Cycle News

LIGHTNING LS-218 FIRST RIDE P84 freewheeling into a bend with a pretty good chance of missing the apex altogether unless you work the Brembo brakes just right. But the more you back off the throttle towards the throttle stop, the more regen you get. Close the throttle completely, and it's like selecting reverse gear. There's huge engine brak- ing available, and at low speeds you must be cautious, because the bike slows so abruptly it risks becoming unstable. However, this is all fully programmable in the sense that you, the rider, can select the de- gree of regen available by how THE ZERO EMISSION SUPERBIKE In a way the most striking thing about the Lightning LS-218 is that you have to look twice to tell that its output in excess of 201 bhp (the exact figure depends on the battery pack carried) comes from an electric motor, and not an internal combustion engine. Unlike most other electric streetbikes built so far, the LS-218 looks like a sleek, conventional sportbike. But that's no surprise, considering that well-known British designer Glynn Kerr was re- sponsible for creating the Lightning's chassis and bodywork styling in his studio in France. "We started with a clean sheet of paper early in 2011, and tried to incorporate everything we'd learned from building our first EV1-powered bike," says Lightning boss Richard Hatfield. "Our goals were more power, better cooling, less weight and better handling. Essentially, we set ourselves the challenge of bringing it from being a fast electric motorcycle to becoming a fast motorcycle, period." Rather than continue to source a commercially available motor from elsewhere, Lightning has now developed its own oil-cooled brush- less IPM/interior permanent magnet three-phase DC motor, which spins to 10,500 rpm, with a soft limiter imposed via the RBW/digital throttle via the liquid-cooled inverter/control- ler. "We do have a supplier which builds the lamination stack for us and does the winding," says Hatfield. "Everything else on the motor we make ourselves, including building the shafts, the cooling, the oil jets—it's all done in house." The motor is nominally a 380V power source, but Hatfield says it can go over 410V, making the LS-218 by some way the most powerful commer- cially available electric two-wheeler with a potential output of 230 bhp at that higher voltage. Lightning claims a 0-100 mph time from a standing start of 3.0 seconds, and roll-on accelera- tion from 100 mph to its proven top speed of 218 mph takes less than 10 seconds, with no gear-shifting entailed thanks to its single-speed direct drive transmission. There's a choice of three differ- ent power packs available, starting with the stock 12kWh battery pack for which Hatfield claims a range of 80- 100 miles at freeway speeds. "The 12 is best for high power and track type work in charging and discharging very quickly," he says. "It will recharge in just 30 minutes, but as you go into the higher energy batteries there are tradeoffs between high power and high energy. So the 15kWh pack is actually slightly lighter than the 12kWh one, but we can't go to the track and do seven or eight runs in succession, discharging it and fully charging it very quickly all day. The 20kW is a higher energy density pack that does actually weigh about 40 pounds more than either the 15 or the 12, but that gives you over 150 miles range at freeway speeds. All of the batteries will recharge in under an hour from empty, so the big limitation is how quickly you can get the energy from the source. In the U.S. right now, there are over 20,000 of the J1772 public chargers, and these charge at about 8kWh, so with a 12kWh pack that's about an hour and a half, and with the 15 it's close to two hours. But we're looking at an option where we would fit two chargers on it so you could use two plugs, and then you could charge it at twice the speed." These recharging times are much faster than other manufacturers like Zero or Brammo can manage: how come? "We know this is important, so we've focused closely on being able to charge these vehicles as quickly as possible," says Hatfield. "Look, Tesla's concentrating on the same thing, and you can charge their enormous 85kW pack in half an hour with one of their superchargers. Even with a standard Tesla charger they offer dual charger packs, so you can recharge them pretty quickly. We've tried to get Tesla to share their charging algorithms with us, because if a Lightning customer can plug his LS-218 into a Tesla char- ger anywhere in the world, he can recharge it from empty in well under an hour. But they're too busy changing the world, so we're still trying to get on their radar. Hey, please pay us some attention, Elon Musk [Tesla's president and founder] – AC!" Until he does, Lightning owners should expect an eight-hour recharg- ing period from zero via a standard 110v wall outlet, although Hatfield is in talks with one of the world's largest photovoltaic companies to offer cus- tomers the chance to purchase solar panels like the one on his race van for a yet-undetermined fee. This will allow them to recharge their motorcycle without burning any fossil fuels, with

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