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Which university is researching electric bike/scooter technology?

Motorcycle News latest edition states that Honda,  Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki are jointly developing new battery packs for bikes but where is the British version being developed??  England used to lead the world in technical development and specification.

 Which university will take up this challenge????   We need to specify which type of motor AC or DC brushed or unbrushed is most reliable, then find the most economic variable speed control and finally specify the battery size, shape and connector. [ which Japan is about to take the lead.]

I am convinced that the government would help universities fund such a research project which could spin off into new manufacturing opportunities and employment for thousands of people.
  • I don't know about Universities, but certainly it's work we're heavily involved in. https://motorcycle.ricardo.com/engineering/vehicle-engineering

    For obvious commercial confidentiality reasons, even if it was my part of the business (which it isn't) I couldn't say what we are doing, or which aspects are handled in the UK and which overseas. That's between us and the end clients. But it is happening.
  • Given the way industry works in this country, the government would hand money to a university.  The university would develop the new technology.  Then the university would licence the technology to an overseas company, who would manufacture the products and sell them back to us.


    We just don't have a habit of transferring ideas from UK universities to UK companies.
  • Yes governments can be appalling at missing good technology , at the moment Japan has most of the patent technology for batteries and its no use promoting any energy technology as clean now ,unless you can recycle it and LION commercially at the moment has a 40% recycle rate although as reported in IET magazine some new methods have been developed to get this to 80% and they are being developed . I have always liked motorcycles and I cant get on with the scooter yet , but the big question is how the motorcycle may look in a market of small two seat electric cars or things like the BMWC2 motorcycle from a few years ago.  I dont think we are far off getting a long life , high cycle rate/life battery, but of course all the glory has been on power and milage for the last few years . I think the petrol motorbike will always have a market , the new Ducati is superb and they had a tremendous run with their engines and styling , same goes for Triumph , who seem to have refined their bikes . The most interesting sales recently have been the retro 650/750 twins , have managed some great figures and if your thing is the hand made special then Ariel have done a wonderful bike and the Brough (made in france) is rather jaw dropping The acrimotor (made in USA) is interesting and would certainly replace the vehicles in developing countries . In theory the motorcycle should beat the car in most situations in terms of kw per mile/km  , just got to keep working on that better battery.
  • Well keep watching, because there's going to be some extraordinary and rather fun stuff coming along, I can't promise that they'll be British made bikes, but a large chunk of the engineering design is (for those who worry about such things).


    I find the idea of "British" companies and "Overseas" companies rather outdated now anyway unless you're talking about very small companies. Over 40 years I've worked for companies where the head office was in Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Italy, and now in one where the head office is in the UK but the engineering is carried out world wide. What it's shown me is that any company will put the work where it's cheapest and most efficient to do so, a "UK" company will move portions of work abroad if it's cheaper to do so - Dyson being an excellent example! But it's also shown me that you can effectively manufacture in the UK (most of my career has been around UK manufacturing) within an overseas owned company, you've just got to be very aware of what you're competing with and make sure you are absolutely using best practice from across the world. And never, ever fall for the line that somehow being born in a particular place makes you naturally good at engineering or manufacturing.


    Ref Simon's point, again UK Universities are fundamentally private organisations that are part of a global research network, just at the moment (given Covid) good thing too. And on a slightly different angle, the University of Birmingham's hydrogen train (which my employers are also involved with) is a good example - I am assuming, and indeed hope, that UoB will licence this technology to other countries, having an approach to reducing fossil fuel emissions which is kept solely in the UK so as to boost our economy doesn't seem like the right thing to do at all.


    Let's get good electric motorbike designs out there, and then it's for UK companies to show why its worth building some of them in the UK (which it should be).


    Cheers,


    Andy

  • The World will become a much quieter place once petrol bikes are banned, and you can only buy electric ones.  How does a vehicle that transports one or two people and almost no luggage manage to make more noise than a 38-ton truck or a double-decker bus?
  • Further to earlier responses, I'd just like to remind community members of some 'Are Electric Bikes better than Petrol'? videos that the ARTS TN filmed at Silverstone at an electric motorcycle championship that they've supported over the last few years.  The links to the various videos can be found here   Several university teams also built bikes that raced in this series as well as the TT Zero championship on the IoM.
  • Thanks,  E bikes and motorbikes are really about to take off.

    Read an interesting MAGNAX article on Axial verses radial permanent magnet motors which shows conclusively that axial flux flow machines are smaller, slimmer and lighter than old radial flux AC machines or very old DC motors.

    So 6 or 12 pole inner stator axial flux motors with neodymium magnet outside rotors on a 3 bearing rotor keyed drive shaft are the future drive motors we need to use.

    Batteries at present Lithium ions are lightest to deal with from a stored energy per kilogram weight point of view. 

    All we need is a university to develop a British variety that suits all our needs , to power either a city runabout or a performance motorcycle.  Same motor/battery technology!!
  • Yes there are a couple of uk developing car motors  try euipmake , my guess is the real shift will be a dc motor , that does regnerative braking then the inverter wieght  can be removed . As for the electric scooter i do see them , but the electric c2 type idea would be the upgrade once you get your licience , as for the pure motorbike i think you will get a high performance electric motor bike , but i dont think you will have a range one for touring on , and for me the big engined liquid fueled motorbike is so involving , the problem may be what liquid as future fuel , and my guess is ethanol , I doubt retro will be banned from the roads .
  • Both Bristol and Reading have undertaken research into utilising electric bikes for rehabilitation and other health benefits.  There are quite a few UK companies who have developed Electric bike technology, although they tend to be based upon readily available components from the USA/Far East.  Even Brompton have an electric version of their folding bike now.  One of the problems for electric scooters is that legislature limits their use on public roads/pavements, so this needs to be addressed before they can become mainstream.
  • Getting back to large electric vehicles and the problem with expensive hybrids and motorway refuelling disadvantages we should just sort out the small vehicles first.

    Well, by reducing the size of battery to just a 20 mile range instead of 200 miles will make the Lithium last 10 times as long.  Long motorway distances and heavy lorries will have to use diesel or petrol.  So for now motorway service stations do not need to upgrade their grid connections to Megawatts which is good news..