Electric Conversion of a Polluting Gasoline Vehicle into an Electric Vehicle and its Performance and Drive Cycle Analysis

This paper reports a study carried out for electric conversion of a polluting gasoline car into an electric vehicle. The performance evaluation and drive cycle analysis of the electric vehicle were studied and presented. For the conversion, a new electric vehicle powertrain was proposed and developed by integrating a battery, controller and an electric motor with the vehicle's gearbox system, after removing the internal combustion engine. The new powertrain mechanical parts were designed and developed for the integration. A pre-conversion performance test was conducted for tailpipe emissions and fuel economy on chassis dynamometer which followed the path of a driving cycle. The electric vehicle was configured and fixed at the top gear having a gear ratio of 0.90:1. The post-conversion performance tests were carried out on the dynamometer. The average energy consumption of the electric vehicle was 94.71 watt-hour per kilometer. The percentage contribution of drive modes (acceleration, deceleration, cruising) to input power, torque and output power were estimated using a computer program developed for the study and results were analyzed and presented. In totality, the study and test results verified the new powertrain parts and feasibility of the electric conversion approach for faster adoption of electric vehicles, better air quality, and fuel savings.