Bimotal Elevate Battery Pack Form and Function

Why Elevate Uses a Rectangular Battery Pack

This article takes a closer look at the thinking behind the Bimotal Elevate battery and its form factor.
Many have asked: Why the rectangular pack?
TL;DR: In this case, we prioritized function over form.

We started with a sleek cylindrical design. Most range extenders use cylinders to resemble water bottles, and we built several prototype bottle batteries that we rode extensively. However, two key challenges pushed us toward a different path.

Challenge 1: Range

With Elevate, the range extender is the main pack. That means you want as much capacity as possible if you’re using the motor at a moderate to high assist level. If you ride with light assist, smaller batteries like a typical 160 Wh range extender can be enough. But using Elevate as a true ebike works best with around 300 Wh of capacity.

Our early bottle-style pack could hold 200–250 Wh. But to make it fit more frames, we would have needed to shrink it further—landing closer to 160 Wh. That wasn’t enough for the kind of rides Elevate is built for.

Challenge 2: Compatibility with Modern Frames

Our core market—full suspension mountain bikes—posed the next problem. Many of these bikes have complex suspension linkages and barely enough space for a standard, or even a small, water bottle. A cylindrical battery capable of 200–250 Wh is longer than a normal bottle, and its squared-off top makes fitment even tougher.

In testing, we found our first cylindrical pack had very low compatibility with the enduro, trail, and downhill frames we wanted to support. The solution was a boxier, cube-shaped pack, designed to fit the vast majority of bikes that can hold even a small bottle while remaining short enough to clear tight linkages.

Even the slight taper at the top of the battery is intentional. The thicker section houses the BMS (Battery Management System), while the taper contains cable routing and the LED board—and slopes down as quickly as possible to gain those extra millimeters of clearance from frames and shocks. That small design detail dramatically improved compatibility across dozens of bike models.

Looking Ahead

We still plan to bring a lighter, more elegant cylindrical pack to market, as well as a higher-capacity version for longer rides. The beauty of Elevate’s modular system is that as battery technology improves, we can update the cells, form factors, and packs without requiring riders to buy an entirely new bike.

You’ll be able to upgrade your battery as technology advances—keeping the same bike and motor you already love. That’s the genius of Elevate: a component-based system that grows with you and evolves with the future of electric mobility.