Search Results

One of the key challenges faced by every engineer in the electrical vehicle development is to get the maximum range out of a single battery charge. There are several factors that impact the vehicle's range like the ambient temperature, electrical load, cooling system's efficiency, etc. Increasing only the vehicle range poses problems with another important vehicle attribute which is the passenger comfort. So, it is imperative for the engineer to understand the trade-off between comfort and range so that he chooses the right control strategy. One of the important factors in affecting the vehicle range is the ambient temperature. At low temperatures, electrical power from the battery is used to warm up the cabin to improve the passenger comfort, thus discharging the battery very quickly. On the contrary, when the ambient temperature is high, it is important to cool batteries, electronics and electric motors to keep their efficiency high.