EV system and configuration

EV technologies

• In electrical engineering, it requires the expertise of electrical machines, power electronics, control
systems, energy and battery management systems and charging.

• In the mechanical and automobile engineering domain, it requires the knowledge of gearing,
differential, chassis, suspension, braking, steering etcetera. The knowledge of IC engine is required in a
HEV or hybrid electric vehicle.

• In chemical engineering domain, the knowledge of battery and its different kind of chemical features are
required to be known, the knowledge of fuel cell. So battery and fuel cell are energy sources and it also
requires the knowledge of fuels. So how the liquid and gaseous fuels operate, it’s very handy to have
the knowledge for a good EV development.
 EV Configuration
Converted EV:
• Converted EV means a EV which was designed by converting a existing vehicle. Probably, a diesel engine vehicle or
a petrol engine vehicle.
• In place of the IC engine, a similar rated electrical motor is fitted and the rest of components are kept same
without any change.
• This type of EV design is very simple and it can use the already absolute IC engine vehicles which has completed
their service life of 15 to 20 years and they are lying idle.
• This type of EV is only popular when the cost to the customer per kilometer of driving is less in the converted EV
compared to the diesel engine EV.
• This system is not a high performance EV, because it still carries the heavy weight of the vehicle which exist in a
typical IC engine based vehicles.
• The new EV which is developed has to accommodate motor and energy sources in place of the IC engine or it can
use the storage capacity of the IC engine such as luggage space etc.
Purpose built EV:
• Nowadays all modern EVs are purpose built. A purpose-built EV means the body and the frame of the vehicle is
newly designed such that it takes into consideration the structural requirements of the EV and it also uses all the
flexibility the EV system offers.
• In IC engine based vehicles, the power flow or the energy flow is done mechanically. Means they will use bolted
frames and rigid systems to transfer energy from one system to another. But in a EV application, the power flow is
normally done using electrical wires, so which is very flexible and it allows the distribution of different
components of an EV throughout the vehicle and the energy transfer can be done using flexible wires. So you can
say that the distribution flexibility is very high in a purpose-built EV.
• The type of propulsion system used in EV is also a deciding factor. So in a subsystem, there may be gears and
subsystem maybe gearless. Some of them may use a differential, other may not. Some may use single motor,
others may use multiple or dual motors. So depending on the type of EV, the design of the EV has to be done. It
cannot be the same for all types of configuration.
• The type of energy sources used in the EV decide the design of EV a lot.
 So if a single battery based vehicle is designed, it has to be suitably done.
 If it’s a multi battery system, it has to be done in another way. So we know that a battery bank can be distributed
in many ways. So batteries can be used in the chassis of the vehicle, in the top side of the vehicle or in the luggage
space of the vehicle. So all these possibilities are there and they can be connected together using wiring
arrangement.
 when a fuel cell is used in a fuel cell electric vehicle, the design has to be different, because now the fuel to be
stored is hydrogen and it took a lot of ancillary systems associated with it such as conversion kit, high pressure
developer equipment etc.
• The charging system is also important. So the charging system for different type of energy resources maybe
different. Secondly, it can be on board charger, the secondary coils are to be installed in the vehicle. So this all
requirements has to be taken into consideration while designing a purpose based EV.
 EV Components

Design of EV Components
(purpose built) Electric
propulsion
Energy source Auxiliary
subsystem subsystem
subsystem
Electric propulsion subsystem: Under this system we have controller, power converter or power electronics, motor,
transmission gears, differential, wheels etc. The designer generally tries to optimize these components such that the
performance of the vehicle is enhanced together with energy efficiency.
• Generally the motor is designed such that it is high power density, it has high torque density, it has high efficiency
in wide speed and torque ranges.
• The power electronics is generally designed at high switching frequency such that the size of the associated
magnetics can be scaled down.
• Some of the components like gears, differential can be avoided such that these are the loss making components,
but that can be only done by means of complicated control.
Energy source subsystem: Energy source, charger, refuelling system, and energy management system comes under
this subsystem.
• The designer has to take care of placing the energy source, the selection of energy source, the design of chargers
or the refilling systems in case of fuel cell and other systems. And the managing of this energy flow and by system
known as energy management system or EMS which talks to all the components such that the energy within the
system can be saved.
Auxiliary subsystem: There need to be auxiliary power supply, which is required to support power steering,
cooling arrangement, heating arrangement, infotainment etc.
• Most of the systems are moving towards fully electric type, means the steering has gone to power steering,
the cooling and the heating requirements can be also made more electric by using a drive based air
conditioner such that the power requirement for these auxiliary subsystems can be minimized.

Design of EV Components (Converted)

Parts to be kept same:
Parts to be modified and removed:

Parts to be added:
BEV Configuration and different parts

Block diagram of EV system

• The input to the BEV is generally comes from a driver in terms of accelerator command or braking command.
• This command goes to a electronic controller which then acts and give information to the electric drive such that this
action can be initiated.
• when the accelerator command is given, the power is transferred from the battery to the wheels by operating the
motor and when the braking action is commanded, the same drive will act in such a way that power can be absorbed
from the wheels and battery can be charged. In braking mode, the motor will work as a generator.
• Energy management system takes care of battery state of health, and state of charge. And it measures these
parameters in real time, and it gives this information to the controller.
• The auxiliary supply is connected to battery bank which takes care of the heating and cooling requirements and
steering requirements.
• So these whole systems work in an integrated fashion such that the controlling actions, controller, the drive, battery,
the auxiliary supply and the associated components; all are watched and controlled in a EMS.
BEV Configuration with front wheel drive (Converted EV)
• Converted EV’s typically use the technology
of IC engine based vehicles which is
longitudinal front engine, front wheel drives.
• So it replaces the IC engine with a similar
rated motor, and the rest of the mechanical
assembly is same like it has clutch, it has a
gear box which is a variable gear system.
• So the requirement of the motor is, it should
work at full speed with capacity of delivering
the full torque.
• It doesn’t need to operate in a variable speed and variable torque operation, because that purpose is done by the
variable gear systems by means of clutch system.
• This system is very easy to build.
BEV Configuration with transverse front wheel drive
• All the components such as motor, fixed
gears and differential are integrated together.

• All are integrated into one assembly such

that the transmission axle is reduced and it’s
a very compact system with very less weight
compared to the previous configuration.
 BEV Configuration with fix gear and no clutch

• In this system, the bulky components such as

clutches and the variable gearing systems are
avoided.
• This system uses electrical motor with a fixed
gearing.
• The motor has to be properly controlled such that
the speed of the vehicle and the torque
requirement of the vehicle both have to be
supported by this motor.
BEV Configuration with fixed/variable gearing
BEV Configuration with dual motor drive
• This system has two motors which are
coupled to the individual wheels by means of
fixed gears.
• This system is simple and it is less bulky
compared to the previous configuration.
• Differential is a very important mechanical
device which is used to create differential in
the speed of the front wheel such that it
allows the turning operation without any
discomfort to the operator or without losing
any control. So this differential can also be
eliminated.
• So this motor cannot be operated individual mode. So they have to be coordinated such that the control
enables the differential action.
• It is also possible to eliminate the driving shaft connecting the motor to the wheels.
• This type of configuration use a motor which can be inside the wheel.
 BEV Configuration with single/multiple motor
• When we use a single motor we have to use a differential.
• Differential is basically a three gear system like, so one gear which is called pinion gear and connected to two axle
gears. So depending upon the requirement of turning the vehicle, it creates a differential of speed between these two
axles such that the vehicle can be turned.
• A multiple motor or a dual motor system uses individual power converter and individual controller to control these
motors such that the differential requirement has to be now obtained from the coordinated control of these motors.
• The control of these motors has to have a common controller which is known as a coordination controller which will
keep looking for the steering command from the driver. And based on the turning operation, it tells the two motors to
operate in such a way that this requirement can be enabled.
 BEV Configuration with battery
• It is a simple system where a single or distributed
battery is connected to the motor using a power
converter or power electronics.
• Battery can be kept in multiple places. It can be kept
in a luggage room, in chassis or in the top of the
system, so it can be distributed.
• Both high specific energy and high specific power is
not available from a single battery so hybrid
batteries can be used. These batteries are
connected using a power converter such that the
power flow between these batteries can be
controlled.
• One of the hybrid battery can be fuel cell, or
capacitor, or flywheel.
High energy source: earlier, the requirement of high specific energy or high energy source requirement is
due to long driving range. So any EV will look for such a source such that the range requirement is obtained.
High power source: BEV needs a source which is has a high power source such that the acceleration
requirement is taken care which is required during starting, overtaking or hill climbing. But this power source
also enables efficiency improvement especially during regenerative energy obtained during braking, because
it has a capacity to quickly absorb the energy coming during braking.

• In case of normal driving, the high energy source is mainly used to drive the vehicle such that we obtain a
high range operation.
• During acceleration, we want the system to be fully utilized. Therefore, during acceleration both the
systems will deliver power or energy to the drivetrain such that the system operates at very high power
rate.
• During braking, the energy has to be absorbed very
quickly. So during that time, the source which recovers
the braking energy is high power source.