FAQ

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Battery (2)

How to I handle my battery best?

The battery represents roughly half of the price you paid for your NIU. So it should be maintenanced at least as well as the scooter itself.

[UPDATE: In 2018 NIU themselves published this page pretty much covering this FAQ entries content.]

Daily Use

Optimal charging temperature: 10 to 35°C
Using-temperature should not exceed -10 to 45°C
Do not unnecessarily keep on charging the battery when it is fully charged (Green LED lit on charger)
Do not completely drain the battery – try to charge at 10% at the very least.

(long term) Storing

Optimal storage temperature: 0 to 20°C
Recommended charge of 40-75%
Check charge-level every 2 months (e.g. put it into your NIU to get a proper readout)
Charge it to 100% when planning to use it again

Tips

To make sure you’re not “overloading” your battery you could use this engery-saving mains socket from Ansman (or something similar):

This automatically cuts of power when it falls below a certain (programmable) threshold, e.g. below 50 watts.

Category: Battery

Tags: battery, maintenance

Hi, I had my batteries out of the scooter and charged them to 100%. The bike was stolen before I put them back in. A few months have passed and I plugged the batteries into the charger today and all of the lights on the charger are flashing red. The meter on the batteries shows 100%. Any ideas what’s going on or if there’s a fix?

Hi again community,
Are there any parts, other than the ECU and the main battery that are sensitive to low temperatures?
How much is a new ECU roughly/ can the unit be refurbished?

Hi,
Regarding the ECU and winther/cold temperature.

1. Can the ECU battery sustain frost during a cold winther with temperatures below 0 degrees celcius?
2. Is there a way to turn off the ECU during the winther if the scooter is stored like 3 months?
I can move the main battery inside, but AFAIK not the ECU.

Axel says:

20/06/2022 at 09:56

Hey John,
1) I’d say no, it can’t. It’s a normal battery, not thermally insulated at all. You could try to pack it into some insulation but I’m not sure how far that will improve below 0°C, which IMHO would require active heating.
2) Nope, again, sorry. You would need to remove it… probably resulting in a constant alarm messaging. It also would need some charging.

Reply
- John Johnson says:
  
  20/06/2022 at 12:53
  
  Hi Axel and thanks for the reply.
  That is just horrible design by NIU. NIU should at least implement a shut off functionality of the ECU.
  If I try to remove the ECU myself I’d guess I void the warranty?
  
  Reply

This will give you pretty much all info needed.
https://community.niu.com/blog/battery-health-electric-scooter

I am in the same dilemma as Ryan, if we make good use of the battery and keep it between 20% and 80%, we will do more charge cycles and therefore the life of the battery will be exhausted sooner, than if we do a wrong use of it charging from 10% to 100%, where we will do fewer charging cycles and therefore more life.
Is this really so?
Let’s see if any viewer can solve this dilemma

Axel says:

24/08/2020 at 16:28

1) The worst thing you can do is deep discharge.
2) I’d say everything beyond is some sort of a religious view, but there aren’t that many more charging cycles if you refrain to empty your battery below 20% (too often). Also, going over 100% every other charging won’t hurt either… in the end your NIU is a commodity and will wore-off, no matter how much you love it 😉

Reply

I think the manual/app says that every time you charge “through” the 60% charged point, that counts as “0.1%” off your battery health. That seems true based on what I’ve seen.
Can someone confirm that?
If so, this is a very poor system. It punishes good charging practices. Lithium ion doesn’t like going below 20% or (staying) above 8o%. Ideally, you would charge for a couple hours each day and keep it between 50 and 80% if you don’t need the range. But this would be punished by a documented loss in health of “0.1%” every day.
On the other hand, if you abused it and charged from 0 to 100 all the time, that would minimize documented loss. Even worse, if you charged from 61 to 100 (or 0 to 59) every day, your battery would suffer, but you would have no documented battery degradation.
If this is true, then there are some poor/lazy software programers out there. Hope I am wrong.

NIU N-Sport 2020: did it ever happen to anyone that having the battery charged (more than 50%), after parking it and attempting to restart it after 8 hours, the battery shows 0%? Unplugging and re-plugging it didn’t solve the issue, I had to re-charge it.
How is that possible?
Please note that I had the alarm inserted and it was parked on the open street (if you wondered about GSM/GPS connection attempts).

Can you simply add a second battery to the N sport using the empty port without other modifications?

Axel says:

14/05/2020 at 07:49

Empty port? Do you mean the internal charging plug under the seat?

Reply
- Johnny LO says:
  
  23/08/2020 at 01:33
  
  Hello. I am interested in this topic because I have a request that seems similar to me.
  ==========
  Adding a second battery to my NIU N1S, under the saddle in order to “double” the autonomy: is it possible?
  
  Hi.
  
  I’m thinking of investing in a second battery for my NIU N1S.
  However, will this double the autonomy as on an NIU NGT for example, will the 2 batteries be seen “in parallel”?
  And what type of cable do I need to connect the second battery to the socket under the saddle (in my NIU N1S model, there is a socket under the saddle in order to recharge it without having to remove the battery under the scooter floor) .
  
  – Example here: https://www.go2roues.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/niu-nqisport-n1s-coffre-deux.jpg
  
  – Cable to connect the second battery under the saddle (I don’t know if it’s the right type of cable): https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/4000738660026.html
  
  Do you think this is possible?
  
  Thank you for your feedbacks 🙂
  
  Reply

Hello all,
I have a NIU NSport and for the „Daily Use“ the User Manual says „To maximize the battery life, please keep the battery percentage within 20% to 80%“. I charge the battery at home (never directly to the scooter) so how can I control the battery level?
How can I know that I am at 80%? Any tips?
I could get an ANSMANN plug like mentioned in this post, but this will only turn the charger off when it reaches 100% battery, right? Or I am understanding wrong how this ANSMANN plug works..
Thank you in advance

John Johnson says:

11/10/2022 at 19:01

With the tapo plug you can also plan to charge the scooter battery when electricity is cheaper, eg. start charging at night and turn off later. The tapo P110 also have energy monitoring so you can track the cost of charging.

Reply
- Axel says:
  
  11/10/2022 at 19:33
  
  Let’s take that as a blueprint for any smart-home solution. There are numerous smart-plugs out there which can used for this. Just make sure they are able to handle the current. 5 amps are the minimum in my opinion.
  
  Reply
  - John Johnson says:
    
    13/10/2022 at 22:26
    
    Hi Axel, the Tapo P110 takes 3700watts (plenty as the NQi Sport maxes out at 300 watt when charging in the scooter) and it can take 16 amps.
    
    Reply
John Johnson says:

11/10/2022 at 18:48

Hi, you can also use a smart socket, like the TP Link tapo (must be within wifi range) and set a timer in the tapo app for the plug to turn off after a set time. I set mine to around 5 hours depending on what the NIU app estimates.

Reply
Axel says:

10/05/2020 at 23:14

AFAIK the newer batteries have a charging level bar. Does yours?
No, the Ansmann Plug just cuts the power at a certain level of voltage. It’s originally meant for e.g. cutting you stereo as soon it goes into standby.
In this post it’s used to prevent continous charging when the battery is already full.
Whatever, don’t take that too serious, maybe at some point you get the experience that after X hours you’re at about 80%. It’s more important to avoid going below 10%

Reply
- David says:
  
  11/05/2020 at 00:06
  
  Hi Axel,
  no, neither my battery or my charging cable have a “charging level bar” that’s exactly why I am confused about how to correctly control the charging.
  Would be better to get an Ansmann Plug and charge it to 100% every day BUT preventing the continous charging when the battery is already full OR would be better to get the experience and know after how many hours it is at 80%? I mean of course it would be better to keep it at 80% but is it so bad to charge up to 100%?
  Thank you
  
  Reply

Hi,
I have received my niu ngt yesterday. The battery was almost full but the ECU had 11% and today I had the same. Why is not charging the ECU? I can’t update the firmware and it is asking to do it … It needs 60%

Regards

Axel says:

09/05/2020 at 07:55

Keep an eye on this for another day. If it doesn’t change I guess you have to talk to your dealer.

Reply
- Alberto López says:
  
  09/05/2020 at 23:03
  
  It haven’t changed during the day. I have disconnected both batteries for more than 2 hours and the ECU reported the same: 11%. May it be caused for niu servers that didn’t work properly? Msybe it doesn’t refresh the data in the cloud. What do you think about?
  
  Reply
  - Axel says:
    
    10/05/2020 at 09:37
    
    Well, indeed the app not working correctly could be “the last hope”… To be sure your dealer should measure the voltage at the ECU directly.
    
    Reply
    - Alberto López says:
      
      11/05/2020 at 23:22
      
      Hi Axel, my dealer have told me that I must do 2 recharges more and wait for the ECU battery fill. They say that they watched that the battery was al 7% at first and before giving me the niu it had 11% of battery.
      Do you think that waiting more days will resolve the issue?
    - Axel says:
      
      12/05/2020 at 07:38
      
      Well, let’s summarize: Your scooter generally works, it drives, charges and everything else is OK. So waiting norther 2 or 3 days and keeping an eye on the ECU battery doesn’t cost you anything.
      You have 2 years warranty, so no need to hurry. Give it a try.

Hi, due to self isolation, my NGT scooter had not been used for nearly 4 weeks, and is completely flat, plugging the charger in and the red light on the charger is flashing but the scooter won’t tell on. Will the battery ever charge again.

Axel says:

14/04/2020 at 17:41

Hey Andy,
Was you battery connected to your scooter? If you store the battery outside the scooter (at room temperature), charged about 80% it normally lasts 1 month before going below 20%.
I guess your’s been depleted by the ECU while inside the scooter? Let it charge for a while, maybe the battery controller need to re-condition it. If it’s still flat, I’d say it’s something you have to talk about with your dealer 🙁

Reply

If your ECU battery is at 1%, leave your battery (fully charged) in the scooter overnight. The ECU battery will then charge. Full charge can take 24 hours (my own experience).

Mine was “stuck” at 1%. I remove my battery every day and it very rarely sits in the scooter when I’m not using it. It seems the ECU battery doesn’t charge when riding the scooter, only when the scooter is parked and the battery is plugged in.

My app is also saying that my ECU battery is only 1%. The main battery has been in the bike for three days! It seems a lot of people report this issue. No fix from Niu yet?!?

Axel says:

17/12/2019 at 21:33

Did you contact your dealer and/or the NIU support about this?

Reply

My ecu battery is showing 1% in the app. I use it every day. Just a glitch or am i in trouble…..?

Axel says:

24/11/2019 at 21:47

I’d say it’s a glitch. You could test it by disconnecting the main battery, enable the alarm system and “simulate” a steal-attempt the next day. If you still get a push message etc I would assume it’s a bug.
That said, after swapping my ECU for the new (Vodafone) one, my N1 is “offline” since 65days and since they reset my account/data at their side, both of my batteries are at 0% since days… if I would trust the App.

Reply

My niu battery is losing points, do you know what could be reason for that?

Lars S says:

13/10/2019 at 13:01

Your battery is losing points in proportion to its use. My battery looses 1% per 400km but this may vary depending on your charging and driving habits.

Reply

You just discovered one of the major flaws on the Niu scooters. The battery is emptied within 3 weeks when not in use, mainly because of the GPS. You can make it go empty slower by disconnecting the battery before you leave. Full drainage is bad for the battery and gives us an empty scooter, the manual says it shouldn’t be below 20%, right?

=> If Niu is reading this: please come up with a smaller adapter in the charger (so I can store it IN the U) and make it usable as a trickle charger (so I can just connect it to the charger until I need to use the scooter).

hello
i have had to leave my Niu NS1 Sport unused for the last 3 weeks. I have taken out my main battery and the level was at about 55 as recommended

However i can see from the app that my ECU battery is now at 18% – it was 100% when i left it. Will this be a problem?

many thanks
John

Dominik Kosić says:

02/06/2019 at 21:14

That won’t be a problem… Since ECU battery is inside a scooter and will recharge itself when you put your main battery back inside.

Reply

Hi, I’m wondering if it’s okay to leave my scooter outside during work hours when temperatures drop to about 0 °C or 32 °F and less. Before and after work the scooter is parked in a closed garage without heating. Ambient temperature should be not too cold.

Thanks!

Martijn

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