[cycleworld.com] - Felo Tooz Electric Promises Huge Range

[Ninjette Newsbot]

Has new Chinese motorcycle maker Felo cracked the EV range issue, or are the claims for its new Tooz just marketing-speak?

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Emerging Chinese manufacturer Felo recently showed its Tooz electric tourer, which it claims has a range of 450 miles. (Felo/)The chances are the name Felo isn’t one that’s on your radar when it comes to motorcycle manufacturers, but the upstart brand has unveiled a prototype electric touring bike with a claimed range of nearly 450 miles between charges.

Given the odd title “Felo Tooz” the new bike was unveiled as a concept at the Bangkok International Motor Show, accompanied by performance and range claims that, if accurate, will blow the competition right out of the water. As well as the promised range of 720 kilometers (447 miles), the Tooz is claimed to be able to recharge from 20 to 80 percent charge in just 20 minutes via a Type 2 charger and reach a top speed of 124 mph.

Aside from the tech specs, the bike ticks plenty of the normal big tourer boxes. There’s a vast, 12-inch TFT dashboard with all the usual navigation and multimedia connectivity, an 8-liter cool box, a 360-degree camera system, tire-pressure monitoring, ABS, and a six-speaker surround-sound stereo. It also promises vehicle-to-load (V2L) ability, where the bike’s traction battery can be used to power external equipment that’s plugged into it—something that several modern electric cars and trucks already offer.


The show bike sported a 12-inch TFT display. (Felo/)At the moment the Tooz is still very much a show bike, and those claimed performance and range figures are doing their job by attracting media attention. But is it possible they could be accurate? Some back-of-an-envelope math suggests it will be a stretch. Felo’s official information says the battery is a 700V, 50Ah unit giving a total of 35kWh capacity. That makes it much larger than anything currently used on a production electric bike—the Energica Experia can muster 22.5kWh and the biggest Zeros have 21kWh when their main batteries and additional Power Tank add-ons are combined—but even then it’s hard to see how it will be able to manage a 450-mile range. Zero, for instance, claims its SR/S with the configuration above, can manage 200 miles at city speeds. The Felo is clearly bigger and heavier, so even with nearly twice the battery capacity it’s difficult to see where the 450-mile range will come from.


The Zero SR/S with the optional Power Tank battery can manage a claimed 200-mile range at urban speeds. (Zero Motorcycles/)The answer probably lies in the way the range is measured. The Felo Tooz’s range is quoted as using the Chinese CLTC (China Light-Duty-Vehicle Test Cycle), which is much more generous than the relatively accurate EPA figures normally used in the United States. Vehicles measured to both EPA and CLTC standards can show as much as 35 percent more range under the Chinese measurement. If that’s the case here, then the 450-mile range of the Tooz could equate to around 333 miles under EPA test conditions, a number that’s much more closely aligned with what might be expected from a bike with a 35kWh battery.


The Tooz is long! (Felo/)Felo might be an unfamiliar name, but it does have experience to draw on. The company is based in China but has a collaboration with Smartech, a Thai company with government funding, and last year unveiled a range of smaller electric bikes that are being offered in export markets including some European countries. Its initial range includes the FW-06, powered by a 6kW motor and a 69V, 58Ah battery, and the FW-03 with a 3kW motor and 72V, 58Ah battery, and styling that’s copied straight from the Honda Cub EZ90 that was made from 1991 to ‘96. There’s also the Felo M1, which is an updated, electric take on the old Honda Motocompo. With folding bars, a 28 mph top speed, and a price equivalent to just $1,610, it’s intended to be a “trunk bike” used for the last portion of a commute.

We’ll be keeping an eye on the Tooz project, as if it can even come close to the promised range and performance figures, particularly with that high-speed recharging ability, it could finally allow electric bikes to break into the heavyweight tourer market.