I think the seat support is actually specific to the carbon frames.
Brammo says "before tesla was shipping". The first production Roadster went to Elon in Feb 2008, and the Roadster entered
regular production in March 2008.
That dates these prototypes as well before the Empulse, though Brammo was clearly already thinking about different ways to attach battery modules to the spine of the bike. Looking at the photos a little more closely shows 6 modules, 3 above and 3 below the spine.
November 2008 - pre-production Enertia preview at
Motorcycle USA, similar to the TBT pictures Brammo posted.
March 2009 -
production Enertia ships, aluminum frame pictured above. Battery configuration is 3 modules above, 3 below. The battery cradles are now black but certainly the same component.
Each module is 4s16p, using 3.2V 2.5Ah Valence LiFePO4 26650 cells (I think). This gives 12.8V 40Ah = 512 Wh per module, or 76.8V 40AH = 3072 Wh for the 24s16p battery.
June 2009 - Enertia TTR races at the inaugural 2009 TTXGP. When it returned to the US
Motorcyclist Online got an opportunity to ride it and peek under the skirt.
For the TTR, Brammo switched from the Valence U-Charge LiFePO4 battery to a denser LiCo chemistry. Possibly these cells were provided by Leyden Energy cells, which was the initial supplier for the Empulse.
Each module is 3s9p, using 3.7V 10Ah pouch cells (I think). This gives 11.1V 90Ah = 999 Wh per module, or 88.8V 90AH = 7992 Wh for the 24s9p battery. Peak voltage hot off the charger is 4.2 volts per cell = 100.8 volts.
July 2010 - The Empulse concept used a visually similar module configuration (credit
MotorcycleUSA).
Brammo went back and forth a bit on the specifications for the purported production Empulse.
In
late 2010 Brammo stated 88.8 volts nominal for the 6 and 8 kWh bikes, and 111 volts nominal for the 10 kWh bike. This probably represented the following configurations:
* 6 kWh = 24s 7p. Notably this is the same configuration as the shipping Enertia Plus, 6.2 kWh.
* 8 kWh = 24s 9p. Brammo would probably have paid rather < $20/cell in quantity, so the 6 kWh bike only cost $1000 less than the 8 kWh bike but was priced $2000 lower. Probably why the 6 kWh bike was dropped..
* 10 kWh = 30s 9p. A higher voltage battery pack means twice the testing .. which may have been why Brammo dropped the pack voltage from its specifications list before
bringing it back in summer 2011 showing all 3 configurations at 88.8 volts (probably 24s 7p, 9p, 11p).
December 2012 - By the time the Empulse reached production, Brammo switched to a different cell supplier for its 10 Ah cells, increased the modules to 4s9p and reduced the module count to 7 (27s9p). And of course we know now that the price jumped significantly due in part to the inclusion of the L2 onboard charger and integrated transmission, and the only battery configuration was 9.3 kWh.
From the
, which you should watch if you have not already done so. Actually, you should go watch it again anyways.
