Development of Electric Motorcycle for Business Use

In recent years, the reduction of CO₂ emissions is under way, and the expectancy for electrical power is getting bigger for motorcycles as well. This time, an electric motorcycle with good driving performance, adequate range and quick charging performances for business use has been developed using a small battery. The travel modes have been investigated for business applications of delivery services to classify the traveling patterns and the objectives have been settled based on them. The energy efficiency has been improved by the application of the smallest amount of battery and by the integrated power unit configuration. With this achievement, the range of 34 km (at a constant speed of 30 km/h) has been realized while maintaining the 12-degree hill-climbing departure performance when loaded with a rider and a 30 kg load, which is the requirement of performance for business use. Moreover, the charging and discharging are controlled by the battery monitoring system which enables both driving and charging operations in temperatures from -10°C to 35°C to satisfy the requirement for business use. In addition, a quick charger with two-step charging current control, which can charge from 0% to 80% State of Charge (hereafter SOC) within 20 minutes, has been developed.