Track: Automotive Manufacturing Systems

Abstract

Transportation has become sector dominantly consuming fossil fuels and causes air pollution. The solution is either using natural fuels that are also environmentally friendly or replacing the engine by electric motor. This paper presents modeling and developing a prototype of city car scale electric vehicle employing Brushless DC (BLDC) Motor as a prime mover. A 1000 W, 48 V BLDC Motor is used and expected to provide a torsion of 30 – 50 Nm. The chassis is constructed using Aluminum Chassis Frame, which is lighter yet more rigid. The body of vehicle is designed to have coefficient of drag (cd) of 0.4 – 0.5 to reduce aerodynamic resistance. The energy is stored in a 48 V, 8.7 Ah Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery equipped with Battery Management System (BMS). A 48V 350W 17A controller is employed including IC MC33035 to drive a Mosfet to control the BLDC Motor speed. Together with BMS, this controller determines the most proper power consumption for the required speed and torsion. The weight of vehicle including the driver will determine the maximum speed of vehicle. The test drive demonstrated the maximum speed of 53.3 km/hour. This development may be further enhanced for building a real electric city car.