It's called WMC250EV and it's an electric motorcycle manufactured by British White Motorcycle. Its objective is to revolutionize the concept of aerodynamics applied to motorcycles. Indeed, in order to improve the air penetration of the machine, the engineers had the idea of drilling a huge hole in the center of the motorcycle.
While the WEMC250EV electric motorcycle seems revolutionary, the idea is actually quite simple. WMC takes advantage of the possibilities offered by electric motorcycle design to develop a more aerodynamically efficient motorcycle. Instead of circulating air around the bike, they had the original idea of circulating it through it, providing a sort of Venturi effect. The company calls this technology “V-AIR.”
This achieves several major objectives. Firstly, the motorcycle has much less drag than using standard fairing. WMC claims that the V-AIR design can reduce the motorcycle's aerodynamic drag by up to 69%, depending on how you want to design the system.
Second, it also provides considerable downforce to the front wheel, like the aerodynamic fins you see on MotoGP some superbikes, but the V-AIR design generates much less turbulence, which equates to better stability.
Third, because this front wheel is placed on the ground and the goal is to avoid wheeling, therefore to add weight to it – this does not pose a problem for a motorcycle intended for straight line riding – WMC can install two 20 kW hub motors in the front wheel. The rear wheel is chain driven, powered by two 30 kW motors centered in the chassis. In total, 100 kW, or 137 hp, power the British machine. However, this is only the beginning because in the company's plans, the WMC250EV aims to reach 250 kW (hence the name), or a whopping 340 hp.
It's all very clever and it's easy to see why the motorcycle industry as well as the UK government are all investing money or other forms of support into this tech company. Another crucial factor is that despite the hole, the riding position is by no means extreme, on the contrary, in terms of dimensions and measurements it can be compared to that of a "very normal" Yamaha R6.
Robert White, CEO of WMC, looks back on the machine's beginnings on the track: “I am delighted with the progress we have made on the WMC250EV. We were encouraged by the great reception our launch received on June 21 and the high level of interest the project subsequently generated. This is a completely bespoke motorcycle and it runs fantastic. We have a measured and controlled approach to our testing program to ensure that nothing is left to chance and given the results we have achieved to date, my confidence grows that we will be successful. »
Currently the prototype has reached 170 mph, or 270 km/h, but the ultimate goal is to “pulverize” the record obtained by Max Biaggi on the Voxan Wattman set at 228,05 mph, or 366 km/h. All electric motorcycle manufacturers are exploring ideas for the future, and WMC's radical design could be a technical solution to adopt.
