The lithium-ion cells are a typical, cylindrical 21700 format (21 mm in diameter and 70 mm lengthy, as used on older Teslas). A complete of 1,152 of them are packed into the carbon-fiber battery that doubles because the bike’s foremost chassis construction, delivering a complete of 18 kWh to an 800-volt electrical system. A aluminum entrance body holds the steering stem, whereas the motor, rear suspension, and cooling system bolt straight to the battery pack. A carbon subframe on the rear helps the rider.
“It’s a harassed half as a result of the battery is designed to be very sturdy for security causes, as you may think about,” mentioned Roberto Canè, “In a racing motorbike, it’s not solely a matter of the load, but in addition the stiffness of the body, which is essential for the riders, so collectively the entrance body, the battery, the seat, and the rear body behave like a typical racing motorbike for lateral and longitudinal stiffness.”
Crash Safety
The protection side is a vital one: There’s no crumple zone on a motorcycle to guard the battery, so its carbon construction must be sturdy sufficient to make sure the cells aren’t ruptured in a crash. Like in the present day’s hybrid F1 vehicles, the MotoE bikes have security LEDs that mild up inexperienced to indicate they’re secure to the touch and pink if there’s any doubt, and even these LEDs are doubled up so as to add a layer of redundancy.
Fireplace marshals patrol the pit and paddock in full flameproof gear. MotoE realized its lesson the laborious manner. Earlier than the inaugural season even obtained underway in 2019, all 18 Energica bikes supposed for use in that yr’s championship had been destroyed in a fireplace within the paddock on the Jerez circuit when a charger short-circuited throughout a preseason check.
By making the battery double because the bike’s construction, Ducati has stored the entire bike’s weight down to simply 225 kg, a giant discount over the 260 kg of the Energica machines utilized in earlier years. It’s nonetheless quite a bit for a race bike (premier class MotoGP bikes have a 157-kg minimal weight and get virtually twice the MotoE bike’s 150 hp), however the huge torque on faucet implies that off the road the prototype “V21L” Ducati’s preliminary acceleration is definitely sooner than the corporate’s MotoGP machine. On the quickest monitor it’s been examined at, Mugello in Italy, the MotoE Ducati hit 275 km per hour (171 mph).
That acceleration comes courtesy of 140 Nm of torque, delivered via the identical traction management and anti-wheelie techniques utilized in MotoGP. The motor itself is an AC design, weighs solely 21 kg, and spins to 18,000 rpm, doubling as a generator to feed energy again to the battery below deceleration.
There’s no rear brake disc. As an alternative, the motor’s regen system is linked to the rear brake pedal, mapped to reply like a standard brake. As with most electrical automobiles, there’s no want for a multi-speed gearbox—there’s only one ratio that takes the V21L all the best way from stationary to prime pace. “The motor drives via mounted discount gearbox to the pinion and the chain, lubricated by a small oil pump,” Canè says. “On the opposite aspect of the motor, now we have a water pump for cooling the motor and inverter utilizing the small, decrease radiator.”