A pedelec packed with innovation: the HNF-Heisenberg concept bike. Visit the ‘New Mobility’ Hall 3.1 at the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, from the 17th to 27th September 2015.
 

 
The HNF-Heisenberg pedelec made its public premiere at the EUROBIKE 2015 trade show. Its innermost secrets only reveal themselves on close inspection: EnergyBus Tube and EnergyBus Lock.

You can discover the full story of this concept vehicle as part of the LEV Components Special Exhibition at the International Motor Show’s special showcase “New Mobility World”. It’s on display in Hall 3.1, from the 17th to 27th September 2015.

Lead developer at HNF-Heisenberg, Kalle Nicolai, will show, using the “Urban Bike” concept as an example, just how far it’s possible to go if the world of standards is vigorous and active.

>> newmobilityworld.com

At first glance it just looks like a chic urban concept bike. But this is in fact a bike which embodies two of the five most significant innovations to be seen at the EUROBIKE trade show: EnergyBus EnergyLock and EnergyBus EnergyTube. These are two technologies which, as part of the IEC’s global standardisation programme, will be made available as a harmonised standard. This will allow every manufacturer to offer compatible products on an equal footing.

>> Impressions HNF-Heisenberg concept bike (flickr)

EnergyBus Tube is a universal returnable bottle
The EnergyBus Tube multi-functional, multi-purpose energy storage device, launched by EnergyTube Holding GmbH, makes it possible to move away from product-specific battery pack solutions which currently dominate the marketplace for energy storage, and also from the need to own your battery pack.

This means significantly reduced costs of usage for users, improved availability of spare parts, and reduced use of resources. These batteries can be used for a wide variety of purposes through their lifetime, so their costs can also be shared between multiple users over a long service life.

>> www.EnergyTube.de

So this universal EnergyBus Tube battery is like a sort of returnable-deposit drinks bottle, but for universally-applicable energy. Read more on the concept at www.EnergyTube.de. As an example, this HNF-Heisenberg concept bike shows how elegantly these energy bottles can be integrated into a pedelec, and the automatic battery exchange machine from ETTRAK demonstrates how easy it could be in future to swap batteries.

>> www.ettrak.com

Just imagine: a flat rate for mobile energy is on its way, to set you free from all of your expensive battery packs, which chances are will give up the ghost shortly after the warranty period expires, and also to free you from the everyday hassle of looking after proprietary battery packs, which despite the high cost and effort rarely give satisfaction.

EnergyBus Lock
There’s another unobtrusive detail hidden within the HNF-Heisenberg concept bike, underneath the leather of the classic Brooks saddle: the EnergyBus Lock! This ensures that you will stay the proud owner of this HNF-Heisenberg Urban Bike for the long term, and you can rest easy even if it is stolen.

 The concept behind it is elegantly simple: it recognises that carrying around masses of steel in the form of a heavy lock is not always very effective, and that bikes, once stolen, are generally gone forever.

 That’s why the EnergyBus Lock employs a completely different protective mechanism. First, it does not attempt to prevent theft by putting up any very significant mechanical resistance, instead relying on the fact that it is the attractiveness of the goods being stolen that is the problem, and without this, that the motivation for theft will disappear. 

If the EnergyBus Lock cable is cut, or if the plug is forcibly ripped from the locked socket, all of the pedelec’s components will go into ‘stolen’ mode, robbing the thief of any enjoyment of the stolen item. So, for example, the lights will just flash SOS, the display will just show random pixels or a message that the bike has been stolen, the motor will provide braking, the bell will ring constantly, the battery will refuse to deliver energy, the gears will no longer change, and using its built-in GSM interface, EnergyBus Lock will inform the owner and the police of the current GPS position of the stolen bike.

Insurance companies and the police are excited about these innovations, which promise to improve clear-up rates for cycle theft significantly, and to make bikes unattractive as goods to be easily converted into cash. A side-effect of the EnergyBus Lock is that if the bike is secured not to something like a tree or a fence, but rather to a public two-wheeler parking facility of the future, then it will not only be effectively protected against sticky-fingered thieves but the energy levels in the battery would be automatically topped up free of charge via the locking cable. 

So standardised infrastructure, like that on display at the International Motor Show from Ziegler Metallbau, holds out the prospect of always-full batteries, because whenever a bike is parked, it will also be re-charged. And a bicycle’s life is largely spent parked up waiting for its rider to return…

The technologies of the EnergyBus Lock are highly significant for the roll-out of public bike hire systems. This will also be covered at the International Motor Show as part of the IEA HEV Task 23 Workshop on the 21st September 2015, at which members of the Working Group of the International Energy Agency will meet with other interested parties to discuss public parking space management and the roll-out of cycle hire systems to complement public transport offerings.

Any interested parties can still register free of charge via: 

>> IEA HEV Task 23 Workshop at IAA

For further details please visit:

>> www.EnergyBus.org

Copy and picture: Hannes Neupert

Translation: Peter Eland

8 September 2015

Last update: 9 September 2015