Electric Car Conversion

Abstract

One of the directions for making cleaner and more economic vehicles is to adopt electric vehicle concept. Therefore, an internal combustion powered engine Nissan Micra Vehicle was converted into battery powered electric vehicle. The power train of the car was redesigned to use DC electric motor in replacement of the existing internal combustion engine and to give the gear ratios possibility of a normal car. The power rating of the motor was determined by considering the rolling, gradient and aerodynamic resistances which gave a total tractive effort of 12190.84 N. The designed power rating was then determined to be 8 kW and this value was used to select the number of batteries that gave the required current to reach an adequate range of operation. To balance the weight of the car, the battery rack was located behind the center of gravity to give the developed vehicle a neutral steer characteristic. After installation of electric motor, inverter and the batteries, then the batteries were connected in series and parallel to the inverter with cable wire via variable frequency drive to ac motor and potentiometer. The vehicle was then evaluated and the voltage produced was able to move the vehicle at 6.24 m/s and the maximum frequency obtained was fifty megahertz (50 MHz).