A Novel Forward Approach Method for the Converted Electric Car with Modeling and Performance

Electric vehicles show promising results to lower carbon emissions in the world. However, electric vehicles are comparatively costly and have an issue of range anxiety. Electric vehicle conversion acts as a transition state before full electrification can be achieved in the automobile industry. In this paper, a MATLAB Simulink model is developed to estimate the total energy consumption and range of an electric converted safari vehicle. The model is used to select desired vehicle parameters like electric motor power and optimum gear ratio for desired top speed. Different blocks of the Forward Approach Model: longitudinal vehicle dynamics, powertrain system, battery model, and driver model are integrated with non-linear and dynamic characteristics, which resulted in accurate estimation of driving parameters. The results showed a 36% error in estimating starting motor torque which indicates that the converted vehicle had a lower gear ratio than the simulated model and unaccounted losses were not present in the simulated model. Similarly, the results showed a 1% fluctuation in SOC of the battery due to the intricacies involved in simulating the exact behavior of the provided battery.