Enhancement in Cabin Comfort and Overall Energy Utilization of an Electric Reverse Trike Car by Optimizing the System Layout

As the emissions norms are getting stringent and stricter, the use of all electric vehicles is widespread and becoming mainstream mobility both in urban and rural areas. However, lack of good charging infrastructure and high energy density cells limiting the overall electric mobility eco-system. Eventually the shorter range and high charging time of the vehicle is becoming the key challenge of e-mobility. Energy consumption by one of the key auxiliary systems e.g. air-conditioning (AC) system is adding further concerns over the range anxiety. It is the most energy consuming system among all others. Hence the need of the hour is to improve and enhance the AC system performance by means of redefining and optimizing the system layout in order to reduce power drawn by system. The present paper evaluates the improvement of cabin comfort and reduce the energy consumption of an electric car AC system by optimizing the layout and position of condenser and compressor. The experiments were carried out in an electric car which is a reverse trike means two wheels at the front and single wheel at the rear. In the existing AC system of the car, compressor and condenser were fitted at the rear of the vehicle. However, due to space constraints and less ambient airflow , the overall system performance was not upto the mark and consuming more energy. This also causes cabin discomfort. Hence the compressor and condenser were shifted to the front side of the vehicle. Experiments were carried out to figure out the energy consumption and cooling comfort with these configurations. During this adequate focus was given to the high voltage battery pack, located in the front to prevent it from thermal heat-up. From the study it showed that cooling comfort was improved drastically with a significant drop in cabin temperature by 5-6°C. The improvement in battery energy consumption was by enhanced by 10-15%.