Design and development of high-performance two-passenger electric automobile

This paper describes some of the tradeoffs made in the course of the design and development of a subcompact electric car and how they were affected by the design objectives and constraints. Principal tradeoffs included the selection of a two-passenger, rather than four-passenger configuration, and the selection of propulsion system using a separately-excited motor operating under field control only, rather than the more conventional series motor with an SCR chopper. The results of tests performed during the vehicle development process are presented, and these results are correlated with vehicle road load power requirements and component characteristics. Performance characteristics of prototype vehicles included a 0-48 km/h acceleration time of 10 sec, a top speed of 63 mph, and an operating range on the SAE J227a(C) cycle of 92 km.