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Triumph recently announced
a two-year collaborative
project with Williams
Advanced Engineering,
Integral Powertrain’s e-Drive
Division and WMG at the
University of Warwick for its
Project Triumph TE-1.
Supported and co-funded
by the UK government’s
Department for Business,
Energy & Industrial Strategy
(BEIS) and the Office for Low
Emission Vehicles (OLEV),
the project will intensively
research and develop
the future of the electric
motorcycle, as well as
deliver sophisticated electric
motorcycle systems which
reduce mass, complexity
and package requirements.
“Electric motorcycles will
have a vital role to play in
future transport across the
globe - delivering reduced
congestion and improved
urban air quality as well as
easing parking,” explains
Professor David Greenwood,
Advanced Propulsion
Systems at WMG, University
of Warwick.
“They will also be great
to ride, with copious, easily
controlled torque delivered
smoothly at all road speeds.
Our expert team will lead
the modelling and simulation
work within the project,
to ensure the vehicles are
safe and efficient without
compromise to dynamic
performance,” he adds.
70 // July 2019 // www.electrichybridvehicletechnology.com
wheel transport,” explains Richard Jordan,
founder of Vmoto and Super Soco UK, one the
UK’s largest distributors of small urban electric
motorcycles and scooters.
“There’s a gap in the market for urban
mobility that is extremely cheap to run,
emissions free and easy to ride around our
busy cities, which is why we’ve focused on the
scooter market for both regular commuters
and delivery riders,” he adds.
Vmoto’s Super Soco range, for example, is
a cutting-edge take on modern urban mobility,
fusing the styling of a sports bike with an
all-electric powertrain. Its TS model has a
range of 64km (40 miles) and a battery pack
that can be recharged from a standard plug
socket in as little as seven hours.
It uses a 1200W rear hub motor from Bosch
with a max output of 1,950W and max torque
of 120Nm, while the latest Lithium-Ion
batteries from Samsung, LG and Panasonic
make up a 60V/26Ah pack.
Top speed is limited to 45km/h (28mph),
which is similar to many of the 50cc petrolpowered
scooters currently on sale, but there’s
little in the way of maintenance and no need
to stop at a fuel station again.
“The Super Soco TS is a similar price to its
petrol counterparts when you factor in the
government grant,” explains Jordan.
“But it is smaller, lighter and much easier to
simply hop on and ride than some of the
scooters currently on sale. We think that the
more people we get on an electric bike like this,
the more people will understand their
benefi ts,” he adds.
At the other end of the spectrum, UK-based
Arc Vehicle is developing its exciting and
extremely premium US$112,000 (£90,000)
Vector neo-café racer, regarded as one of the
most advanced electric motorcycles that has
ever been revealed.
At the heart of the Vector is its ingenious
battery-module carbon monocoque, which
houses the motor and batteries,
while providing additional
stiff ness to the chassis.
Liberal use of carbon
fi ber, including
throughout an
innovative swing arm design,
keeps weight down to 485Ibs
(220kg), while steering pivot
points inside the hub of
the wheel, rather than
above the wheel in the
headstock as in a
traditional layout,
aff ords great control
at low speeds.
Powering the
machine is cutting-
Secondly, motorcycles just don’t sell in the
same numbers as cars, meaning research and
development is costly, as is the physical
technology when purchased on a smaller scale.
Performance will be integral to readjusting
customer expectations, as two-wheels are
rarely purchased as a functional tool (in the
Western World, at least), so buyers tend to buy
with their hearts rather than their heads.
Part of the thrill of motorcycling comes from
the freedom of the open road, with short stops
required to fuel up, and the sound of a large
petrol engine thumping away beneath the
rider. Electric motorcycles will have to come
up with new ways to excite and entice.
Congestion charge
“Currently, we think the electric motorcycle is
going to displace a very particular form of two
1. Harley-Davidson’s
LiveWire hits 0-97km/h
in under three seconds
2. The LiveWire’s
15.5kWh battery is said
to provide around 152km
(95 miles) of stop-and-go
and highway range
3. The British-built Arc
Vector will go on sale in
2020 for US$112,000
4. KTM’s Freeride-E
underwent a long stage
of customer testing before
it went on sale
5. A lightweight aluminum
frame has space for a
battery or fuel tank for
the petrol variant
6. KTM uses a removable
300V lithium-ion battery
protected in a die-cast
aluminum case
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ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLES
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