A Quadricycle for Urban Mobility

The need to decrease pollution in urban zones has pushed toward severe regulations in term of low-emission limits. The effect of this “environmental awareness” is an increased interest in electric vehicles (EV).The construction of a EV is presented in the paper. This vehicle has been designed specifically to be powered by electric motors, the suspension system and the general layout have been developed accordingly.According to the European technical regulations, the vehicle has been designed for a city use. The main features of GreenFun, (this is the name of the prototype), are an extensive use of composite and lightweight materials, a special suspension system layout, a 4WD powertrain realized by means of 4 electric motor hubs and the use, for the first time in a production vehicle, of 4 measuring wheels that are able to measure the forces acting between the pneumatic tires and the road. These information are used as input for the vehicle control systems in order to enhance performance and safety.In the paper, the most relevant vehicle subsystems are described in detail (chassis, wheel, suspensions, powertrain, energy management, control system, …).Copyright © 2012 by ASME