- manufacturer: Toshiba SCIB
- model: TBPEB001*S
- Cells: Toshiba Lithium Titanate
- capacity: 24V ca 9Ah
Japanese Toshiba released this battery to work with and their Schwinn Tailwind electric bike. SCiB stands for Super Charge Ion Battery and it is said to have a charge 90% of capacity in 10 minutes with a special charger. It has also been suggested that these batteries should handle up to 2000 cycles (some claim it to was 10,000-20,000 cycles) but we know today that neither is true. 2009 they released this electric bike with a price of around €3000. The internet is full of forums where people are trying to repair their expensive Toshiba batteries and angry letters to Toshiba/Schwinn and call for help to where one can purchase spare batteries.
Why it says 4.2Ah we really dont understand but it is just not true, it is rather 9-10Ah and most came about 30 km on a single charge indicating 10ah is more likely.
We have yet to seen any battery more well made or with more security measures.
Production date in August 2008, but they did not sell this until 2009 as we know.
Our mission was only to debug and try to repair without replacing anything. We therefore tried to charge all 10 cells separately, which took a few days.
We charged the cells slowly several times about 0.2-0.6A. Because it is such a special chemistry (about 2.3-2.8V) so we had to charge them as LiFePO4 (2-3.6V) and constantly monitor so the voltage would not become too high.
We made very careful notes and managed to get all cells to around 2.8V which will be fully charged. However they did not receive more than about 200 mAh per cell and after the battery has been resting for about a day the cells went down to approximately 2.6V again. They cells simply refuses to hold a charge and then there is nothing else to do than to renovate.
We can renovate this battery for about SEK 2500 with new charger. Obtaining new batteries is not possible and they would probably cost between €600-€1200 to buy separately.