In order to figure out how “powerful” an electric skateboard really is, you need to look for the bottle-neck in the skateboard’s ability to supply its motors with amperage. The more restrictive the bottle-neck is, the less powerful the skateboard will be. A bottle-neck can come from any of the following: the battery, the battery-management-system, or the motor-controller. Gnarboards are the only electric skateboards that avoid bottle-necks, and that’s why they are so powerful.

Battery:

The two most popular batteries used by electric skateboard manufacturers are: Sealed-Lead-Acid (SLA) and Lithium-Iron-Phosphate (LiFePO4), which some manufacturers just call “Lithium” or “Lithium-Ion”. SLA is heavy, large in size, suffers from voltage-sag, and has poor run-times (due to a steep discharge curve). LiFePO4 on the other hand, is lighter and smaller in size. It has a better run-time than SLA (due to a flatter discharge curve) but does not perform well in high-power skateboard applications. This is because LiFePO4 cells typically have a “continuous discharge rate” of only 2C. That 2C discharge rate means a 10 amp-hour pack of LiFePO4 cells can only supply 20 amps of constant power (2C x 10AH = 20A). Therefore, manufacturers who use LiFePO4 must limit the power of their skateboards in order to keep from killing their battery packs.

Gnarboards use Lithium-Polymer (LiPo) batteries. LiPo batteries are smaller, lighter, and most importantly: pack way more “punch” than LiFePO4. The LiPo cells Gnarboards use have a “continuous discharge rate” of 20C (compared to only 2C for most LiFePO4). Our 20C LiPo cells make up a large 20 amp-hour battery pack, which means a Gnarboard’s battery is able to supply a whopping 400 amps of constant power (20C x 20AH = 400A)! But that’s not to say all LiPo batteries go uncorked; we still need to talk about battery-management-systems and motor controllers.

Battery Management System:

Manufacturers often couple Lithium batteries with a battery-management-system (BMS). A BMS monitors the health of a battery, but also restricts the power-output. So even if a LiPo battery is capable of delivering 400A of constant current, a typical BMS would dramatically decrease that number to something closer to 50A (or much lower if using LiFePO4). So now you have a super high-performance battery that is being bottle-necked by the BMS that is attached to it. Gnarboards avoid this restriction by not using a BMS.

Gnarboards protect their LiPo batteries through the use of a (cell-level) low-voltage-cutoff (LVC) feature coupled with the use of a “smart” balance-charge. A balance-charge ensures all battery cells are within spec during the charging process, just as the LVC ensures all battery cells are within spec during the discharge process. This method of battery monitoring allows the LiPo to perform “uncorked” while still providing a high level of protection.

Motor Controller:

Most manufacturers use motor controllers designed for low-amperage applications. Some use electric-bicycle motor controllers, while others use electric-scooter motor controllers. These motor controllers work great for low-power applications, but they don’t supply the kind of current a motor really wants when it is pushing you up a steep hill.

Gnarboards use a 300 amp motor controller that is designed for automobiles. Since our controllers are designed for automobiles, our skateboards behave like automobiles. They have smooth, linear acceleration. No delays, “jolts”, or noise. And most importantly: our motor controllers can supply a whole lot of amperage.

A Recap on Power:

Motors like to eat amps, and if you want a powerful motor then you have to feed it a lot of amps. Any single bottle-neck in a skateboard’s ability to supply amperage is a loss of potential power. Gnarboards avoid bottle necks by: using large LiPo battery packs, not limiting amperage with battery-management-systems, and using high-output motor controllers. For those reasons, Gnarboard motors are supplied with as much amperage as they want. No bottle-necking means way more power!