Bosch Announces Green Light for DualBattery with the Smart System

Starting in autumn 2023, Bosch enabled the first combinations of two batteries for the familiar DualBattery function on the Smart System. With update 1.20 of the eBike Flow app, the last barriers are now falling. In future, you will be able to combine any battery that is compatible with the current drive system at the same time and thus increase the range of your ebike.

Shortly after the introduction of the Smart System 2022, disillusionment spread in various internet forums. Bosch had announced that the associated batteries were not yet DualBattery-capable. However, if you listened carefully, you could see that the emphasis was always on “yet”. Together with the introduction of the new Bosch PowerMore 250 range extender last year, the system manufacturer released the combination with the CompactTube 400 Intube battery as the first variant. This was followed by combinations of the PowerMore with the other intubes PowerTube 500, PowerTube 625 and PowerTube 750.

On your marks, dual, go!

Now the time has finally come and the batteries from the entire portfolio can be combined as desired. Depending on what your ebike has to offer and what options the bike manufacturer has planned ahead, you can now also use the following batteries at the same time after updating the app:

• PowerPack Frame + PowerTube
• PowerPack Rack + PowerTube
• PowerPack Rack + PowerPack Frame
• PowerPack Rack + PowerPack Rack

As mentioned, this is just theory. In practice, the decisive factor is which battery mounts the respective ebike provides and what the frame size and frame geometry allow, for example. With regard to the use of the Bosch PowerMore 250, the decisive factor is whether your model is PowerMore-ready, so to speak. If you are unsure about this, you can check the eBike Flow app, ask the bike manufacturer or contact the shop where you bought the bike.

If you use DualBattery, you can, for example, track the battery capacity after every check in the workshop. All you need to do is ask for the battery capacity to be read out on an appropriate measuring device. The workshop can then enter the result of the test in your ebike’s digital service book. You can find the service book in the “eBike settings” menu of the eBike Flow App. Of course, everyone can benefit from this service – regardless of whether they use the DualBattery function.

Major step forward for navigation

The previous updates always included an extension to navigation with the eBike Flow App or for the presentation on the displays. Update 1.20 continues this small series. This time it’s about the situation where you are travelling on a planned route and deviate from the path you actually wanted to follow while riding.

If this happened before, it was quite frustrating. After all, in this case the arrow representing you was simply stranded in the black void of the screen. At least this was the case when navigating using a display. Fortunately, this is now a thing of the past. Now a dynamic recalculation starts at that moment. Before this happens, a short message appears on the display saying “Off route”. The system then finds an alternative route for you.

Only almost to the end of the world

However, the visualisation can cause some confusion. The newly calculated route is a continuous white line on a black background, just like your actual route at the beginning. If you are travelling in an unfamiliar area, you will therefore not be able to tell when you are still on the newly planned track or already back on the intended route. Furthermore, this rerouting cannot be driven to infinity. As soon as the system runs out of map information, it will tell you that “rerouting is not possible”. And then it is: Welcome back to the black void. From then on, you have to rely on your biological navigation system, i.e. your eyes. If they lead you back to roads or paths that are shown on the map, the rerouting is updated and the navigation comes back to life.

Two important tips at this point: Firstly, don’t trust the navigation to the last corner of the planet. Rerouting only works with mobile data. In remote areas, you are better off using a classic map or other aids. Secondly, it is best to connect the eBike Flow App with an account on komoot. The navigation service provider allows you to plan routes much better than in the eBike Flow app. You can later import the plans from komoot into the app. The transfer also works for separate GPX files.

No support for old iPhones

The 1.20 update comes with important news for anyone who has been using the eBike Flow app on an iPhone. In future, Bosch will only offer this service for Apple models from iPhone 8 with iOS 16 or higher. This means that those who use an iPhone 7 or an even older model will not receive any further updates.

If you want to download the latest version of the eBike Flow app from Apple’s AppStore or Google Play immediately after reading this article, this will not be possible in all cases. According to Bosch, it may take several days for the update to be displayed. If you update your ebike using the eBike Flow app, be sure to install all components on the bike beforehand. This way, the update is most likely to succeed at the first attempt.

Pictures: Bosch eBike Systems