Ultraviolette Automotive unveils India’s first high-performance electric motorcycle, the F77
Redefining the sporty bike segment, the F77 has an acceleration of 0-60 kmph in 2.9 seconds, a top speed of 140 kmph, and a range of 150 km on a single charge.
Ultraviolette Automotive, an innovator in sustainable mobility and energy infrastructure, on Wednesday unveiled its highly-anticipated high-performance electric motorcycle – the F77.
With an acceleration of 0-60 kmph in 2.9 seconds, top speed of 140 kmph, and a range of 150 km on a single charge, the F77 completely redefines electric mobility in India with its revolutionary design, technology, and user experience.
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Inspired by designs from aviation and aerospace engineering, the Ultraviolette Automotive F77 has been developed ground up – right from the design identity and the advanced engineering principles observed in design and simulations, to its batteries and multi-level safety systems.
The F77 will be rolled out in Bengaluru, to begin with, with national expansion planned for next year.
Unveiling the F77, Narayan Subramaniam, Founder and CEO, Ultraviolette Automotive Pvt Ltd, said,
“At Ultraviolette Automotive, we have always believed that, for electric mobility to become mainstream in India, there are two important factors. It is important to build and develop vehicles that are desirable and come with a certain pride of ownership. We need to innovate on the energy side as well. There needs to be good predictability and reliability around usage and replenishment of energy.”
The genesis of F77 was rooted in these lines of thought. Over the last three years, Ultraviolette has covered an extensive journey of researching, innovating, and developing various prototypes of motorcycles, modular batteries, and chargers.
The launch of the F77 is pegged as a testimony to the company’s vision of building an entirely new ecosystem of electric mobility in India. Now in its 7th generation, the F77 has undergone several thousand kilometres of testing, and the team is confident that the new offering will be an evocative and compelling alternative to IC-engine motorcycles.
“We also believe that the F77 is the perfect opportunity to further our ambition of building superior and futuristic mobility solutions across India,” Narayan said.
Propelled by the immediate torque of its 90Nm all-electric powertrain, the F77 is capable of rapid acceleration with just a twist of the throttle, offering the rider a high-performance motorcycling experience. An optimised centre of gravity, a steel-aluminium frame, inverted front forks, and adjustable rear suspension add highly dynamic handling to the experience.
"What excites me about the F77 is the fact that it busts every single negative notion and perception associated with electric vehicles,” Niraj Rajmohan, Founder and CTO, Ultraviolette Automotive said. He added,
“It has been designed keeping the aspirations of Indian consumers in mind, while also being tested for the toughest and most extreme terrain and climatic conditions in the country. The F77 is an urban sports/commuter bike that allows both seasoned riders, as well as, enthusiasts to do more with just one motorcycle. It goes beyond daily commuting to actually deliver high levels of performance and unparalleled user experience across the usage and ownership experience cycles.”
The F77 is powered by Ultraviolette’s ‘Modular Battery’ technology and is a smart and connected electric motorcycle that will be enabled with ride telematics, remote diagnostics, over-the-air (OTA) upgrades, regenerative braking, multiple ride modes, ride analytics, and bike tracking.
Available in three variants—F77 Lightning, F77 Shadow, and F77 Laser—the F77 is priced between Rs 3,00,000 and Rs 3,25,000 (on-road). The online registrations for the motorcycle will commence on November 13, 2019, and deliveries are estimated to begin in Q3 of 2020.
The F77 riding experience
The F77 offers an all-new motorcycling experience – accessible to new riders and thrilling for accomplished motorcyclists. Some of its top-of-the-line features include:
Amazing acceleration: The instant torque provided by the electric powertrain delivers instant acceleration. The F77 touches 0 to 60 kmph in 2.9 seconds and 0 to 100kmph in 7.5 seconds.
Performance and range optimised for the urban rider: The combined batteries provide a range of 130 to 150 km in the city under standard driving conditions.
Regenerative braking: The F77 comes with a customisable power regeneration mode that is activated every time the rider brakes and adds to the battery charge. This is particularly useful in urban traffic that calls for a lot of slow-rolling and stop-and-go riding.
High-performance handling and control: The F77 is designed to deliver nimble, agile handling for confident control on urban streets and a thrilling ride on curving backroads. The centre of gravity has been optimised to enhance handling, traction, braking, and cornering performance. The lightweight steel-aluminium frame is extremely rigid and contributes to the precise and responsive handling that makes the F77 exciting to ride in any situation.
Modular battery technology
The Ultraviolette F77 is built around a foundational building block of energy storage – modular battery packs. Ultraviolette’s modular batteries are built to world-leading standards in terms of power density, energy density, cycle life, and resistance to extreme shock and vibration. Each modular battery incorporates proprietary thermal management technology to radically improve heat dissipation and reduce temperature gradients within cells, leading to a higher cycle life.
The batteries’ mechanical protection includes structural crush zones to take the first impact over the cells and structural support to prevent vibration-induced long-term damage. Key structural members within the battery packs are built to perform hybrid functions including structural support and heat dissipation through thermal pathways.
Ultraviolette’s coordinated safety strategy in place for the battery packs and vehicles interrupts excessive currents, voltages, and temperatures at the cell and module levels. Protection in the form of electrical, software, mechanical and structural, and thermal and electronic safety measures work together to achieve safety standards on a par with aviation and aerospace standards.
The modular battery’s charging capabilities are noteworthy. Its fast charging technology provides a 0-80 percent battery charge in 50 minutes and a 0-100 percent charge in 90 minutes with the ‘Fast Charger’ accessory.
The ‘Standard Charger’ provides a 0-80 percent battery charge in three hours and a 0-100 percent charge in five hours.
The vehicles integrate a CCS Type-2 charge port to support both AC and DC charging from public infrastructure.
The F77 motorcycle technology
The F77 motorcycle is equipped with a full suite of smart systems, rider aids, and interfaces for a completely connected experience.
Display: A five-inch high-brightness colour TFT (thin-film-transistor) touchscreen located on the handlebar offers the rider a wide range of information on a display that is bright and easy to read.
Ride modes: Three selectable ride modes – Eco, Sports, and Insane – electronically control the performance characteristics of the motorcycle.
Ride data: The F77 includes a 9DOF (9 Degrees of Freedom) inertial measurement unit (IMU). The IMU enables the vehicle to capture nine distinct types of motion or orientation-related data: three degrees each of the acceleration, magnetic orientation, and angular velocity. Sensor data combined with sensor fusion technology provides the exact lean angle, accident and fall detection, rate of acceleration, and position of the motorcycle in every possible circumstance. Riders have access to this ride data through the mobile app, along with diagnostics information. The Ultraviolette Android and iOS apps effectively link an F77 owner with the motorcycle through their smartphone.
Connected features and preventive maintenance: The F77 is a fully-connected smart vehicle with LTE connectivity and GPS positioning. This enables the FindMyBike feature to locate and even lock down the vehicle in real-time. The connectivity also enables preventive maintenance, a first for motorcycles, with problems being identified before the rider notices any measurable degradation in performance. The data collected from multiple voltage, current, temperature, and vibration sensors are used to diagnose and predict problems even before they can occur.
With an efficiency-mapping technology, precise measurements of energy consumed are analysed in real-time. Every unit of energy transferred from the charger to the battery and from the battery to the electronics, and finally, the electrical energy delivered to the motor and mechanical energy delivered to the wheels is accounted for and monitored to ensure that all systems are operating to peak performance.
(Edited by Athirupa Geetha Manichandar)
