According to this latest patent which was unveiled last month, it seems that Kawasaki is working on the development of a new battery which could be used on its first motorcycle with hybrid propulsion, that is to say powered by both a heat engine and an electrical unit.
It's no secret that Kawasaki is one of the big four manufacturers taking the energy transition very seriously. We have already seen a certain number of patents relating to the development of this hybrid motorcycleIncluding a recent teaser showing a prototype being tested on a test bench.
According to these patents, it seems that engineers from the R&D department of the Akashi factory are working hard – and are at a very advanced stage – on a new battery capable of accumulating the energy generated by a thermal engine .
These concern the box containing the hybrid's energy storage system. That alone could make this a rather tedious article, but there's more here than the outer casing of a battery to look at.
The interesting part is the level of detail that Kawasaki has gone to, especially when it comes to the internal parts of the battery and how the cells are aligned and connected together.
Like most large battery packs, Kawasaki's patented system is made up of many small lithium-ion batteries linked together. In the image above we can see an extremely high level of detail, with the battery management system, relays, fuses, etc.
The patent even goes so far as to show external details, like the cooling fins that cover the battery's outer casing. While a prototype already running on test bench, the patent filing seems to prove that the project is much further along than we think.
Judging by the number of recently filed patents, it seems that Kawasaki is well on its way and it is uncertain whether this new technology will not be ready by the end of the year, or at the latest in 2022 !
