The Revolution

Fast charging is too slow

Charging times for electric cars are still a long way from those at the petrol pump. Research has shown that charging time is one of the important reasons for consumers not to drive an electric car. InMotion wants to accelerate the electrification within the automotive industry.

InMotion has developed fast-charging technology called Electric Refueling. Our goal is to make charging an electric vehicle as fast and convenient as refueling. No long waits at a charging station, just charge and go.

Achieving this is a major technological challenge. High-power charging puts significant demands on the battery, cooling system and electrical system. That is why we use racing as a platform to push our technology to its limits. With the Revolution, our electric endurance race car, we develop, test and prove Electric Refueling under real-world, high-performance conditions.

Our long-term ambition is to demonstrate that fast charging can become a real alternative to refueling. The 1-hour demo is the next major milestone on our roadmap, while our biggest dream is to become the first fully electric race car to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Electric Refueling

The Revolution is the first race car with our fast charging technology. Right now, we can charge the Revolution in just 4 minutes, which is the world's fast charging fully electric racecar! InMotion is eager to really put Electric Refueling into practice; make charging as fast and convenient as refueling. Our next step is to bring the technology into practice and test it on the circuit. 

Chassis

In order to showcase these fast charging times and really test the battery pack to its limits, we have chosen to implement the battery pack in an LMP3 race car. The chassis for this car consists of three main parts. The first in front is the monocoque, which contains the safety cell for the driver. This part is designed and manufactured by Ginetta, a race car manufacturer from the UK. Behind the monocoque lies the battery casing, which is a structural part of the car and is made from a carbon composite structure. This battery casing is designed in cooperation between Ginetta and InMotion, and produced by Ginetta. At last behind the battery pack, a tubular frame is mounted, which connects the front of the car to the rear suspension, and houses the powertrain. This tubular frame is designed by InMotion and manufactured by CP-tech in Germany. The rear suspension itself is based on the original rear suspension of the Ginetta chassis. However, some changes are made in order to optimally deal with the difference in weight balance of our car compared to the original Ginetta chassis.

Battery box

The battery pack itself consists of 8 battery modules, each containing 48 cells (provided by Desten), yielding a total voltage of 806V. In order to fast-charge this battery box, InMotion has developed its own cell-level cooling system, consisting of 2 separate loops. The first loop extracts heat from the battery modules by flowing a water-like fluid through the battery pack. The second loop consists of a refrigerant system (like an air-conditioning system), which is used to extract heat from the first loop and transfer it to the environment. The advantage of such a refrigerant system is that it allows us to keep the batteries at their optimal temperature, even if the outside temperature is higher. This allows us to charge from 10% to 80% in 4 minutes. 

Powertrain

The powertrain connects the battery pack to the wheels and converts electrical energy into usable torque on track. It consists of two Cascadia inverters, a dual Helix motor setup and a transmission from Hewland. 

The inverters convert DC power from the battery into AC power for the motors and control functions such as regenerative braking. The two Helix motors are mounted together and deliver a combined peak torque of 1040 Nm and a peak power of 800 kW, although the system is limited to 584 kW due to the maximum battery output. 

The Hewland transmission has a 6.35:1 gear ratio, increasing the motor torque to roughly 6600 Nm at the wheels. With this setup the Revolution accelerates from 0 to 200 km/h in under 8 seconds and reaches a theoretical top speed of 316 km/h. 

Together with the battery pack, this powertrain provides the performance needed to demonstrate Electric Refueling on track.