Our Innovations
Electric refueling
InMotion is developing a new fast charging technology called 'Electric Refueling'. No long queues for a charging station anymore, or the need to buy a cup of coffee, just charge and go.
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.
What are we currently working on?
One of our proudest achievements is the development of the Next Generation Battery Pack of the Revolution. The battery pack itself consists of 8 battery modules, each containing 48 cells, yielding a total voltage of 806V. This was the first time InMotion built the modules on her own. The cells we used to build the modules are provided by our partner Desten.
While driving the car, the modules are discharged. When the driver presses the gas pedal, the modules are discharged and heat is generated. However, this heat is not something we want in our battery pack because high temperatures can damage the cells. Therefore, InMotion has developed its own cooling system, consisting of 2 separate loops. This enables us to manage the temperature within the batteries, which results in better functionalities and lower charging times.
The current cooling system: inside loop
The cooling system that is currently included in the battery pack of the Revolution is meant to take a lot of heat out of the pack and take it to the outside of the car. This happens in 2 loops: one inside the battery box and one outside the battery box.
Opposed to the first generation battery pack, we now are using cell-level cooling. Meaning that every cell is surrounded by the technique, through that flows a liquid. The liquid is a mixture of water and other cooling fluids. When the liquid flows through the pack, the heat will transfer from between the cells to the liquid. This means that every individual cell cool down, which allows us to transfer a lot of heat to the liquid. The warm liquids then flow through the chillers: the chillers extract heat from the liquid to cool it down and transfer the heat out of the battery box, to the outside loop. Now the liquid can be reused to cool all the cells.
The current cooling system: outside loop
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. The outside loop receives the heat from the chillers. This heat once again needs to be cooled down. This is done through the radiator, just like with a regular car. The radiator cools the hot liquid using the cooler air that comes in through the vehicle’s grille. The liquid flows through narrow channels inside the rad, exposing it to a large surface area so the heat can dissipate as quickly as possible. If sufficient air isn’t coming in through the grille, such as when the vehicle is idling, a fan behind the radiator pulls air through it.
The first generation battery pack
In 2021 we presented the first generation battery pack which enabled the Revolution to charge from 20% to 80% in 12 minutes. This battery pack consisted of 30 battery modules provided by Microvast, each containing 12 cells, yielding a total voltage of 750V. With this battery pack we were already ahead of the market and we really showed the first step towards Electric Refueling.