Simple Lightweight Design of Small Electric Vehicle for Elderly Society

Nowadays, Thailand is entering an aging society. Traveling in the community for the elderly may cause inconvenience and can be prone to accidents. The electric vehicle (EV) is another option for the traveling of older people in urban areas. The electric vehicles for the elderly will focus on lightweight structures. The driver can easily control the tractive system and saves electric energy. This paper presents the strength analysis of the chassis model and the tractive system simulation of lightweight electric vehicles for the reasons mentioned. The chassis model was built on a 3D drawing program, and its strength was assessed by displaying the factor of safety value of the chassis structure. The results of the chassis analysis are used as the data to improve the strength of the chassis. The tractive system simulation simulates the operation of the traction motor by using the actual BLDC motor parameters, and the lithium-ion battery model is the power source model of the lightweight electric vehicles. The motor simulation results showing the power consumption and the efficiency of the selected BLDC motor. This result can be used as a baseline for developing the economic power consumption of electric vehicles.