Powering Triumph’s First Electric Sports Bike with WAE’s Dyrr Ardash

“For TE-1, people are amazed by the performance of the bike. And, when you’ve got motorcycle racers saying that it’s a very impressive propulsion system pushing the bike along, it makes you think that is definitely exciting,” says Williams Advanced Engineering’s (WAE) Dyrr Ardash. 

Ardash, of course, is talking about the upcoming Triumph TE-1 electric sports bike. WAE provided the battery tech for the bike and, as the company’s Head of Strategic Partnerships, Ardash is the perfect person to hear about the bike’s journey from inception to execution. 

Strength in Numbers 

The TE-1's development certainly wasn’t straightforward. The project started at the end of 2019 and sought to gain funding through the UK government’s Innovate UK program. 

“After all the funding rounds and once we’d got approval from the government, the majority of the project was delivered under COVID,” explains Ardash. 

“A lot of the engineering work was delivered under COVID and there were some positive things because of that. There were some things where it would have been great to have everybody together. But actually, we very quickly found a working cadence that worked for all parties. It’s been excellent, we’ve become closer, and those relationships have developed even further because of the program, and I think that’s exciting for other UK programs and projects in the future.” 

WAE is certainly no stranger to working with other companies. We’ve previously spoken to Ardash about the company’s role in developing the 2,000 horsepower Deus Vayanne. The TE-1, however, was to prove quite a different proposition.  

For a start, there were more partners involved in the project.  

“I was there effectively from meeting number one,” says Ardash.  

“That was held up at the Triumph facility in Hinckley. There were five people in the room, one from each organisation – apart from WMG [the Warwick Manufacturing Group connected to the University of Warwick] who had two. There was one from Triumph, me from WAE, and Integral Powertrain [subsequently rebranded as Helix].” 

It was here that the companies set out their expectations for the bike – how fast will it be? How far will it be able to go? What will it be like to ride? 

“They [Triumph] wanted to understand what opportunities there were from an electrification perspective moving forwards. They have no fundamental experience with electrification, and they wanted to get the best people from different organisations in the project – and UK organisations specifically,” he explains. 

The final product has 130kW of power – equivalent to 175 horsepower – and 109 Nm of torque – around 80 lb-ft. The sprint from 0-60 mph takes a very brisk 3.6 seconds and it can charge from 0-80% in just 20 minutes.  

However, perhaps the two most important statistics for the TE-1 are its weight and range. At 220 kg, the bike is up to 25% lighter than many of its competitors and with a 100-mile range, it’s perfect for spirit Sunday riding sessions. 

Fit for Purpose 

According to Ardash, the “fundamental principles” of building an electric performance vehicle – whether it has two wheels or four are consistent. 

“We’re always trying to optimise for power, we’re always trying to optimise for the amount of energy that we have, and the associated densities of those two,” he explains. 

“The specific challenge for an electrified sports bike, if you do it properly, is that integration. It’s making sure that you’re integrating all those different things in a mass and volume space which is significantly smaller than you would have on a passenger car.” 

For Triumph, however, keeping the TE-1's centre of gravity as low as possible was fundamental to its success.  

“We had to make sure that the centre of gravity was consistent with the internal combustion engine bike and that was one thing that we worked hard on and was driven by Triumph. They know motorbikes much better than we do and they have a specific brand DNA which they wanted to flow through into this product,” says Ardash. 

“They basically said, ‘We want all of this performance, all the power, all the energy, we want the range, and we want the mass to be as low as possible. But, on top of all that, they need the centre of gravity to be exactly the same as the internal combustion engine bike. We got to within one millimetre – which is not a bad job.” 

To achieve this, Ardash says the company needed to take some novel approaches. 

“Our responsibility for the project was to design, develop, build, and validate the battery system,” he explains.  

“It included a battery management system and vehicle control system combined into one unit, which has not been done before. We also developed our own DC/DC converter, as well, and integrated that all into the battery.” 

Integrating as many components as possible into a single unit helped reduce space and weight on the bike but also allowed them all to be mounted lower down in the frame. 

“We had a battery pack which wasn’t fully stressed and structural in the sense that everything bolted onto the battery. There’s still a frame but it was used to strengthen and give better rigidity,” Ardash explains.  

However, that tight packaging came with its own problem – cooling. 

“I’m not going to say it’s any more or less difficult than with a car,” says Ardash. 

“With a car, you get other factors that you need to consider, such as the air conditioning and the occupant conditioning, as well. But batteries fundamentally can’t get too hot, and sports bikes are normally ridden at a harder duty cycle than most passenger cars. 

“So, we added a slightly more powerful cell than was actually required for the performance that the motor could deliver. The battery could, essentially, deliver 170 kW but we only ever deploy 130 kW. That allows you to utilise a cell that doesn’t get too stressed meaning that you can run it less stressed for longer and then the thermal challenges are not as aggressive.” 

Along for the Ride  

While TE-1 is Triumph’s first electric sports bike, Ardash certainly feels that it won’t be the last. 

“It’s a growing market, there’s no question about that,” Ardash says. 

“The rate, I would say, is not going to be dissimilar to the automotive market and, in certain classes, it will probably accelerate faster. Urban motorbikes, for example, a lot of them are transitioning more and more to electric products. I think there will be electric sports bikes and that’s part of the reason we got involved in this project.” 

Of course, while manufacturers will continue to push forwards with alternative propulsion systems – whether battery-electric or else – one wonders whether enthusiast buyers will take to the new vehicles. For Ardash, the proof will be in the pudding. 

“Everyone who gets on one of these sports bikes, they’re always surprised,” he says. 

“It’s a bit like electric vehicles, you get someone into an electric vehicle, and they're actually really engaged and really like it. I know a lot of the Triumph test riders, who ride all their products, were saying it [the TE-1] is a really exciting product. 

What’s more, the bike’s statistics should perfectly fit the demands of most riders. It isn’t the quickest off the line, but the mid-range pull is “phenomenal.” 

“Most people ride these things for an hour at a time as a maximum. We’ve got a 100-mile range – averaging 100 miles per hour is illegal!” he says, laughing. 

“So, it's unlikely that you're going to be utilizing all that range in that hour. But the fact that when you ride on a Sunday morning, you stop. After that hour, you'll have a cup of coffee, you'll have a bacon roll, whatever you want. You still stop 15 or 20 minutes and get charged up, you've then got another hour's worth of riding, at least.” 

The TE-1 might only be a first step down the electric road for Triumph but, talking to Ardash, it seems clear that it won’t be the last. And in WAE, Triumph seems to have a willing and very able partner to continue its electrification journey.