New Bosch PowerPack 800 Promises a Range of 300 km

Bosch has introduced its second innovation in 2024 without causing a great stir. The range of batteries has grown by one size. In fact, we are talking about the battery with the greatest range ever offered by the manufacturer. The reason why it is not being presented with more fanfare could be due to internal competition.

Lighter e-drives with smaller batteries are becoming increasingly popular. Nevertheless, range remains a determining factor when deciding which ebike to buy. And many people would still like to ride with as long a range as possible. Manufacturers would therefore usually be more likely to trumpet it loudly if they could fulfil this desire at a new level.

Unrivalled efficiency

Bosch can now do this with its fourth frame battery for the Smart System. The new PowerPack 800 has an energy storage capacity of 800 watt hours. This is a whopping 75 watt hours more than the previous front-runner, the Bosch PowerPack 725, increasing the range by around ten per cent. New cells with improved performance are installed inside the newcomer. Unfortunately, Bosch is not revealing which cells these are and what exactly has been improved.

However, if you briefly divide the 800 watt hours by the 3.9 kilogramme weight of the battery, the result is a quotient of around 205, which indicates the energy density in watt hours per kilogramme. And no other Bosch frame battery achieves 205! Only the CompactTube 400 with a weight of two kilograms comes very close. Whether this allows us to draw conclusions about the cells used, we will leave open at this point.

Predecessor disappears and leaves disgruntled ebike riders behind?

What is certain in any case is that the PowerPack 800 weighs only 100 grams more than the PowerPack 725 with dimensions that differ by just one millimetre. So, the question arises as to what advantage the 725 frame battery would still have over the 800? The answer is clear – none at all. Bosch considers this to be the same and is taking the PowerPack 725 off the market. However, this is not mentioned in the corresponding press release. To a certain extent, this seems understandable. After all, all those who have only recently purchased a model featuring the PowerPack 725 could feel disadvantaged.

It will be interesting to see how bike manufacturers deal with this situation. Diamant provides an initial flavour of possible strategies. Three of its models – the Zing Gen 2, the Beryll Gen 3 and the Mandara Gen 3 – will be upgraded to the PowerPack 800, in return for a 100 euro increase in the retail price of the respective model. Important to know: Bosch has left the recommended retail price unchanged at 969 euros when switching from the PowerPack 725 to the PowerPack 800.

Endurance doubled

Together with the introduction of the PowerPack 800, Bosch has now officially confirmed the DualBattery option for the absolute majority of its batteries in relation to the Smart System. The only exception for the time being is the Bosch PowerMore 250 range extender. Apart from this, frame batteries can be combined with each other, intube batteries as well as frame and intube batteries. With the appropriate accessories, this works largely according to the plug’n’play principle. This means that if the respective ebike is approved by the manufacturer, you can add a second battery to increase the range of the overall system. As before, the system automatically recognises the new battery and updates all corresponding displays in the displays and the eBike Flow app. The ultimate in these combinations is the use of two Powerpack 800 batteries. This gives you a maximum capacity of 1,600 watt hours. According to Bosch, this enables a maximum range of 300 kilometres under optimum conditions.

Bosch PowerPack 800 at a glance

• Nominal capacity: 22.2 Ah
• Energy content: 800 Wh
• Weight: approx. 3.9 kg
• Dimensions: 345 mm x 95 mm x 100 mm
• Charging time with 4A charger: 50 % charge: approx. 2.6 hours / 100 % charge: approx. 6.9 hours
• Charging time with 2A charger: 50 % charge: approx. 5.7 hours / 100 % charge: approx. 12.4 hours
• Compatible with DualBattery: yes

Pictures: Bosch eBike Systems