EV Battery Pack Design

Overview

Ampersand deploys electric motorbikes as taxi vehicles in East Africa — a market where two-wheeled transport is the dominant form of mobility and fuel costs are a major burden on drivers. The battery pack is the core of the product: it needs to be safe, serviceable in the field, largely manufacturable locally, and reliable in a hot, dusty environment.

I was a senior mechanical engineer, focussing on the battery pack design, responsible for taking the system from specification through to production-ready hardware — and then for setting up the manufacturing facility in Rwanda.

Technical scope

• Full battery pack design: 75V nominal, 4.5kWh, cylindrical cell format
• Cell arrangement, connection, and thermal management strategy
• Structural enclosure design — impact resistance, weather resistance, serviceability
• BMS and electrical integration (in collaboration with electronics team)
• Prototyping in Berlin
• Supplier selection ordering from China
• Manufacturing drawings and assembly documentation
• Production facility setup in Kigali, Rwanda
• Training of local engineering and assembly team
• Field deployment support and iterative design improvements

Outcome

Battery packs in active deployment on motorbike taxi fleets in Rwanda and Kenya. Production established with a locally trained team capable of ongoing manufacture and servicing.