HOW THE ELECTRIC CAR WORKS ?

BY : Freddy Kurniawan/131-13-027
Mechanical Engineering 2013
Basic Principle
-The Car is powered by electric motor rather by gasoline engine.
-The motor gets it power from a controller.
-The controller is powered from an array of rechargeable batteries.
This is the schematics from the block diagram how the electric car works.

I would like to introduce the working system of electric car through the
component or their parts itself.

1. MOTOR
Electric cars can use AC as well as DC motors.
The ranging voltage for the motor itself around 96 till 192 volts
and most of the come from forklift industry.
Installation for the DC motor is much simpler than AC.
But the limitation of the DC motor is that they can be self
heating and can be destruction for itself.
So due to the limitation and other advantages by AC motors (
like torque and speed output for the same weight and size ),AC
motors are more preferable for electric cars.

2. CONTROLLERS
The main function for controller is to controlled voltage to the
motor , and depending upon potentiometer output.
It is circular in shape and it is hooked to the accelerator pedal.
The potentiometer, also called the variable resistor, provides the
signal that tells the controller how much power is it supposed to
deliver.
PWM controls the speed
DC Controller

Output of the signal

An AC controller creates 3 pseudo sine wave which are 120

degrees apart (3-phase AC)
Using six sets of power transistors, the controller is takes in 300
volts DC and produces 240 volts AC, 3-phase.

3. BATTERIES
Lead acid batteries used , until recently.
-A weak link in the electric cars.
-Heavy, Bulky , limited capacity (only give 12-15 Kwh), slow
charging rate , short life and expensive.
NiMH batteries give double the range and last 10 years , but
expensive.
Li-ion and NiMH batteries likely to used because the price is
competitive

This is some of the batteries advantages and disadvantages based

on their type:

4. BRAKING
Regenerative breaking along with conventional friction braking
Motor as a generator
Recaptures cars kinetic energy and converts it to electricity to
recharge the batteries

Theory of Operation for EV

When the driver steps on the pedal the potentiometer activates and provides the
signal that tells the controller how much power it is supposed to deliver. There
are two potentiometers for safety. The controller reads the setting of the
accelerator pedal from the potentiometers, regulates the power accordingly,
takes the power from the batteries and delivers it to the motor. The motor
receives the power (voltage) from the controller and uses this power to rotate the
transmission. The transmission then turns the wheels and causes the car to
move forward or backward.
If the driver floors the accelerator pedal, the controller delivers the full battery
voltage to the motor. If the driver takes his/her foot off the accelerator, the
controller delivers zero volts to the motor. For any setting in between, the
controller chops the battery voltage, thousands of times per second to create an
average voltage somewhere between 0 and full battery pack voltage.
CONCLUSION

Electric Vehicle per charge still limited the battery.

Usually 100km is common , Higher range needs more intelligent and
material. That includes : higher energy density , higher current battery ,
lighter material , higher efficiency of machines , driver and power
converter.

Reference

http://en.wikipedia.org/
www.howstuffworks.com
Build you own electric vehicle,Seth Leitman and Bob Brant,
second edition , McGraw Hill , 2009.
Oregon Electric Vehicle Association.