In this update
- Skinnovation, Innsbruck, Austria
- Travel Friendly Battery Prototype
- Purchase your PL1 before the tariffs!
Skinnovation
Zoa Engineering is stoked be attending the Skinnovation startup and innovation festival in Innsbruck, Austria from March 26-28! We'll be bringing a travel friendly prototype battery with the PL1 to show off our product to a European audience. We encourage anyone who can to join us for an exciting couple of days in one of the world's premier ski destinations. We're eager to discuss our business and how we plan on expanding towards the European market.
Travel Friendly Battery Prototype
We'll be bringing a prototype unit to the show that's set up to meet airline battery restrictions. Rather than one large battery, this version uses 4 packs that can be disconnected with each pack having a capacity under the 100 Wh limit used by passenger airlines. Ultimately this system ends up with slightly less capacity than the 360 Wh battery we normally use.
Ironically, to accommodate these safety regulations, we are also making the system less safe. This prototype does not have an integrated battery management board like our usual battery, which keeps the cells balanced and protects the battery from over charging and discharging. That means we are missing an extra layer of protection from the type of thermal runaway event that makes Li-ion dangerous in the first place. It also means we need to use a dedicated balance charger to charge each pack.
With all the added risk, we're not comfortable selling this as a solution to customers just yet. It's certainly not an unsolvable problem, and we're motivated to develop a safer and more polished solution that will work for new and existing customers that want to travel with their PL1.
American tariffs incoming
Once again the threat of tariffs on goods going from Canada to the USA is imminent. We were granted a month long reprieve around the time of our last update, and we are bracing for what's expected to be a 25% tariff on March 4th. That's a $431.25 increase to the cost of the PL1 Complete Package that is totally outside of our control. For our American customers we strongly recommend ordering your PL1 now if you were considering it.
Thanks for following along with our progress! Let it snow!
Zoa Engineering Team