01 · The Platform

An electric superbike, built from the battery out — the prototype hit 275 km/h with 200 km of range. I led electronics and battery systems on the founding team.

Rizel Automotive · 2017–2020 · Mobility and Engineering

Rizel Automotive: EV Systems, Product Development and Funding

Head of Electronics and Battery Systems, Founding Team

On the founding team of an electric superbike company I led the battery and electronics systems, and carried them from a blank sheet to a working platform and a funded company. Our component strategy was deliberate. We proved the platform on the best available parts from proven suppliers, then began bringing the technology in house.

The battery pack coming together. CAD assembly animation of the program's pack design.

The motor. CAD animation from the program's motor development work.

Context

An early-stage EV startup building a high-performance electric motorcycle from scratch: no existing platform to borrow from, a tight budget, and an investor timeline. Someone had to make the battery, electronics and controls real and make them defensible to engineers and investors alike.

My responsibility

Head of Electronics and Battery Systems, founding team — leading a small electronics and battery group and owning the technical narrative for the raise.

What I did

Battery pack architecture and a modular high-voltage design built for serviceability and manufacturability
A modular battery management system — cell monitoring, balancing, fault handling and battery-health logic — across multiple board revisions, with an Orion BMS supervising the running prototype
EMRAX motor and UniTek Bamocar D3 controller integration with the pack and vehicle
Component strategy — Samsung 18650 25R cells, EMRAX motor, Orion BMS, Bamocar D3 controller: proven components to validate the platform
CAN bus, diagnostics and telemetry across the vehicle systems
Thermal management and vehicle-systems integration
Manufacturing-readiness planning and supplier evaluation
Investor and technical-commercial materials, and Series A diligence support
The braking-control invention I conceived — perfected with co-inventors across disciplines, filed as 201941039046

Technical scope

≈89S32P pack (≈2,850 Samsung INR18650-25R cells, ≈25.6 kWh) — copper-busbar module links, nickel-strip cell welds; BMS monitoring, balancing and fault handling
EMRAX axial-flux motor with UniTek Bamocar D3 (PMSM) control; power electronics; CAN diagnostics
Thermal paths and serviceability / manufacturability decisions
Multiple BMS PCB revisions taken from prototype toward production intent

Commercial and operating scope

Translated engineering into the product roadmap, budgets and procurement plans
Built the investor-facing technical and financial story behind a USD 25 million Series A
Supported technical diligence; conceived the braking-control invention filed as 201941039046 (utility + design)
1st place, Altair Startup Challenge 2020 (Startup India × Altair)

How the work ran

Architecture first, then prototype BMS boards through several revisions, motor and controller bring-up, pack assembly, vehicle integration, and finally the technical diligence that a funding round demands.

Outcome

A prototype that hit 275 km/h with 200 km of range ridden at speed, a company that closed a USD 25 million Series A on a technical story I helped build, 1st place in the Altair Startup Challenge 2020, and a braking-control invention I conceived on public file. The in-house motor programme we started in my tenure continued after I left in 2020 — it grew into Abhinava Rizel's Hybrid SynR-PM platforms (1–300 kW, 48–800 V), which are the company's own work.

Pack architecture

CellsSamsung 18650 25R groups

Modulesserviceable 320 V pack

BMSOrion BMS + in-house boards

Prechargeinrush-limited HV bring-up

Contactormain HV disconnect

HVILinterlock / isolation check

ControllerBamocar D3 → EMRAX motor

Cross-cutting: thermal paths · CAN diagnostics and telemetry. Pack: ≈89S32P on Samsung INR18650-25R cells — 320 A continuous at a ~10 A-per-cell design point, half the cell's 20 A rating, deliberate thermal margin. Interconnects: copper busbars between modules, nickel strips across cells in molded holders. A UniTek Bamocar D3 drives an EMRAX axial-flux motor; Orion BMS supervision alongside the in-house boards on this page.

320 V

pack voltage

320 A

continuous current

≈89S32P

≈2,850 cells

≈25.6 kWh

nominal energy

275 km/h

prototype top speed

200 km

range, ridden at speed

The BMS earned its trust through the safety chain and through bring-up. One revision taught the lesson best: a cell-group measurement that read fine at rest drifted under load, so a real imbalance was being under-reported — exactly the failure a BMS exists to catch. The next board tightened the sensing and the fault thresholds around it. Board bring-up is a loop of small, humbling corrections like that.

The pack taught its own lessons. The metal casing gave us static and grounding trouble before we tamed it. And in the early builds, one bad cell meant hours of unpacking and repacking the whole assembly — which is why the later designs made modules swappable and genuinely serviceable. Serviceability was not a slideware value; it came from losing evenings to a single dead 18650.

Component strategy

We proved the platform on the best available components before building our own: Samsung SDI cells from Korea, an EMRAX motor from Slovenia, an Orion BMS from the United States and a UniTek Bamocar D3 controller from Germany. That approach produced P ZERO, the prototype photographed on this page. It hit 275 km/h, and its 200 km range figure was ridden hard at speed rather than on an economy cycle. The program took first place in the Altair Startup Challenge 2020, run by Startup India and Altair.

The in-house motor programme started during my 2017–2020 tenure — the motor prototype photographed on this page is from that period. After I left, the company continued that work and, as Abhinava Rizel, now builds its own Hybrid SynR-PM motor platforms (1–300 kW, 48–800 V). The origins I claim; the current platforms are theirs.

Public record: the Rizel Automotive startup story (SRM IIC, includes the Altair Startup Challenge 2020 win) · abhinavarizel.com · patent filing 201941039046 (searchable on IP India).

What I owned, and what the team owned

I owned

Battery pack architecture and the modularity decisions
The battery system — Orion BMS integration plus in-house board revisions: monitoring, balancing, fault logic
Electronics integration between pack, Bamocar D3 controller, EMRAX motor and vehicle
The technical and investor-facing materials behind the raise

The founding team (~25) owned

Vehicle design, mechanical and chassis engineering
Manufacturing execution and supply
The commercial and fundraising leadership
Ride, styling and the rest of the motorcycle

I led the electronics and battery systems on the founding team — not the whole motorcycle.

Results

USD 25M: The Series A the company closed. I did not lead the fundraise or own the chassis. My contribution was the technical roadmap and the engineering sections of the investor materials that went through diligence.
275 km/h: Top speed the P ZERO prototype achieved, with 200 km of range ridden hard at speed. The pack used Samsung 18650 25R cells, an EMRAX motor, an Orion BMS and a UniTek Bamocar D3 controller. We proved the platform on the best available components before building our own.
25-person: The founding team. I led the electronics and battery group within it, coordinating engineering priorities, budgets and suppliers on that side.
Patent filing: I conceived the invention behind “System and Method for Enhancing Controllability of Regenerative Braking and Electromagnetic Braking” (filing 201941039046), and inventors from several disciplines helped me perfect it. It was pursued as both a utility and a design filing; no grant status is claimed.

Selected media

The Rizel P ZERO electric superbike prototype — photograph — P ZERO, the prototype itself. Photograph from the program.

Powertrain bring-up bench with motor, controller, cell modules and tuning laptop — photograph, October 2018 — Powertrain bring-up, October 2018. Motor, controller, HV cabling, cell modules and the tuning laptop. My bench.

Assembled BMS boards with cell-monitor ICs and balancing banks — photograph, February 2019 — The BMS boards, built and tested, February 2019. The physical boards behind the design files below.

Rizel motor prototype on the workshop bench — photograph — The motor prototype on the bench. Photograph via Abhinava Rizel (abhinavarizel.com).

NewGen IEDC SRM grant cheque to Rizel Automotive, May 2019 — photograph — NewGen IEDC SRM grant to Rizel Automotive, ₹2,50,000, May 2019. Photo via abhinavarizel.com.

BMS test PCB copper layout, revision 1.2.2 — BMS TEST PCB VR 1.2.2. The real board layout, a design file.

BMS prototype PCB layout, version 2.1.1 — BMS PROTOTYPE VER 2.1.1. The next board revision, a design file.

T-Hub and MeitY Digital India Scale-Up Program case study on Rizel Automotive (cover).

The 3D battery model is an original reconstruction from the real architecture. The board images are the program's real PCB design files (test revisions 1.2.1 and 1.2.2, prototype ver 2.1.1); the assembly video is the program's CAD animation.

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