A Scope for the Research and Development Activities on Electric Vehicle Technology in Pune City

The ever increasing prices of petroleum products and serious environmental pollution problems have accelerated the development of non-polluting electric and hybrid vehicles during last few decades. The new technology of battery operated electric vehicles is likely to replace conventional IC engine automobile technology soon. Pune is a major automobile hub of India. Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Kinetic engineering etc. have their automobile manufacturing units at Pune. Many automobile manufacturing units are situated at Nashik and Mumbai. Apart from these units, some small and medium size industrial units such as Gulane Engineering, Martin Frank (Motion Control) Pvt. Limited and Technovision have already started development of various components for battery operated electric vehicles. However there are some common issues related to electric vehicle technology. These include selection of batteries, selection of electric motors for specific capacity vehicles, design of controllers, design of battery chargers with specific applications to electric vehicles, development of testing facility for testing of electric motors, controllers and battery chargers. In this situation the industry-institute interaction will play a key role and part of R&D and testing activities can get diverted to educational institution with adequate infrastructure. This paper emphasizes basic details regarding characteristics of various motors and controllers used for battery operated electric vehicles. Comparative study of various motors used for electric vehicle applications is presented. The role of local transport authorities in promoting electric vehicles for cities like Pune is also presented.