The acceleration of attempts to reduce CO2 emissions in recent years in order to deal with global environmental issues has heightened expectations for the electric vehicle (EV). In general, however, an EV needs to be loaded with a larger amount of battery to realize sufficient range. This ends up making the EV heavier and more costly. Taking these circumstances into consideration, EV-neo was developed as an electric motorcycle that satisfied the requirements for business applications while keeping the amount of loaded battery minimum.A study of usability in business applications was first conducted. Classification of travel and operation patterns as well as objectives for performance were set.In order to achieve the performance objectives for business applications, the EV was designed to be light in weight and compact by keeping the on-board batteries to the minimum necessary and having a power unit with an integrated configuration. The electric motor was made to be at least 75% efficient throughout the practical operating range. The vehicle was given the required driving performance defined as 12-degree hill-climbing departure performance when carrying one person and a load of 30 kg, and it also realized a range of 34 km (traveling at 30 km/h on level ground).The package configuration of lithium-ion batteries was designed to realize both of battery cooling performance and waterproof performance to stand up to actual use. A battery monitoring system was also included for control of charging and discharging. These features enable use of the vehicle in ambient temperature requirement range from -10 deg C to 35 deg C for business applications.Furthermore, the quick charger capable of charging a battery from 0% to 80% of capacity in 20 minutes, in addition to a standard charger compact enough to be stored in the utility box, was developed to support various business users.
Article of Honda R&D Technical Review Vol.23 No.2 (13 - 21)