Battery Powered Small Off-Highway Vehicles

Small off-highway electric vehicle battery and propulsion systems require components designed to achieve the desired performance and maximize efficiencies. This paper gives an overview of typical components, their performance, size, shape, weight, and relationships to each other, and how they fit together in electric vehicle applications. Vehicle designs covered are golf cars, personnel carriers, people carriers, riding and walk-behind lawn mowers, 2- and 3-wheeled bikes, outboard motors, and floor care sweepers and scrubbers. Lift trucks are purposely excluded due to the maturity of their design. The discussion is limited to off-highway vehicles; however, many of the approaches could be used for highway vehicles as well.