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The World’s First Ultracapacitor-Powered Motorcycle Coming to CES 2020

The only thing keeping back electric cars and motorcycles are batteries. In the current state of affairs, the best choice when it comes to storing electricity is lithium-ion, but the future is shaping up to be far more exciting.
NAWA Racer with ultracapacitor 7 photos
Photo: NAWA
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Back in September, Lamborghini introduced the Sian, the company’s first-ever hybrid. Based on the Aventador, the car set itself apart from the rest of the pack thanks to golden flakes, golden crystals, and a supercapacitor.

Also known as an ultracapacitor, the technology is meant to greatly improve storage capacity, as well as faster charge and recharge rates. In the case of the Sian, the tech is three times more potent than a lithium-ion battery of the same weight.

The idea of the Italians now made its way into the world of motorcycles. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2020, French battery maker NAWA Technologies is bringing the Racer, a motorcycle inspired by the cafe bikes of the 1960s, but packing the technology of the future.

According to the company, the Racer is the world’s first hybrid-battery motorcycle, combining the advantages of an ultracapacitor with the proven reliability of the good-old lithium-ion battery.

The new tech is supposed to provide ten times more power and five times more energy than existing batteries, which in terms we can understand translates into an urban range for the two-wheeler of 300 km (186 miles), instant energy recovery from braking (80 percent of what would otherwise have been lost), and a long life span (over a million cycles without any loss in performance).

The system is comprised of a 0.1 kWh ultracapacitor mounted in the bike’s top tank area called NAWACap. This is link to the conventional, 9 kWh battery located low in the chassis, and in turn means the range of over 180 miles comes from a system rated at under 10 kWh.

There is no info yet on how far NAWA is from making this a mass-produced item, but once it gets the lines rolling, the company claims the system could be used with equal success in electric cars as well.

Look out for more details and photos once CES starts on January 7.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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