Optimal Design and Experimental Prototype Testing of a Low-Cost Machine for City Battery Electric Vehicle

This paper presents the optimal design and experimental prototype testing of a low-cost motor applied for a city battery electric vehicle (BEV), zero emission A-segment. Respecting the car specification performances, the aluminum cage rotor induction machine (IM) is designed to reduce motor cost using totally enclosed fan-cooled (TEFC) technology and commercial speed encoders of internal combustion engine (ICE) car. Optimization approach and finite elements analysis (FEA) modeling validation, coupling with thermal calculations are used to size the thermo-electromagnetic parts. After selecting suppliers for motor components, prototypes are manufactured. For the experimentation, first, the indirected flux oriented flux control model is built based on simulation in Matlab/Simulink environment. Then the motor control calibration is tuned on the prototype in test-bench in order to ensure the optimum energy consumption, the current and speed regulations in the entire large operating area. We finally show the experimental prototype testing results to validate the obtained design solution in terms of peak performances, efficiency, thermal and NVH behaviors.