The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2020 in Las Vegas is just around the corner, and we are already getting to know some of the news that the various companies that will have a stand at the event have prepared. Recently, Hyundai announced that it will showcase its ‘Flying Car’ Concept at CES in January.
NAWA Technologies has revealed the NAWA Racer, a particular concept of electric motorcycle that surprises with its autonomy. It is able to travel up to 300 kilometers on a single charge with a battery of just 9 kW.
It is a concept developed by the French company founded in 2013 and based in Rousset in the Bouches-du-Rhône, which specializes in supercapacitors based on carbon nanotubes.
To demonstrate the effectiveness of its technology, the company created this superb electric motorcycle, which is equipped with a hybrid power system combining a set of 0.1 kWh ultracapacitors with a 9 kWh lithium-ion battery. NAWA Technologies ensures that the NAWACap ultracapacitors are capable of recovering between 80 and 90% of the energy produced during braking, which makes it possible to be satisfied with such a modest lithium-ion battery.
Among its features, this motorcycle has an electric motor of 99 hp and will make 0 to 100 km/h “in less than three seconds.” It reaches 160 km/h of top speed, and its performance does not depend on the state of charge of the battery, as in some electric cars. Putting the icing on the cake is the fact that the battery is easily interchangeable.
The NAWACap package recharges in just two minutes, and the entire battery can be charged at 80% in one hour, even from a household power supply, thanks to an innovative rapid charging mode that takes advantage of supercapacitors. With this battery, we would have about 180 km of autonomy, but the incursion of the 0.1 kW capacitance increases this autonomy to 300 km, as long as the braking energy is reused.
The NAWA Racer brings a modern touch to its retro look with a simple, strong carbon fiber frame. The supercapacitors are integrated into the upper part of the tank while the lithium-ion battery takes place in the lower part of the chassis, where the engine is usually found on thermal motorcycles. Details such as LED lighting for the headlamp and taillight, suspension forks in anodized matt black, vintage camel nubuck leather saddle, and a hubless rim engine complete the striking appearance.
The advantage of the hybrid system is that it makes it possible to reduce the size of the lithium-ion battery with equal autonomy by up to 50%. The NAWA Racer has a weight of 150 kilograms, saving weight 25% compared to conventional electric motorbikes.
This idea is not new; we have already seen it in some other projects, such as the case of the Lamborghini Sián, which seeks to replace batteries with supercapacitors to recharge energy.
NAWA expects to start receiving orders for its capacitors after CES 2020, to later start with large-scale production during the second quarter of the year, and start deliveries for the second half of that same 2020.
