This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been

fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/TIA.2014.2360955, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications

Power-Train Design and Performance

of a Hybrid Motorcycle Prototype
Mattia Morandin, Member, IEEE, Marco Ferrari, and Silverio Bolognani, Member, IEEE
Department of Industrial Engineering University of Padova,
via Gradenigo 6/A, 35131, Padova (Italy), e-mail: edlab@dii.unipd.it

Abstract—This paper deals with the design of the power-train
for a Hybrid Electric Motorcycle (HEM). The HEM power-train
is composed of an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) coupled to a
synchronous Electric Machine (EM). The EM is fed by a standard
three-phase inverter connected to a high voltage battery pack.
Low weight and volume are the main requirements for HEMs
and the Energy Storage System (ESS) is the most critical part.
Different kind of ESSs are compared to choose the best solution
balancing cost, volume, and weight. A methodology of investiga-
tion is proposed in order to recognize all the data necessary to
find out the ESS. Moreover the design choices adopted for the
electric drive are reported. In order to predict electric machine,
power converter, and battery pack performances, efficiency maps
have been computed. The whole power-train has been prototyped.
Experimental tests of the HEM prototype on test bench and on a
real racetrack are presented. All the experimental measurements
highlight a significant performance enhancement of the new HEM
respect to the original one. The HEM acceleration time and
top velocity have been improved without affecting too much the
original motorcycle weight.
Index Terms—Hybrid electric vehicle, SPM machine, electric
drive, mild-hybrid motorcycle, energy storage system.
I. I NTRODUCTION
vehicle in the speed range where the torque of the ICE is
scarce, i.e. at low engine rotating speeds. In order to study
the performance of the vehicle a careful simulated analysis,
through implementation of whole power train of the vehicle,
has been made. The chosen solution has been validated with
the realization of a motorcycle prototype which has been tested
on factory test bench and on outdoor racetrack.
The paper is organized as follows. In Sect. II the original
motorcycle performance is reassumed and the vehicle is taken
as reference motorcycle. Sect. III is devoted to the hybrid
power train layout and specifications. Then in Sect. IV the
electric power-train design choices and characteristics have
been widely discussed in each parts, i.e. electric machine,
power converter, ESS, and EM control. In Sect. V the hybrid
motorcycle performance predictions are given. At last, in
Sect. VI the experimental tests with hybrid electric prototype
are reported. Conclusive remarks close the paper.
II. R EFERENCE MOTORCYCLE PERFORMANCE
The conventional motorcycle that has been converted to
Hybrid Electric Motorcycle (HEM) is Aprilia RS4 125. Its
performance has been used as reference so that the original

N OWADAYS the interest in mild-Hybrid Electric Vehicle

(HEV) is growing up, mainly for fuel saving and emis-
sion reduction, [1]–[4]. In the motorcycle segment, the tran-
sition from conventional Internal Combustion Engine (ICE)
vehicles to HEVs is very attractive but there are still open
issues and possible improvements to be investigated in order
to declare the feasibility of the solution and to optimize the
size and the weight of the electric parts on-board for given
performance. This paper is aimed to contribute to cover this
gap proposing some design hints and experimental validation
for hybrid motorcycle.
The Energy Storage System (ESS) in HEVs is the most crit-
ical part of the propulsion system. Its principal requirements
are low weight, volume, cost, but conversely are required high
power (performance) and energy density (range), long lifetime,
and high reliability. The different type of energy sources
complement drawbacks of each single device, [5]. Typically
the ESS is composed of different kind of technologies i.e.,
Ultracapacitor (UC), [6], LiPo, [7], NiMH, [8], and Lead-
acid [9]. The power provided by the ESS is a function of the
motoring power demand and the braking regeneration power
imposed by the vehicle during driving cycles [10]. In this
work a simple but effective motorcycle hybridization has been
designed in order to improve the performance of the original
This work was financed by Veneto Region (Italy); the MO.BI. (MOtociclette
BImotorizzate) project leader was Aprila s.p.a. company.
vehicle is hereafter denoted as reference motorcycle. The
engine of this motorcycle is a single cylinder four-stroke
engine with six-speed gearbox. The maximum shaft torque
of the reference motorcycle is 10.7 N m at 8000 rpm and
maximum power at 9550 rpm is lower than 11 kW , according
to law certifications.
In order to choose the optimal performance of the new
HEM, with respect to the reference one, the complexity of
the vehicle operation in real driving conditions has to be
analyzed. For this application it has been chosen a reference
driving cycle called World-wide Motorcycle emissions Test
Cycle (WMTC) [11]. It is the harmonized cycle that is used
to certify the motorcycles before marketing. In particular in
the case of motorcycle with displacement lower than 250cc, it
is restricted to only urban and extra-urban driving, while the
highway driving is excluded. Fig. 1 shows the typical velocity
profile for a WMTC driving cycle. In the practice other test
cycles are adopted. As an example Japan uses urban driving
cycle JC08 instead the USA adopt the Federal Test Procedure
(FTP) [2], [3].
Fig. 2 highlights that most of the operating points in
WMTC driving cycle are located in the lower part of engine
torque characteristic, the high torque, high speed portion being
reserved to rare high velocity operation. In this part of the map
the ICE torque is low so the full dynamic potentials of this
motorcycle is not exploited.

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Fig. 1: WMTC urban limited cycles.
Fig. 2: Engine operating points in WMTC driving cycle
overlapped on engine torque characteristic.
III. H YBRID POWER - TRAIN LAYOUT AND SPECIFICATIONS
The target of hybridization is to improve the performance
of the reference motorcycle in terms of torque, especially at
low engine speed, by replacing the original electric alternator
with a new electric machine. To understand how big is the
challenge, it has to be taken into account that the original
alternator delivers only up to 230 W at 6000 rpm.
It can be realized that parallel power-train concept has been
preferred for the new vehicle for its easiness of realization even
if in the literature there are a lot of different configurations of
power trains, [4], [12]–[14].
The collaboration with the motorcycle makers allowed to
realize a working prototype and to underline the imple-
mentation problem during the design process. Furthermore
simple but nevertheless very effective solutions have been
assumed in order to contain the prototype costs. Therefore
the adopted power-train architecture is composed of an ICE
direct connected to a Surface Permanent Magnet (SPM)
synchronous Electric Machine (EM), a bi-directional single-
stage Power Converter (PC) and an ESS. The whole system
is schematically shown in Fig. 3 and it is monitored by
a Vehicle Management Control Unit (VMCU). The EM is
directly connected to the ICE shaft before the transmission
so engine speed is equal to EM rotor speed.
Fig. 3: Block scheme of adopted power-train structure.
The specifications of the new HEM have been fixed in order
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to satisfy the user’s expectations and they result different if the
motorcycle is devoted to race or urban use. The power and
the torque characteristics of the sole EM are those reported in
Fig. 4. This Figure highlights that the EM request torque is
higher at low rotor speeds, i.e. when the ICE torque is lower,
but the EM torque is lower at high rotor speeds because the
present study is focused in urban realities, where higher start-
ing ability and lower acceleration times are expected, without
any increase of the motorcycle top speed and maximum power.
Fig. 4: Power and torque characteristics of HEM.
IV. E LECTRIC POWER - TRAIN DESIGN
A. Electric Machine
The principal tasks of the EM are: engine startup, torque
boost during acceleration phase and during the driving, on-
board electrical energy generation and battery charging during
regenerating braking or constant speed driving.
The position of the EM on the motorcycle and its maximum
diameter was constrained by the space allocated for the
old alternator. Therefore the new electric machine has been
designed in order to accommodate a maximum diameter of
135 mm, extending its length up to 62 mm. Table I collects
the main EM parameters.
For space saving reasons, the developed EM is an SPM
machine with outer rotor and inner stator; Fig. 5(a) shows the
stator lamination and rotor structure. This rotor configuration
allows a higher air-gap diameter to be attained respect to a
conventional inner rotor; moreover the PM rotor permits a
higher torque density EM. A concentrated winding is adopted
in order to reduce copper weight, cost and also Joule losses.
The maximum deliverable torque is 10 N m and the maximum
speed is higher than 8000 rpm. However Fig. 4 highlights
that, with the fixed specifications, the maximum torque is
not required during driving phase, so the nominal torque of
the EM becomes 6.7 N m, to be delivered up to 6000 rpm.
Nevertheless more than twice such maximum torque, about
20 N m, is requested during starting-up phase of the ICE. This
design choices allow to adopted only one electric machine,
called Integrated Starter Alternator (ISA) [15], for all the
functions.
In order to predict EM performance, Maximum Torque Per
Ampere (MTPA) trajectory and constant torque loci, Finite
Element (FE) analysis has been developed. Fig. 5(b) reports
such maps; it is highlighted that the MTPA trajectory is almost
coincident to the q-axis up to the nominal current, so the EM
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TABLE I: Electric machine parameters. steel at B̂ = 1 T and f = 50 Hz and khyst , kec are two
coefficients that quantify the contribution of hysteresis and
Parameter Value eddy currents losses respectively. Flux density B̂ distribution
is delivered by FE analysis. Finally the mechanical losses are
Pole number 18
calculated by the empirical equation:
Slot number 27
External stator diameter 135 mm
 √   n 3
Pmech = kPN N (2)
Stack length 35 mm N
Type of magnet Ferrite where k is a coefficient equal to 0.6 ÷ 0.8, [16], PN is the
Rated torque 10 N m rated mechanical power (in kW ) at the rated speed N and n
Rated phase current 25 Apk is the rotor speed expressed in rpm.
Rated phase voltage 220 Vpk Therefore by using Eqs. (1) and (2) the achieved actual
Rated speed 9000 rpm efficiency map, reported in Fig. 7, has been computed into the
Weight 5 kg EM working feasible region. The real EM working region is
also drawn in order to underline the achieved actual efficiency.
It can be recognized that the full torque efficiency at the most
frequent operating speeds is higher than 85 % as expected.
In the EM prototype the self-ventilation by an open casing
is adopted as cooling system for constructive simplicity, and
also because no continuous high torque is foreseen at low
vehicle velocity. However really, for an electric vehicle a
totally enclosed construction should be required.

(a) Lamination (b) EM constant torque loci

sketch

Fig. 5: EM configuration sketch and constant torque loci map

obtained by simulation.

is not significantly affected by saturation. Fig. 6 shows the

pictures of the prototype internal stator and the EM, mounted
on the motorcycle.
Fig. 7: SPM machine efficiency map.

B. Power converter
The initial idea for the ESS of this vehicle was to combine
UCs and batteries to achieve a better overall performance. In
fact UCs have high power density but low energy density while
batteries have the complementary values of densities. So this
combination offers better performance in comparison to the
use of either of them alone. But this solution would need to
use a PC composed by two stages: the first one (three-phase
inverter) directly connects EM and battery DC bus and the
(a) Internal stator (b) EM case
second one (full-bridge DC/DC converter) connects the battery
Fig. 6: SPM machine prototype. DC bus to the UCs. In order to contain cost, complexity,
and weight only one ESS system and a single PC have been
Machine losses have been estimated from FE analysis decided for this project, excluding the full-bridge converter and
results and geometrical data. The fundamental equations used UCs. The PC that has been used is a simple but effective three-
for losses calculation are reported hereafter. In particular the phase half-bridge inverter. Its DC bus is directly connected to
copper losses are Pj = 3RI 2 in which R is the hot winding the vehicle battery pack whose voltage, VDC , is fixed to 450 V .
phase resistance and I is the rms phase current. The PC is based on the use of a 600 V and 30 A three-phase
Iron losses are obtained by integrating on iron volume IGBT inverter bridge; the selection of 600 V rated voltage
! !2 devices is suitable for a laboratory prototype; however for final
f f2 B̂ implementation higher voltage devices should be considered.
Piron = Ps,steel khyst + kec 2 (1) The power converter main data are reported in Table II.
50 50 1
In order to estimate the average inverter efficiency in the
where Ps,steel is the specific loss [W/m3 ] of the lamination hybrid vehicle working points, power losses prediction has

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TABLE II: Three-phase inverter parameters. delivered, according to Fig. 4, while the orange lines show
the intervals where the ESS can be charged by regenerative
Parameter Value braking. In this way it is possible to define the following
effective control strategy: boost action during acceleration
Number of phases 3
times (energy consumption) and intelligent charge of the ESS
Type of switch IGBT
when the speed is constant or decreasing (energy charging).
Switching frequency 20 kHz
Dead time 2 µs
Maximum DC bus voltage 500 V
Rated AC phase current 25 Apk
Rated AC phase voltage 220 Vpk
Weight 3 kg

been carried out. The dominant contributions in the total power

losses of PC are the conduction losses and switching losses
in the devices. The estimated efficiency in all working points Fig. 9: Rotor speed characteristic during WMTC.
has been computed using the device information reported in
datasheet [17]. The switching losses PSW and conduction
A reference ESS (discharged/charged as the EM demands)
losses PON of IGBT devices have been calculated by the
has been used to estimate the amount of energy necessary to
following formulas, [18]:
complete the test cycle with the above philosophy. A specific
PSW = (Eon + Eof f )FSW (3) Matlab® code has been developed in this work, to analyze the
PON = VD ID (4) telemetries and testing the energy control strategy by means
of an energetic approach to simulate the energy flow inside
where ID and VD are the current and the voltage of the device the reference ESS.
respectively, FSW is switching frequency, Eon the turn-on Referring to Fig. 9 a graphical example of energy consump-
switching energy and Eof f turn-off switching energy. These tion is highlighted with the green area (left side). The used
energies are proportional to device current and for example analytical approach is given by
are Eon = 2 mJ and Eof f = 0.65 mJ @ 30 A. Eqs. (3) Z tc,f
and (4) have been used to calculate the total losses of PC. EMspeed · EMtorque
Ec = dt (5)
The power consumption of the converter control is estimated tc,i ηtot
nc
in the worst case as 10 W and it has been also included. For X
the used devices, the IGBT forward voltage is equal to anti- T OT Ec = Ec (6)
1
parallel diode voltage and for this reason only a single device
losses formula has been indicated. The converter efficiency in in which the EM speed is expressed in rad/s and the EM
the torque vs rotor speed plane has been reported in Fig. 8. The torque is the torque boost reported with by orange area in
estimated average efficiency in the operating area is between Fig. 4. The energy consumption, Ec , for each interval k − th
90 % and 96 %. is estimated by eq. (5) and the total amount of energy by
eq. (6), where tc is the discharge interval, the subscripts i and
f indicate initial and final instants of a generic interval k − th,
nc represents the total number of discharge interval, and ηtot
indicates the efficiency of the whole power train (from EM to
battery pack) and its value depends of the considered operating
point in interval k − th.
The same approach has been used for the charging inter-
vals and a graphical example of energy generation phase is
highlighted with the orange area (right side) in Fig. 9. The
generated energy is computed by
Z tg,f
Eg = EMspeed · EMtorque · ηtot dt (7)
Fig. 8: Power converter efficiency map. tg,i
ng
X
C. Energy storage system (ESS) T OT Eg = Eg (8)
In order to estimate the energy and the power required 1

to the ESS, the WMTC reported in Fig. 1 has been again that give the energy generation Eg for each interval k−th, and
considered. Fig. 9 shows the typical rotor speed profile ex- the total generated energy respectively. The total Eg should
perimentally measured during a WMTC. In particular the balance all the boost energy demands under acceleration in
green lines indicate the regions where the boosting phase is order to complete the WMTC driving cycle with the ESS

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fully charged (i.e. as at initial conditions); despite the losses best technology it is necessary to fix the weight limit for the
due to charging and discharging phase the most part of the ESS; in this case it has been chosen equal to 20 kg. Therefore,
charged energy is recovered by the motorcycle kinetic energy referring to Fig. 11 all the technologies with weight lower
that normally is dissipated on the brakes. than 20 kg are well suited, provided the deliverable amount
The first graph of Fig. 10 shows the energy profile during of energy is higher than 11 W h.
WMTC driving cycle. It highlights the peak amount of energy
required to the ESS that is about 40 kJ (11 W h). The second
graph of the same figure shows the energy excess of charge
that cannot be stored in the ESS because it is already fully
charged. The simulation results highlight that the required peak
power of electric drive results equal to 1.8 kW during the
boost phase and equal to −1.5 kW during the regenerative
braking or charging phase.

Fig. 11: ESS maximum power has been fixed at 1800 W @ 1 C

and the minimum energy is 11 W h and the maximum weight
is 20 Kg.

In this study flywheel and hydrogen fuel cell ESSs have

not been taken into consideration. As a consequence the
considered ESS technologies are those presented in Fig. 12,
highlighting their main features. Spider charts report the results
on a scale of 1 to 5 that corresponds to a poor and an excellent
Fig. 10: Energy flow during WMTC driving cycle and energy performance respectively [24]. It is possible to underline that
excess flow due to fully charge the batteries. NiMH battery is a good compromise in term of cost, volume
and weight compared to Li-ion and Li-poly battery being the
latter more expensive. Therefore the NiMH battery has been
It is worth to note that the excess of charge shown in Fig. 10
adopted as ESS for HEM prototype. This choice has certainly
cannot be saved by a larger battery pack if same initial and
affected the life time of the battery pack that can be estimated
final charge level are imposed. The excess of energy, which is
about 20, 000 km, about less than a half respect to the Li-poly
dissipated on the brakes, is caused by the adopted power flow
as reported in [19]. In order to estimate the maximum energy
management strategy, that prefers moderately the charging
phases to the discharging phase. Being a prediction, it has been
decided to maintain this small excess of energy to compensate
for higher losses in the experimental tests.
The adopted energy approach, reported in detail in [19],
[20], is applied to the WMTC driving cycle. Since the driving
profile fixes the vehicle velocity, the rotor speed (ICE and EM)
is fixed. For this reason with the same test cycle, the rotor
speed does not change from normal to hybrid configuration of
the motorcycle, because the rotor speed reference is the same.
Therefore the hybrid configuration allows only to drive the
test cycle using lower percentages of the engine throttle that
is reflected to a lower consumption of fuel and so to a lower
emissions but not higher speed performances.
In order to choose the best available technology for the
ESS of the HEM, the Ragone chart has been used [21]–
[23]. From the analysis of the WMTC telemetry, that has
been described above, it is possible to achieve information of
maximum power and maximum energy required by the vehicle
in both motoring and generating phase. Since the maximum
power required during the motoring phase is 1.8 kW , the
Ragone chart [4], [20] has been redrawn as function of weight
and energy as shown in Fig. 11. A significant parameter, Fig. 12: Qualitative comparison of behaviors of different
especially in motorcycles, is the weight. In order to choose the batteries and UC technologies.

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(a) Cell characteristics (b) Battery pack
Fig. 13: Voltage charge/discharge characteristics of one cell
NiMH and prototype battery pack.
required to the ESS, a target of usage of the whole HEM
has to be defined. It has been assumed that the HEM have to
complete the whole WMTC driving cycle with the ESS fully
charged. Moreover, considering the maximum charging rate
of NiMH batteries (only 2C) the maximum energy estimated
(by means of Matlab® simulations) for the ESS increases from
11 W h to 750 W h (complying also with Fig. 11).
Fig. 13(a) reports the voltage charge/discharge characteristics
of a single NiMH battery cell; in particular the 10C discharge
curve (ICE start-up phase) and 2C charge curve (generating
phase) are reported, which are those adopted in the designed
energy management strategy. A picture of the battery pack
prototype is shown in Fig. 13(b).
In order to investigate the efficiency of this battery pack
in all working points, its Joule losses have been evaluated
considering the simple model reported in [25]. The internal
resistance of the batteries pack is about Rint = 2.2Ω; it allows
to calculate the Joule losses in the ESS by:
2
PJoule = Rint Ibat
Fig. 14 shows the constant efficiency loci of the ESS. The
estimated average efficiency is about 96 % in the main working
region. Table IV reports the principal parameters of ESS
adopted for the HEM, as obtained from [26].
Fig. 14: Battery efficiency map.
D. Control unit
The HEM performance is monitored by a Vehicle Manage-
ment Control Unit (VMCU). The torque and power profiles,
reported in Fig. 4, have been stored into the control unit. In
the VMCU two operating modes have been implemented:
• Motoring mode (M): the power is transferred from the
ESS to the engine shaft by means of the PC and EM.
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TABLE III: Battery pack parameters.
Parameter Value
Cell nominal voltage 1.2 V
Cell typical capacity 1.8 Ah
Cell internal impedance 6.5 mΩ@1 kHz
Number of cells in series 350
Maximum battery voltage 450 V
Maximum discharge current 18 A
Maximum charge current 3.6 A
Weight 11 kg
This operating mode has been implemented during ICE
startup or accelerating boost.
• Generating mode (G): the power is transferred from the
engine shaft to ESS by EM and PC. This operating mode
has been implemented during the regenerating brake and
the battery charge. In both phases the torque of the EM
is controlled according with ESS constraints given by
the current and voltage limits of the battery. In order
to control the battery voltage, a simple battery voltage
control loop has been implemented, using a PI regulator.
Referring to these two operating modes, the EM control
scheme becomes as reported in Fig. 15. It highlights that the
inventer control unit is composed by EM torque control (mo-
toring phase) and battery voltage control (generating phase).
(9)
Fig. 15: HEM control scheme overview.
The main EM control technique adopted for both operating
modes is a torque control. Therefore, in order to generate high
torque, the stator current vector have to be synchronized with
the rotor polar axis (d-axis). To this purpose a simple and
economical sensor has been adopted for detecting the rotor
position. In addition two current loops are implemented and
the electric machine is controlled to comply with the MTPA
trajectory. Hence, according to the constant torque loci of the
adopted EM reported in Fig. 5(b), the current reference of d-
axis current loop is maintained to zero while the q-axis current
loop is related to torque demand. In this axis the reference
current is positive during motoring phase and negative during
generating phase. Such vehicle control strategy and the torque
profile of Fig. 4 have been implemented inside of the Aprilia
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APX2 control unit. maximum velocity and the acceleration of the vehicle. The
drag force is proportional to the square of the vehicle forward
V. H YBRID MOTORCYCLE PERFORMANCE PREDICTION velocity:
1
A. HEM prototype overall layout FD = ρCD Af V 2 (10)
2
The HEM prototype is shown in Fig. 16 and it is worth
where ρ is the air density (equal to 1.167 kg/m3 at atmo-
noticing that the original Aprilia RS4 125 has not been
spheric pressure of 987 mbar and at 20◦ C), V is the vehicle
modified too much. It underlines a good integration of the
forward velocity (m/s), CD is the coefficient of aerodynamic
new components in the original motorcycle frame.
resistance, also called drag coefficient (dimensionless) and Af
The original tank (14.5 l) has been substituted with a smaller
is the frontal area of vehicle (m2 ). The value of CD strongly
one (5 l) and placed under the motorcycle saddle. In this way
depends on the shape of the vehicle. The frontal area A differs
the space occupied by the original tank has been used for
according to the type of vehicle and is strongly influenced
the batteries pack without altering the vehicle profile. The
by the body of the rider and his position during the travel.
new EM has substituted the original alternator and the EM
Reference values might vary from 0.4 to 1 m2 ; the smallest
carter support has been further increased due to the new EM
value is related to sport motorcycles whereas the biggest value
larger size. For the sake of simplicity in the HEM prototype
refers to touring motorcycles.
the inverter has been placed behind the rider and above the
The resistance to tire rolling is expressed by means of a
passenger seat; however in the final version it should be
resistance force that opposes the forward motion, and whose
located below the motorcycle saddle where the VMCU is also
value is given by the product of the rolling friction coefficient
placed.
fw and the vertical load:
The introduction of such electric components leads to
increase the motorcycle weight to about 15 kg, which is a Froll = gfw Mtot (11)
good result because this value corresponds only to 10 % of
The resistant force due to the road grade is not considered in
the original weight.
this analysis. Table IV reports the adopted parameters for the
study here proposed.

TABLE IV: Analysis parameter.

Parameter Symbol Value

Rolling friction coefficient Cr 0.02
Total mass Mtot 150 kg
Acceleration of gravity g 9.81 m/s2
Drag coefficient Cd 0.5
Air density RoA 1.204 kg/m3
Frontal area Af 0.7 m2
(a) (b)
Rear wheel radius Rr 0.216 m
Fig. 16: Assembly overview of principal components in HEM
Prototype. Additional resistant forces (Fadd = 2N ) have been taken
into account in order to consider additional losses due to
B. Fuel consumption analysis transmission, bearings and so on. The traction force required
The behavior of motorcycles during rectilinear motion de- at the rear wheel to drive the WMTC cycle is:
pends on longitudinal forces. During steady state motion, the dV (t)
traction force delivered by the motor equals the resistant force Ftraction = Mtot + Fres (12)
dt
that opposes the motion. Resistant forces depend mainly on where Fres = FD + Froll + Fadd is the total resistant force.
three phenomena: The traction force at the rear wheel has been expressed as
• aerodynamic resistance to forward motion; torque at the ICE shaft by means of the transmission ratios as
• resistance to tire rolling; required the WMTC(dashed line torque curve in Fig. 17) in
• component of the weight resistance force caused by the order to compare the traction torque with the ICE and hybrid
road grade. power-train torques. The velocity of the rear wheel has been
The aerodynamic actions that influence the dynamic behavior expressed as speed at the ICE shaft as well. The gas aperture
of a vehicle are three forces (drag, lift and lateral force) and has been referred linearly to the maximum torque profile in
three moments (pitching, yawing and rolling moment). The Fig. 4 for both ICE and hybrid configurations in order to
most important component related to the rectilinear behavior simplify the analysis. For each speed the required torque has
is the drag force. It is applied in the pressure center which been compared with the maximum torque profile in both ICE
is usually located above the total center of mass (vehicle + and hybrid configurations, solid and dashed-dotted line torque
rider) of the vehicle [27]. The drag force influences both the curves respectively in Fig. 17. The ratio between the required

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
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torque (where positive) and available one equals the percentage
of gas aperture in both ICE and hybrid configurations, reported
in the gas percentage curves in Fig. 17. It can be easily
recognized from gas percentage curves the advantage of the
hybrid configuration in terms of fuel consumption for given
speed profile.
Fig. 17: Power and torque characteristics of HEM.
VI. E XPERIMENTAL PROTOTYPE TESTS
In order to verify the new performances of the proposed
HEM, at first the motorcycle has been tested by a specialized
test bench inside the Aprilia S.p.A. company site and tested
in a small private racetrack inside the Piaggio S.p.A. company
site respectively.
A. Test bench measurements
The adopted Aprilia’s test bench is shown in Fig. 18.
The mechanical performance of the HEM has been measured
(a) (b)
Fig. 18: Prototype HEM under tests by Aprilia’s test bench.
with appropriate instruments able to reconstruct the ICE shaft
torque from the measured braking torque to the rear wheel.
Electrical quantities have been measured by means of a
Wattmeter that has been connected to the DC bus between
the batteries pack and the power converter.
Fig. 19 shows the EM performance acquired at the Aprilia’s
test bench. For given rotor speeds (i.e. 1000 rpm, 2000 rpm,
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... ) the EM has been controlled manually increasing its
current from zero to the rated one (i.e. with increasing torque).
The rotor speed has been fixed by means of the test bench,
regulating the speed of the rear wheel of the motorcycle.
Experimental results confirm that the EM can deliver the
required torque in all working points during the motoring
mode.
Fig. 19: EM performance measurements in Aprilia’s test
bench.
Fig. 20 reports the HEM performance (torque and power
characteristics) acquired at the Aprilia’s test bench after the
implementation of the boost strategy defined in Fig. 4. Refer-
eing to Fig. 20 the markers show the experimental measure-
ments whereas the solid and the dotted lines show the design
characteristics of torque and power respectively.
Fig. 20: Ideal torque and power characteristics of HEM and
experimental measurements in Aprilia’s test bench.
B. Racetrack tests
The performance of the proposed HEM has been further
verified in a small private racetrack placed inside the head-
quarter of Piaggio s.p.a. company (owner of Aprilia). Fig. 21
reports a picture of HEM during the test sessions in Piaggio’s
racetrack. Fig. 21 shows also a sketch of Piaggio’s racetrack
map and weather condition during the tests was cloudy, ground
condition and temperature were wet and 15 ◦ C respectively.
In order to validate the final performance of the hybrid
power train compared to the conventional one, two test ses-
sions have been made: a first session with a traditional motor-
cycle (only ICE) and a second session with HEM prototype
(hybrid power-train). Fig. 22 collects telemetries of three laps
with electric boost (solid line) and with conventional power
train (dashed line). It is worth noticing that the results confirm
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/TIA.2014.2360955, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications

Fig. 21: Photo of prototype motorcycle during the test in

Piaggio’s racetrack.

Fig. 23: Electrical characteristics of HEM have been acquired

in three laps in Piaggio’s racetrack.

Fig. 22: Performance of three laps with and without the hybrid
configuration in Piaggio’s racetrack.
an increasing of the top speed (about 20 %) and a decreasing of
the lap time (about 10 %) with the hybrid power train despite
the higher weight of HEM (about 10 %).
During the whole test sessions several electrical parameters
have been acquired by means of the APX2 control unit, see
Fig. 23. In according with the torque strategy imposed by
VMCU, the peak power during the boost phase is 1.8 kW
whereas during the regenerative braking phase is −1.5 kW .
Furthermore, telemetries show that the energy consumption
has been compensated by the on-board energy generation,
because the amount of energy stored in the ESS after four
laps in Piaggio’s racetrack resulted not changed.
Fig. 24 shows graphically acceleration and deceleration
performance respectively during all test sessions in Piaggio’s
racetrack with the hybrid power train. Fig. 24 highlights that
the greater contribution of the EM is given during the most
important accelerations that is when the vehicle runs at low
speeds and when the internal combustion engine is more
lacking of torque. Further Fig. 24 confirms that a significant
part of braking energy is recovered inside the ESS.
Fig. 24: Performance of acceleration and deceleration chart
during driving section in Piaggio’s racetrack.
type has been designed in order to ensure higher vehicle
performance and low additional weight. The position of the
new electric components has been optimized to maintain the
original motorcycle shape and consequently its aerodynamics
(no top cases or bags have been added). Experimental results
confirm that the final torque profile match the design expec-
tations. In detail, the acceleration time (from 0 ÷ 60 km/h)
decreases of 16 % and the top velocity increases of 18 %,
even with the considered simple but effective design approach.
Moreover these performances have been reached by increasing
only 15 % the total vehicle weight. The topic of the hybrid
electric motorcycle is open and stimulating field of research.
Future works could refer to design and test issues on both
electrical drive and storage system in order to improve the
overall technical and commercial performance.

VII. C ONCLUSIONS VIII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

A compact and effective power-train well suited for Hybrid Authors thank Eng. Mosè Castiello for the precious collab-
electric motorcycle has been presented. The hybrid proto- oration during all experimental tests.

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
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