The nanoFlowcell (a flow battery) is operated with two ionic fluids, one with a positive charge and one with a negative charge. With two 175-liter tanks, the QUANTiNO carries 350 litres of ionic liquid in total. The nanoFlowcell powers four 25 kW motors (136 hp total).

The company is also presenting the new QUANT F electric vehicle at the show; the QUANT F is a further development of the QUANT E from 2014, the first automobile with flow cell drive to be approved by the German TÜV technical inspection authority. (Earlier post.)

To date, low-voltage drives have featured primarily on vehicles with very low drive outputs (< 5kW), such as golf carts, e-scooters or light-duty motor vehicles such as four-wheel vehicles with relatively low drive outputs (< 20kW) for urban use.

Low-voltage systems offer various advantages over high-voltage systems, such as are used in electric vehicles today. While high-voltage electric vehicles require complete contact and flashover protection, this is not needed for low-voltage vehicles. In accordance with ECE-R 100, no additional measures to prevent accidental contact are necessary for low-voltage systems. This also gives rise to much faster homologation of low-voltage vehicles, as functional safety is more simple to realize.

To our knowledge, a low-voltage drive system has never been deployed before in a larger passenger car, such as is now being demonstrated on board of the QUANTiNO. The required drive output always restricted the spectrum of useful applications for a low-voltage system. This is all changing now with the nanoFlowcell. Very high currents are required for the levels of drive output typically needed by vehicles. This necessitates exceptionally large cable cross-sections and increased transmission losses with high-voltage systems. With the nanoFlowcell, we have been able to solve this problem. Here we generate very high currents at a very low rated voltage which are perfect for the purposes of the low-voltage system.

—Chief Technical Officer Nunzio La Vecchia

LaVecchia said that the company intended to attain approval for road use for the QUANTiNO quickly.