A study was carried out to evaluate the operating characteristics of an electric car when used as an errand vehicle and short distance commuter car. The car performed satisfactorily when the road surface was smooth and even. The car's performance was judged as unacceptable on hilly or rough roads. A number of recommendations are given, primarily, the car is underpowered and lacks a suitable manual gear shift. In addition to evaluating the car's performance, an attempt was made to publicize the use of electric cars in general and the DOE Demonstration program. Some newspaper coverage was obtained and the car was displayed at Poly Royal which is an annual open house held at Cal Poly each year. It is estimated that over 100,000 people attended the 1982 Poly Royal and many of those attending saw the car and learned about the DOE Electric Car Program. A number of Electrical Engineering students worked closely with the car and at least three of them carried out their senior project in conjunction with it. These projects give the engineering student the opportunity of designing and building a practical project of their own choice. The projects were, an AC inverter, a solid state motor controller and a digital display ampere-hour meter. (ERA citation 08:055940)


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    Title :

    DOE Electric-Car Evaluation Project. Final Report


    Contributors:
    S. Goldberg (author)

    Publication date :

    1983


    Size :

    8 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English