High-tech e-motorcycle – Nawa Racer: Supercaps provide a range boost


Supercaps could be a way of making e-vehicles lighter and more powerful. A French battery specialist now wants to demonstrate the potential of the technology in a motorcycle. They should be able to recover 80 percent of the energy that would otherwise be lost during braking.

The battery specialist Nawa Technologies wants to build its electric motorcycle Nawa-Racer, which was presented as a design study at CES in 2020, as a ready-to-drive prototype. The French are getting support from technology partners from their home country as well as from Great Britain.

At the CES, the futuristic Cafe Racer caused a sensation with its elegant and tidy look, but more important was its hybrid battery, which consists of classic lithium cells and supercapacitors.

These supercaps can absorb and release electrical charge particularly quickly, which has several advantages: When recuperating, they store more electricity than normal lithium batteries, which increases efficiency and range and enables better acceleration. They also allow lighter batteries to be built without losing range.

In the case of the Nawa-Racer, the lithium battery has a capacity of 9 kWh, which ensures a range of 150 kilometers. With the help of the supercaps, which weigh around ten kilograms and have a capacity of just 0.1 kWh, the range window should increase to up to 300 kilometers, at least in urban use. The 73.5 kW / 100 PS electric motor enables a top speed of 160 km / h and the sprint to 100 km / h in under 3 seconds. By the way, the electric motor of the Nawa Racer is in a ring in the rear wheel and optically forms a unit with the spoke and hubless rim.

The ready-to-drive version should be ready by summer, but not go into series production. With their ready-to-drive prototype, the French want to demonstrate the performance of their hybrid battery technology with supercaps.