In-Depth on Battery Life & Longevity

When it comes to building electric vehicles, battery technology is the linchpin of success. At Orbital, we've taken a leap that sets us apart from the competition: we've designed our own purpose-built battery for the Rev 1, ensuring unprecedented performance and longevity.

Today, we sit down with Owen Emry, our CTO, to delve into the world-class battery technology behind the Rev 1.

Raising the Bar for All-Electric Range in a UTV

Thanks for joining us, Owen. Let’s dive right in.

Range anxiety is a term that often comes up in discussions about EVs. How does the Rev 1's battery address this concern, and what kind of range can users expect under normal operating conditions?

Range anxiety is a funny thing… I worked at the company that coined the term “range anxiety”. It’s a psychological phenomenon that doesn’t necessarily have a technological solution. But to the extent there is one, the thing that makes you not worry about range is knowing that you have enough energy for what you need to do. And we’ve put a lot of work into solving that problem; to make sure that the 200 mile range of the vehicle far exceeds what a real day’s work is so that it quickly becomes something you’re happy to forget about.

The Rev 1 will do everything you need to do all day long. You’re going to want a place to plug it in every night, and as long as you can do that, you’re going to stop thinking about it. No more trips to the fueling station, no more jerry cans – you don’t need to worry about figuring out a way to fuel it on short notice, or really at all. It’s just magically full every morning and it does what you need to do. Problem solved.

Amazing. That’s going to be an entirely new experience for side-by-side owners.

Now, let’s address one of Rev 1’s biggest advantages over the competition. How exactly does the Rev 1’s battery achieve more than twice the range of competitors’ electric UTVs?

There are really two parts to that. The first step is… [laughter] just acknowledging that people need a bigger battery, which seems to be something our competition is slow on the uptake about. The second part is that when we design it ourselves it’s really easy to fit in as much range as we need.

The Rev 1 actually has space for about twice as much battery as we‘ve chosen to include—that’s how good we are at packaging batteries into these systems. But when you have control over the battery instead of being limited to whatever you can buy from somebody else’s catalog, you can tailor that to fit the vehicle in a really optimal way, and it pays off enormously.

That’s exciting!

Now, we all know side-by-sides don’t always operate in “normal” conditions. What sort of range can owners expect if they’re pushing the limits? How does the Rev 1 perform in hot or cold weather, loose terrain, or while climbing grades?

Hot and cold weather make a small difference, but not as much as people assume. Climate control hurts more if you don’t have enough battery to begin with, but we make sure that we do, so the effects of extreme weather are noticeable but not really a significant concern. 

We designed this thing to go about 200 miles on good terrain. Naturally it gets worse from there if you’re in loose soil, but we’ve made sure that you’re starting with a baseline of, by industry standards, an enormous amount of energy. So you’ve got enough for those bad conditions, for the tools you want to run all day long, for towing things uphill – all of those things use energy and we’ve tried to make sure there’s lots of that onboard, and we think we’ve dialed that in pretty well.

What is the recommended use for customers in colder climates? How can they maximize their range and battery life? 

The same as any other user: You’ll need to have a place to plug it in. As long as you keep it plugged in while you’re not using it, the Rev 1 will take care of itself and its battery and you don’t have to think about it, much less worry.

Okay, good to know. Last question about range: how does regenerative braking come into play while going up and down hills or mountains? 

Regenerative braking is something that you naturally get for free in the way that we control these motors. When the system is braking, it’s essentially running everything backwards, and the wheels are driving the motor. The motor is generating electricity, which is going back into the battery. It does extend your range versus throwing that energy away as heat (if you’re just making your brake rotors hot you’re throwing that energy away). So we do recapture some of that.

It makes a significant difference. It depends how you’re driving, of course, and how much uphill and downhill and braking you’re doing, but it can add 5-10% to the range, so with the size of the battery we’re talking about that could be another 20 miles. 

A Battery Built for a Lifetime

Owen, can you tell us about the philosophy behind Orbital's decision to design its own battery, and what makes it a 'lifetime item'?

We decided to design our own battery because we can do it better than just about anyone else.

I’ve had the privilege to work with and help feed technology into Tesla, seeing what works and what doesn’t work there. The approach of using small, cylindrical commodity cells is excellent and yields better, cheaper, safer batteries.

By doing our homework and engineering the battery to be safe by design, we can get the safest battery system that is possible to make: one that will tolerate failures without the user noticing.

Cell failures are vanishingly uncommon but the stakes are high, so for us, battery safety isn’t really a negotiable thing. Our competion buys batteries off someone else’s shelf and hopes for the best. We get safety and quality by design.

How has Orbital's battery been engineered to defy the typical wear and tear that batteries are subjected to?

One of the key things that we do—I touched on this earlier—is we start by making the battery significantly bigger. There’s an interesting phenomenon in battery engineering where, if you double the size of the battery, you more than double the performance, and you reduce the wearout by more than half. This favorable relationship means there’s extra incentive to make the battery larger. Of course, there’s an upper bound on that because at some point you’re dealing with more weight and cost than you want. But, by making the battery larger you’re putting fewer cycles on it for the same day’s work. 

And then, the rest is all the battery management we have 20 years’ experience doing in the best way possible, to keep the battery in its healthiest and safest operating environment all the time. 

Some customers are concerned about the potential cost to replace the battery. How likely is that scenario? And how much would a replacement cost?

We’ve put a huge amount of work into making sure that battery replacement is vanishingly unlikely. The battery has been designed as a lifetime component, and that’s why we have a phenomenal 5 year warranty on the battery. It’s easy to replace should that be necessary, and it’s covered under an incredibly generous warranty because we believe you shouldn’t have to worry about it, and we’ve done our homework to make sure we don’t have to worry about it (in terms of that warranty exposure).

If the battery were to require replacement outside the terms of the warranty (again, this is extremely unlikely), then the replacement cost would be about $5k based on cell prices today. If your Rev 1 needs a battery in 10-15 years, expect prices to be lower (and capacity to be much higher!).

In closing, Owen, what message would you like to impart to potential customers who might be considering the Rev 1 but are hesitant about the shift to electric UTVs?

We’re really committed to building the best tools for professionals who use them. We think this one’s different. It’s designed to be a pleasure to use, to do everything you need to do safely, without unnecessary complication, and without compromising performance. Rev 1 is designed to go the distance, and to keep doing that every day. We think you’ll really enjoy it.

Thank you for joining us, Owen! We’ll see you in the next installment of “In-Depth.”

Final Thoughts

Owen’s insights make it clear: the Rev 1 represents a leap forward in electric utility vehicle technology.

We’re reshaping the expectations for off-road EVs. The Rev 1’s exceptional 200 mile range lets you go further, and its industry-best 3,500 lb towing capacity lets you do more.

Furthermore, our innovative approach to battery design also makes Rev 1 the first UTV with onboard high voltage power–up to 12 kW of 120V or 240V–to power your tools, pumps, and machinery for hours.

The Rev 1 is more than a vehicle; it's your dependable partner in work and adventure.

If you enjoyed this article, you can catch another interview with Owen here: In-Depth on REV 1’s Powertrain. Depending on your level of interest, you may want to reserve your Rev 1 to ensure your spot in the first cohort of deliveries.