Electric motorcycles are cool and all, but none is cooler than the NAWA Racer. Boasting some blazing new tech underneath the revolutionary design, the NAWA Racer is a one-off model. It’s destined to make an appearance in Las Vegas at the 2020 CES on January 7 to 10.
NAWA Technologies builds batteries, not motorcycles
Surprised? It only shows that French battery maker NAWA Technologies has what it takes to build an awesome ride. Built using the engineering prowess of Envisage Group, the NAWA Racer is a bike builder’s dream come true.
It has a futuristic shape with a unique ducktail seat and a wrap-around LED taillight. Of course, it’s hard to miss that gorgeous hubless rear wheel. If the NAWA Racer is any indication, it seems the future of electric motorcycles has definitely arrived, and it’s doing so with retro-futuristic styling.
It has a supercapacitor battery pack
Wait, is it the same supercapacitor technology found in Lamborghini’s Sian hypercar? But unlike in the Lambo, the NAWA Racer utilizes the combined prowess of a lithium-ion battery pack and a small supercapacitor nestled in the top tank area of the bike.
Those carbon-based supercapacitors are able to charge and discharge energy in virtually seconds. Also, the batteries can do this for millions of times over its useful like.
This means with a smaller 9 kWh lithium-ion battery pack combined with 0.1 kWh supercapacitors – the latter of which NAWA refers to as ultracapacitors or NAWACap– the Racer is destined to become the most efficient electric motorcycle the world has ever seen.
The NAWA Racer is a lightweight performer
According to NAWA, the Racer tips the scales at a lithe 150 Kg, approximately 25-percent lighter than existing electric sports bikes. The NAWACap ultracapacitor is less than 10 Kg, but it reuses up to 80-percent of the energy from regenerative braking to feed the electric motor.
The Racer is built using a carbon-fiber frame with equally-lightweight composite panels. But the real reason why the Racer is so light has something to do with the battery pack.
Since the bike is equipped with supercapacitors, it allowed NAWA to install a smaller lithium-ion battery pack than needed, which is around half the size of what you’ll find in modern electric motorcycles.
And it’s fairly quick, too
The NAWA Racer’s hubless rim motor is rated at around 100-horsepower. With a relentless charge of electrons from the combined power of lithium-ion and supercapacitors, the NAWA Racer blasts from 0 to 60 mph in under 3.0-seconds. The top speed is rated at 100 mph.
And since the Racer weighs almost nothing, it has a range of 93-miles in sub-urban driving. But in the city, the regenerative prowess of those supercapacitors allows the bike to achieve 186-miles of range in city driving.
Also, the NAWACap ultracapacitors are fully recharged in as little as two minutes while the lithium-ion unit is juiced-up from zero to 80-percent in one hour with a conventional home socket.
The NAWACap ultracapacitor is modular and removable
Unlike conventional electric motorcycles with a fixed battery pack, the NAWaCap unit in the Racer is removable. This means the bike can be fitted with a more powerful NAWACap unit for race-tuning applications.
NAWA Technologies’ Racer electric motorcycle is a sign of good things to come in the ever-changing world of electric vehicles in general. All we know is, we can’t wait to see it at 2020 CES in Las Vegas next year.