Meet the woman who invented the world's fastest motorcycle
Originally from Sweden, Håkansson moved to the US seven years ago. She enrolled in a PhD program for mechanical engineering at the University of Denver.
She comes from a family of engineers — her father was a racer in Sweden in the '60s, and he would build motorcycles in the time he had off from his job as an engineer. She decided to do the same, beginning the building of KillaJoule with her husband, Bill Dube, a research engineer at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in the two-car garage of their home in Denver, Colorado.
KillaJoule was essentially a hobby for Håkansson while she worked towards her degree, and it took her and her husband a total of five years to build. Her engineering background helped her to imagine and construct the vehicle, even though some people assumed her husband had taken the lead. "People are always directing the technical questions about the motorcycle to my husband," Håkansson told Business Insider.
For Håkansson, the project was about more than just speed. Her goal was to change the public's perception of electronic vehicles and to show that eco-friendly motors can be sleek, sophisticated, and useful. "My purpose wasn't to invent something new but to show the capability of what's already out there...you can find all of the technology we used in cars already on the market," Håkansson said.
KillaJoule is made from a battery pack built from 14 Ah lithium-nanophosphate battery cells made by A123 Systems. Four modules consisting of 56 cells make up the battery pack of 375 V, 10 kWh, and 300 pounds. When in need of charging, the modules are swapped out for four fully charged ones.
The batteries are recharged using a 12 kW Manzanita Micro charger powered from a CumminsOnan hybrid bio-diesel generator that runs on solar energy (pictured in the back here). Håkansson told us that people often show up at their home expecting to find a full-swing facility, often surprised to discover that they put it together in their garage.
Here's what KillaJoule looks like without its casings. For Håkansson, the vehicle is really just like "a giant cordless drill with wheels...it has a battery with the same kind of lithium-ion chemistry that you will find in cordless tools, a motor, some power electronics, and a throttle."
It also has a minimal frontal area that allows for it to gain maximum speed. For this reason, the driver must be five-foot-four or shorter to fit into it.
Here's what the view looks like from inside KillaJoule.
Another feature is the sidecar, which gives stability to the frontal area of the motorcycle.
In 2014, the KillaJoule set a world record for the fastest electric motorcycle and the fastest sidecar motorcycle of any kind with an official speed record of 240.726 mph in the flying mile (the AMA record as of August 2014) and a registered top speed of 270.224 mph. That recorded speed officially made Håkansson the world’s fastest female motorcycle rider.
Ironically, Håkansson was not originally supposed to be the driver of the vehicle, but after being unable to get a professional rider in time, she took the wheel. It was not her first time behind a motorcycle, as she had been riding motorcycles since she was 16.
With the help of her father, Håkansson also created the ElectroCat, Sweden's first street-legal electric motorcycle. But it wasn't always easy. "The path to success is never straight, and remember that if you don't make mistakes, you're not doing anything new or creative," Håkansson said.
For Håkansson, who is now one of the faces of the new Johnnie Walker campaign, her mission was to leave an eco-friendly impact and to inspire more women to get into engineering and science. When she was sixteen, she came across a quote in a book that read, "The meaning of life is to leave it better than it already was," and that was the moment she knew she had to pursue this passion.
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