriented bikes spec’d with a 36V battery; Lectric chose to stick with the better quality and included a 48V battery. You lose power and speed with less volts, so keeping a 48V battery helps maintain some of the fun acceleration.
The small-ish battery is well-matched to the 300W motor. This is, in fact, a better pairing of battery and motor than with its big brother, the XP 2.0. We always hope to see at least a 1:1 ratio of nominal motor wattage to battery watt hours (think 500W motor and 500 Wh battery). The 300W / 374 Wh combo is more efficient than the XP 2.0’s 500W /461 Wh.
Worth noting is that a smaller battery weighs less, and while riders may only notice a bike’s weight when accelerating or in turns, making a bike feel nimble can be a key part of making a rider’s experience enjoyable. Also, a lighter battery makes an e-bike slightly more efficient by hauling less weight.
To get a sense of how the battery does in real-world scenarios we ran two different range tests. We did our low-assistance range test in PAS 3 (where we could really feel constant motor assistance), and our test rider covered 35 mi. in a leisurely 3:20. In PAS 5 our tester rolled 16 miles at an average of 14 mph. That’s enough range to allow a rider some freedom.
We encourage riders to keep in mind that this e-bike is both lighter and substantially less expensive than many bikes it competes against, and you can double that range with a second battery and still be well under the cost of other affordable e-bikes which makes it a pretty good value..
The more efficient battery and motor combo I mentioned before likely lead to a longer distance traveled on the XP Lite than on the XP 2.0 (albeit at a slower pace). To be fair, there are likely a host of other factors that could have affected those two range tests so take the comparison with a grain of salt.
A smaller battery—this one weighs just 7 lbs.—pays off in a big way with a folding bike. Picking up a bike that weighs less than 50 lbs. is far easier than picking up one that weighs 60 or 65 lbs. And because the battery is easily removed, riders can carry the bike in one hand and the battery in the other, which makes storing this e-bike even easier.
