ULTRA LIGHT EV GLOBAL DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS

During the period from 1990 to 1995, the automobile manufacturers of Europe, America, and Japan have been responsive to the need to re-evaluate the battery electric vehicle (EV), and have released key design specifications and vehicle performance characteristics for more than thirty electric vehicles displayed at the 55th IAA International Motor Show in Frankfurt, NAIAS'95 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and the 30th International Motor Show in Tokyo. This paper includes a comparative parametric correlation analysis of these key design parameters which include: vehicle test mass, tire coefficients, overall aerodynamic drag and skin friction drag coefficients, equivalent flat plate frontal area, length to hydraulic diameter ratio, peak tractive force, peak traction motor power, and battery energy storage capacity. The conclusions show that the automobile manufacturers have achieved dramatic improvements in many of these key design parameters, and as a result the battery electric vehicle now promises to have a brighter future. (A) For the covering abstract see IRRD 882109.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Features: References;
  • Pagination: p. 127-33

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00726493
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
  • ISBN: 0-947719-74-1
  • Files: ITRD
  • Created Date: Oct 28 1996 12:00AM