Third party batterys work for Giant Twist?

[supra]

Hi

I'm a total newbie on electric bikes...actually it's my girlfriend who wants one...I'm just doing the research : )

The bike I had in mind is Giant Twist. At least in Sweden, where the market for e-bikes is still very small the replacement batterys seem very pricy, around 600 euros for one battery pack. And also I havn't yet found a reseller who has batterys in stock but all the cyklestores claim they can get batterys when needed.

Are there third party manufacturers of batterys that are cheaper and will work with the Giant bikes? Any examples of prices in e.g. England?

Are the Giant batterys better than those on found the average 800 euro electric bike of a smaller brand?

Also, I have come across a Giant Twist 08 that is on sale quite much cheaper than the new 09 ones. I know the 08 doesn't have a freewheel (which I don't know if it's a big issue for my girlfriend who is just going the take the bike to work). Are there any other major differences I should be aware of?

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[flecc]

The last price I saw for that Twist side mount battery was £300 in March 2009, so ours in the UK appear to be appreciably cheaper if they haven't risen since. Obviously secure packing and carriage would add to that, but there should be no duties unless there's a VAT adjustment for Sweden.

All lithium battery prices are very much higher now than they were a year or so ago, mainly due to the current economic situation and resulting currency exchange rates.

There are no equivalent batteries for any e-bikes, only the manufacturer's original equipment, the market probably too small and the diversity of types too great to make production of alternatives attractive. In any case, there's quite a lot of difference between the quality batteries that Giant, Panasonic and BionX use and the cheapest Chinese production ones.

That said though, all lithium batteries deteriorate with age after production, whether used or not, so that should be born in mind when considering the second hand bike. Since the batteries often don't last much longer than two years, the 2008 bike could have only half the life left. That age deterioration is why you won't find the batteries languishing in stock everywhere, it's not in anyone's interests to have anything but freshly ordered ones.

The 2009 Twist is definitely a better bike than the 2008 model, the motor being a noticeable improvement on the old non-freewheel one.
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