The Bellerophon Rapid Assembly and Disassembly (BRAD) project will deliver a quad bike powered by maintainable and reusable batteries, with a concept manufacturing process which reduces manufacture and remanufacture time, providing cost reduction for efficient battery system assembly thus providing an electric powertrain in a market which is dominated by Internal Combustion Engines.
Many quad bikes are petrol with a small percentage using diesel as the fuel. Around 1 million quad bikes were produced in in 2019 and less than 15,000 were electric, all are E-UTV.
The last study showed that in 2010 18 million tonnes of CO2 was emitted from quad bikes and this figure is expected to have risen since.
The proof-of-concept phase of this project is complete with a UTE battery system designed for addressing the circular economy and reducing Bill of Materials (BoM) costs with a unique process for pack assembly and disassembly to aid remanufacture and second-life potential of spent battery packs. The BRAD project builds on the combined expertise of Upgrade Technology Engineering Ltd, Aspire Engineering Ltd, Eco Charger Ltd and Cranfield University.