Development of a 4-Seater Electric Van With a Regenerative Braking System

An advanced 4-seater electric van named TEEV-8XA was developed at Tang Eng Iron Work Company to evaluate the engineering feasibilities of a unibody construction of the van and an electronic controller with a regenerative braking circuit for a DC series-wound motor.

The unibody construction and trim of the van body save a weight of about 45 Kg as compared with the original construction. A two-current-level control logic is employed for the speed control of the vehicle. During the braking period, the chopper for motoring switches to the chopper for field excitation, the motor becomes a generator, and one additional chopper and an inductor are used to step-up the generator voltage. Road tests were taken and it is found that about 15.3% of the input electric energy is recharged to the batteries.