Nawa Hybrid Racer - Showcasing New Battery Tech on a Motorbike
The Electric Bike Everyone Is Talking About!
Over the years, there has been frankly a lot of blarney about the potential of super-capacitors for EVs. Yes, they have the potential to be fully charged in just seconds and to release that energy just as quickly, and potentially blow lithium batteries out of the water. Simply, if they could have worked they would on the road by now… Or perhaps in this week?
NAWA Racer Shown at the EICMA Bike Show
French ultra-capacitor tech company NAWA Technologies are showing off their fully working, rideable NAWA Racer motorcycle at the biggest bike show in the world, EICMA in Milan. The NAWA Racer uses a hybrid system of a lithium-ion battery and NAWA Technologies ultra-capacitors in a hybrid system to power the machine. This is the real deal and not just a theory.
The bike looks like a classic motorcycle and has a range of 186 miles per charge from urban riding. That would make it a competitor with most decent EV motorcycles on the road today.
The system uses their proprietary ultra-capacitors linked to a lithium-ion battery that the company says is like a turbocharger on a combustion engine.
According to the firm’s news release, the “hybrid ultracapacitor battery system greatly improves energy efficiency, reduces charging times and extends entire system life.” They claim that for the same range you can halve the battery size or using the same size battery, double the range on the machine.
For motorbikes you’d probably want range and speed. That means a similar sized battery only with the NAWACap capacitors to add power and range to the setup. Could we see a 450 mile range on the Zero Motorcycles SR series using this tech? That could leave even the most hardcore riders walking funny!
Not Just for Bikes
This is not just a motorcycle tech thing. NAWA Technologies are looking to sell this to a major EV company like Tesla or another player. They claim that their tech will go into cars, perhaps giving a 700 mile range to a luxury end EV, which would make range anxiety a thing of the past.
NAWA Technologies sadly have no plans to become a motorcycle company in their own right, but developed the motorcycle to show what can be done. As with so many businesses in the sustainable technology world, they are looking to punch their way into the market when there is a lot of great ideas out there that competing for the same attention. We wish them well!
