NAWA Technologies, maker of next-generation ultra-fast energy storage systems, has revealed its NAWA Racer – a zero-emission motorbike concept featuring a world-first in electric powertrains: a ‘hybrid’ battery.

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The NAWA Racer is inspired by 1960s café racers yet is powered by a world-first ‘hybrid’ battery system. The system combines the company’s next-gen ultracapacitors with lithium-ion – offering 10 times more power and five times more energy than existing ultracapacitors, creating huge efficiency improvements. 

 

Set to appear at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on 7th January 2020, the hybrid system offers the best of both worlds: ultra-fast charging, incredible energy recovery and high power output thanks to the ultracapacitors, and a long continuous range thanks to better lithium-ion management.

 

Next-gen ultracapacitors: the key to unlocking a hybrid battery

 

The basis of NAWA Racer’s advantage is the company’s carbon-based ultracapacitors, which charge and discharge in seconds, capable of picking up energy from regenerative braking and supplying it back to an electric motor very quickly. They can do this millions of times over without degradation, offering very fast energy transfer, unlike lithium-ion.

 

Re-using more than 80 per cent of the energy captured from regenerative braking – lithium-ion can only re-use 30 per cent – NAWACap brings major leaps in efficiency, allowing NAWA Racer to use a much smaller lithium-ion battery than would otherwise be possible: just 9 kWh, around half the size of a conventional electric sports bike’s battery.

 

Lightweight and fast-charging

 

The NAWACap pack itself is lightweight too, weighing as little as 10 kg – and combined with the bike’s carbonfibre frame and composite body panels, NAWA Racer tips the scales at just 150kg – on average 25 per cent lighter than conventional electric sports bikes.

 

This lightweight, compact hybrid battery system results in exceptional range. Thanks to its lithium-ion battery, NAWA Racer can cover 150km on a mixed cycle, including highways. However, the city is where it really shines: By capturing so much energy from stop-start riding, releasing it again as acceleration, NAWA Racer can double its range in an urban area, covering 300km between charges. 

 

The NAWACap pack recharges in just two minutes and the entire battery can be charged to 80 per cent in one hour from a home supply.

 

Exhilarating performance

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As standard, the hub-less rim motor produces 100PS, rocketing NAWA Racer from rest to 100km/h in comfortably under three seconds, onto a top speed in excess of 160km/h. And no matter the charge level of the lithium-ion battery, this acceleration will always be available because of the ultracapacitor’s high-power characteristics, which continually maintain response and performance.

 

Unlike with a regular fixed battery, NAWA Racer’s NAWACap pack can also be removed and swapped for different levels of performance, allowing riders to tune their bike’s characteristics.

 

NAWA Racer also features a ‘Race’ mode, which gives a boost of ultracapacitor power in order to give the rider the edge on the return journey (or to overtake slower traffic in every day riding). This feature was inspired by the original days of the café racer, when riders would go ‘record racing’ – short, fast rides to an agreed point and back, before a record had finished on the café’s jukebox. 

 

See the NAWA Racer concept at CES at Eureka Park, Stand G, Booth 50463

 

For more information on NAWA Technologies visit: www.nawatechnologies.com