12 POWERING INNOVATION www.vicorpower.com Issue 4 2023 Power Electronics Europe www.power-mag.com Lightning Motorcycles deliver a smooth ‘magical feeling’ even at 215mph! Innovative modular power system design delivers an unequalled riding experience “After the first ride I took on Skyline Drive in Woodside, Calif., I became convinced that electric motorcycles should be a business. The bike gives you a feeling of limitless torque with no vibration, no noise and no heat – there is almost a magical feeling to it.” That was the experience of Richard Hatfield, founder and CEO of Lightning Motorcycles Corp., which holds the land speed record for electric motorcycles: over 215mph. The San Carlos, California company was founded in 2007, just a few streets over from another electric vehicle pioneer – Tesla. San Carlos at that time was ground zero for electric vehicle development and collaboration. Lightning strikes and breaks land speed record Having cut his teeth on EVs in the late 1990s helping develop an electric Porsche for a U.S. race series, Hatfield, a lifelong motorcyclist, set his sights on creating a motorcycle that leverages the same technology. In the early days, lithium batteries were a scarce luxury item, but by 2005 he was able to source some of the first iron-phosphate lithium cells, together with an industrial variable-frequency-drive inverter and an induction motor. After developing early prototypes with his original EV motorcycle design, Hatfield equipped his next bike with a Tesla motor, and Lightning was born. “We took it to the Bonneville Salt Flats and broke a speed record that had stood for 35 years,” Hatfield said. “We still hold the Bonneville record – an SCTA (Southern California Timing Association) sanctioned 215.962mph – in addition to 211.7 at the El Mirage dry lake bed. Then we raced it in the inaugural AMA (American Motorcyclist Association) zero-emission road racing series and won the North American championship.” Soon after, Hatfield produced Lightning’s first production bike, the LS-218. As the speed and road racing trophies piled up, Hatfield used the momentum to bulk up Lightning’s engineering prowess. “That was our model,” he said. “From the beginning we thought that, for electric motorcycles to be a compelling business, we had to provide performance and an experience that equaled or exceeded the best internal combustion bikes.” And exceed he did. In 2013, Lightning ran in the open class of the Race to the Clouds at the Pike’s Peak International Hill Figure 1 Lightning Motorcycles Corp. holds the land speed record for electric motorcycles, exceeding 215mph. Figure 2 Minimally, electric motorcycles need to deliver 100 miles at 70 miles an hour per charge. Today Lightning’s bikes range more than 170 miles/charge with the capacity to recharge to 80 percent in 10 minutes.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQ0NzM=