Influence of the Design Parameters of Electric Vehicles in the Optimization of Energy Efficiency in Urban Routes 2015-01-0500

The analysis and decision making on design, behavior and use of a prototype electric vehicle is the main focus has been pursued in this paper. It was modeled a prototype electric vehicle, called Gorila EV, as from the software tool Adams/Car.

The dimensional parameters needed to create the model were obtained by measurements, calculations and approximations. Subsequently, it was determined a route to be travelled by the vehicle and proceeded to simulation of the vehicle on that route. Different modifications in the model were performed to compare their results with the original model through simulation in Adams/Car. These changes ranged from a simple change in the mass of the chassis until a change in the type of vehicle traction. After made the changes and simulations, it carried out the analysis of the most remarkable results. These results were studied subsystem by subsystem, beginning with the wheels, to suspensions and engine until vehicle chassis. In light of the results, it were identified the engine and chassis mass as very influential factors in the model behavior. Therefore further the study focused on these factors in order to optimize the use of the vehicle.

In this paper we show the design criteria for electric vehicles to optimize engine power, weight, battery and vehicle performance according to the characteristics of typical urban routes.