Test and Evaluation of 23 Electric Vehicles for State-of-the-Art Assessment

The Electric and Hybrid Research, Development and Demonstration Act of 1976 required ERDA to develop data to determine the state-of-the-art of electric and hybrid vehicles. NASA, in response to ERDA's request, tested 18 electric vehicles. The U.S. Army's MERADCOM tested four electric vehicles and the Canadian Government tested one. Eleven of the electric vehicles were passenger cars and 12 were commercial vans. Tests were conducted in accordance with an ERDA test procedure which is based on the SAE J227a Test Procedure. Tests included range, acceleration, coast-down, and braking. The paper presents the results of the tests and comments on reliability.