Triumph and Williams building electric motorcycle prototype

Triumph and Williams making electric motorcycle

More and more motorcycle brands are announcing their plans to soon go electric. One of them is Triumph Motorcycles. First starting their electric project in 2019, Triumph has recently revealed updates to that project.

Project TE-1

Triumph’s ambition to create electric motorcycles is not simply a means to expand its future lineup, but to develop the United Kingdom’s capacity and knowledge in creating electric vehicles. As such, it has partnered with several organizations to create what it calls the Project TE-1 Collaboration.

Project Triumph TE-1 is spearheaded by Triumph Motorcycles and done in collaboration with the UK’s top electrification experts. By collaborating with UK-based companies and government agencies, Triumph hopes to not only make a cleaner, more environmentally-friendly motorcycles, but also find ways to make these motorcycles with the UK with favorable legislation, develop component suppliers, and create jobs and skills for the UK workforce.

After 2 years of joint research, the team has already produced the first styling sketches for the Project TE-1 Prototype, which looks like a naked street bike. Besides the sketch, the team has also created prototype chassis and power units all contained in a compact form and so far exceeding its performance, efficiency and range targets.

While it’s still in the testing phase, Triumph and its partners don’t quite have much figures yet. They have revealed a prototype platform that contains the entire power unit. It’s easy to see how this design can be easily modified from a naked street bike, to an adventure, sport tourer, or possibly even cruiser.

Triumph’s partners

Triumph Motorcycles is leading the project, providing advanced motorcycle chassis design and engineering expertise, manufacturing excellence and pioneering functional safety systems, as well as defining electric drivetrain power delivery characteristics.

Another collaborator is Williams Advanced Engineering, a division of the famous Williams F1 Team, which is providing industry-leading lightweight battery design and integration capability, using its test and development facilities to deliver an innovative battery management system combined with vehicle control unit.

Helping them out is Integral Powertrain Ltd.’s e-Drive Division which is developing the bespoke power-dense electric motors and a silicon carbide inverter, integrating both into a singular motor housing.

WMG, at the University of Warwick is providing electrification expertise, and the critical vision to drive innovation from R&D to commercial impact, through modelling and simulation based on future market needs.

The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) of the UK is a team working across government to support the transition to zero emission vehicles, as well as funding to support chargepoint infrastructure across the UK. This will contribute to economic growth and will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution on UK roads. OZEV is part of the Department for Transport and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Innovate UK is the government’s research and innovation agency that supports business led R&D funding and UK business growth.

The next update

Triumph’s next update on the project should be in late 2021. So we’ll just have to wait until then. Still, their progress so far is already pretty interesting.