Charging station for electric bikes

Abstract: This report describes the process of designing a charging station for electrical bicycles and is the end project of the Industrial Design Master at Jönköping University. The thesis was created and assigned by Energikontor Norra Småland. This organization helps companies to be more sustainable and promotes clean energy. In this case, they are working together with Cykelpoolen, which is a newly started company that wants to create an electric bike rental service. The charging station was made to fit this company’s choice of bikes. The requirement was to create a charging station that could fit both regular electric bikes and electric cargo bikes, and that could be fitted inside a parking garage. The work began with researching electric bikes, existing charging stations and contacting people and companies of interest. A number of concepts was then developed and presented to Energikontoret and Cykelpoolen. They then chose one of the concepts that was then further developed with CAD-files, renders and in the end a physical model. The result is a charging station that can be adapted to fit different types of bikes and different wheel sizes. The station features heavy-duty locking eyelets to secure the bikes by the frame without having to bend down or use bad posture. Each bike spot have a stable bike rack that firmly holds the bikes into place and a charging indicator that reveals the status of the charging process. The physical model that was presented during this thesis was made in scale 1:1 and consisted out of one charging unit.