Summer BanksElectric cars and working
August 16th 2006 22:49
electric car-hood
Electric cars are something that show up in the news all the time. There are several reasons for the continuing interest in these vehicles:
Electric cars create less pollution than gasoline-powered cars, so they are an environmentally friendly alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles (especially in cities).
Any news story about hybrid cars usually talks about electric cars as well.
Vehicles powered by fuel cells are electric cars, and fuel cells are getting a lot of attention right now in the news.
An electric car is a car powered by an electric motor rather than a gasoline engine.
From the outside, you would probably have no idea that a car is electric. In most cases, electric cars are created by converting a gasoline-powered car, and in that case it is impossible to tell. When you drive an electric car, often the only thing that clues you in to its true nature is the fact that it is nearly silent.
Under the hood, there are a lot of differences between gasoline and electric cars:
The gasoline engine is replaced by an electric motor.
The electric motor gets its power from a controller.
The controller gets its power from an array of rechargeable batteries.
The Motor and more :
Electric cars can use AC or DC motors:
If the motor is a DC motor, then it may run on anything from 96 to 192 volts. Many of the DC motors used in electric cars come from the electric forklift industry.
If it is an AC motor, then it probably is a three-phase AC motor running at 240 volts AC with a 300 volt battery pack.
DC installations tend to be simpler and less expensive. A typical motor will be in the 20,000-watt to 30,000-watt range. A typical controller will be in the 40,000-watt to 60,000-watt range (for example, a 96-volt controller will deliver a maximum of 400 or 600 amps). DC motors have the nice feature that you can overdrive them (up to a factor of 10-to-1) for short periods of time. That is, a 20,000-watt motor will accept 100,000 watts for a short period of time and deliver 5 times its rated horsepower. This is great for short bursts of acceleration. The only limitation is heat build-up in the motor. Too much overdriving and the motor heats up to the point where it self-destructs.
AC installations allow the use of almost any industrial three-phase AC motor, and that can make finding a motor with a specific size, shape or power rating easier. AC motors and controllers often have a regen feature. During braking, the motor turns into a generator and delivers power back to the batteries.
Doing a Conversion :
majority of the electric cars on the road today are "home brew" conversion vehicles. People with an interest in electric cars convert existing gasoline-powered cars to electric in their backyards and garages. There are many Web sites that talk about the phenomenon and show you how to do it, where to get parts, etc.
A typical conversion uses a DC controller and a DC motor. The person doing the conversion decides what voltage the system will run at -- typically anything between 96 volts and 192 volts. The voltage decision controls how many batteries the car will need, and what sort of motor and controller the car will use. The most common motors and controllers used in home conversions come from the electric forklift industry.
Usually, the person doing the conversion has a "donor vehicle" that will act as the platform for the conversion. Almost always, the donor vehicle is a normal gasoline-powered car that gets converted to electric. Most donor vehicles have a manual transmission.
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