Electric Vehicle Production and Associated Component Developments in the United Kingdom

Lucas Chloride EV Systems Limited is supplying complete productionised electric vehicle drive lines to four major motor vehicle manufacturers in the UK. Approximately 350 electric vehicles are scheduled to be built in the first 4 months of 1984.

Necessary conditions for customer satisfaction are vehicle reliability and acceptable operating cost, both of which must be at least as good as those for the gasoline engined equivalent vehicle.

A system design approach has been adopted as the only possible means by which the required targets of reliability and cost can be met with production electric vehicles in service. The paper describes the components and highlights the design philosophy which allows these targets to be achieved with production units in service.