The biggest issue facing electric motorcycle adoption is, obviously, range. Yes, infrastructure still sucks, and at least here in the States, the federal government ain't great right now for EV ownership. But for motorcyclists who are used to just hopping onto their bikes and going for a long rip, range is paramount to all others.
Right now, you just can't go on any sort of long-range road trip with an EV motorcycle, which makes Stark and Zero's decision to go after the small-displacement dirt bike market over LiveWire and Zero's road market play make more sense. But what if you could solve for that lackluster range issue?
We already have folks working on solid-state batteries, which promise to hold more charge by adding battery density without sacrificing overall weight or size, but even those are still too large, too heavy, and don't offer the type of range you want to see for motorcycles. They're an incremental step.
24M Technologies, however, just designed a 1,000-mile battery pack that basically reinvents the concept and, with a little tweaking, could be made to power motorcycles, too. Again, it supposedly supports 1,000 miles of range, though that's currently designed for cars.
According to our siblings over at InsideEVs, "Battery makers are quickly moving away from traditional pack design. Many now skip the step of battery modules and instead integrate battery cells directly into the larger pack (cell-to-pack), or even into the vehicle body itself (cell-to-body). Massachusetts-based 24M Technologies has taken it a step further, developing a novel electrode-to-pack (ETOP) method to enhance both energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness."
To put it in layman's terms, 24M Technologies looked at a traditional and upcoming battery pack technology and asked, "Why do we need all these extra parts that aren't actually conducting the voltage?" So the company took everything that was absolutely necessary for a battery pack to function and threw everything else out, i.e. the battery cylinder capsules, and all the hardware. The result is the ETOP pack which, "uses a sealed anode and cathode pair that’s integrated directly into the battery pack."
Think of it as a Caprisun, but make it a battery, and the contents within aren't fruit juice, but all the stuff you need to propel a vehicle.
The company states that while the average EV battery has about a 30-60% makeup of electrodes by volume, the ETOP battery has about an 80% makeup, which drastically reduces the weight and size of the battery without sacrificing range. It also states that because of the flexible nature of the pack itself, it'd be perfect for aircraft and other vehicles where weight is paramount. And here's where I make my pitch for motorcycles.
Listen, you've got a massive population of motorcycle and scooter users around the world. Asia alone has the most sizable population of riders on the planet, but most are using two-stroke oil-burners that pollute like they're a Captain Planet villain. This pack, however, has the chance to revolutionize the motorcycling industry and finally give us an EV motorcycle with real range.
Obviously, that's pie-in-the-sky thinking, as the battery isn't real just yet. And there are a few key concerns about the technology, including how to manage for thermal runaway, which we've seen issues with in regard to EV vehicle fires reigniting after days of inaction. But this tech has me hopeful someone will finally solve for the range issue with bikes.
