Browse Topic: Two or three wheeled vehicles
There's a well-known video from San Francisco in 1906 that comes up repeatedly in mobility discussions here in the 21st Century. If you haven't seen A Trip Down Market Street, it depicts the absolute bonkers variety of transportation methods used on Market Street back then: cable cars, horsecars, streetcars, pedestrians, automobiles and more. Past is prologue in a world that is adding scooters, delivery robots and other last-minute delivery vehicles to our streets. At the 2026 New York International Auto Show in April, Honda displayed its latest option in the form of the Fastport eQuad Prototype. The eQuad was originally unveiled at Eurobike 2025 and technically comes from Fastport, a micromobility venture from the Honda New Business Innovation Lab that was established to work on projects with global logistics companies. Jamie Davies, chief of operations for Fastport, called the group a kind of startup within Honda. “Three years ago,” Davies told SAE Media in New York, “a small group of Honda associates [came] together and [said], Okay, how can we create a new value for the company, a new business vertical? And so we've run the project in an agile way, working with customers all along the way to understand what their needs are, what the requirements are, and to bring to market something that fits.”
Electric vehicles present unique challenges in electromagnetic compatibility testing due to compact packaging, high-frequency switching systems. This paper presents a systematic debugging methodology for identifying radiated emission and radiated immunity issues in these EV platforms. A comprehensive approach is outlined, covering radiated emission measurement; Bulk Current Injection based immunity simulation, and near-field probing techniques. For RI evaluation, BCI testing in the 20 to 400 MHz range is used to simulate radiated threats on the vehicle's power and signal harnesses and handy transmitter near field injections for higher frequency simulation. For RE diagnosis, conducted emission measurements on vehicle harnesses are performed using current probes to capture high-frequency currents. Additionally, near-field electric probes are used at the component to identify dominant noise sources such as DC-DC converters, Motor control unit, and improperly grounded shielding. Case studies on various EV vehicles highlight common failure modes. This practical diagnostic workflow provides an efficient toolkit for EMC engineers to accelerate compliance readiness, reduce test iterations, and enhance vehicle-level EMC performance for electric vehicles.
Fuel cell technology is gaining prominence as a clean, efficient, and scalable power solution for electric mobility, addressing key limitations of conventional battery systems such as long charging times, limited range, and declining performance in high-utilization applications. Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) offer high energy density, rapid refueling, and robust operation under varying load conditions, making them particularly suitable for light electric vehicles such as two-wheelers, e-rickshaws & range extenders. Within the broader category of PEMFCs, air-cooled fuel cells present unique advantages for mobility applications. Their simplified architecture eliminates the need for complex liquid cooling systems, leading to lower system weight, reduced component count, and easier integration. This translates into a compact, lightweight, and cost-effective power unit—ideal for vehicles where space, weight, and maintenance constraints are critical. The market for air-cooled fuel cells is expanding globally, driven by demand for lightweight and portable mobility solutions. Specific application segments include electric two-wheelers (300–500 W), which are rapidly gaining ground in Asian markets; e-rickshaws (2–3 kW), a promising Indian market segment seeking alternatives to fossil fuel and lead-acid battery systems. Additionally, the system is well-suited for use as a range extender in electric mobility platforms, offering extended operational duration without compromising on vehicle packaging or efficiency. This work presents an indigenously developed air-cooled PEMFC system designed specifically for low power mobility applications. Indigenous Pt/C catalyst for fuel cell application which meets DoE durability target (30k AST cycles) has been developed. The stack comprises of an innovative flow field configuration for uniform reactant distribution, and advanced thermal management strategy that ensures efficient heat dissipation. The indigenously developed fuel cell stack tailored for Indian weather conditions (5°-45°C, 30-100% RH) achieves critical performance targets including high power density (400-500 W/L), small footprint & mass (600-700 W/kg) at par with leading commercial fuel cell solution providers. This development signifies a critical step toward self-reliant, sustainable, and high-performance power solutions for next-generation electric & green mobility in India and beyond
India's electric 2-wheeler (E2W) market has witnessed fast growth, driven by lucrative government policies. The two-wheeler segment dominates the Indian automotive market, accounting for the largest share of total sales. Consequently, the manufacturers of 2-wheelers are developing new electric vehicles (EV) tailored for the Indian market. However, the Indian EV market has witnessed multiple fire accidents in recent years, raising safety concerns among consumers and industry stakeholders. These incidents highlight key weakness in battery thermal management systems (BTMS), particularly during charging. Most existing E2W BTMS relies on passive (natural) air cooling, which has been associated with fire incidents due to its inefficiency in heat dissipation, particularly during charging in India's high-temperature environment. Therefore, it is imperative to build thermally viable and economical BTMS for the growing E2W vehicles with fast charging capability. FEV is actively developing the thermally efficient and cost-effective BTMS solutions tailored for Indian E2Ws operating in extreme climatic conditions. The present study evaluates a novel approach of integrating heat carrier plates into the E2W with 3.6 kWh battery pack, which is analyzed under natural and forced air cooling system. The airtight battery pack is located under the floorboard region. The multiple internal heat carrier plates models are developed and integrated with aligned and staggered cell arrangement to evaluate heat dissipation and temperature uniformity with the battery pack. The study further proposes a concept of duct and fan placement for the application during forced air cooling. The simulations are performed at a high ambient temperature of 45 °C, representing a worst-case scenario in India, using charging rates of 0.2 C for natural cooling and 0.35 C for forced cooling. The results show that the aligned cell model with 4-heat carrier plates achieve superior temperature distribution across cells, with a lower average module temperature of 49.6 °C, minimal temperature gradient of 1.3°C and reduced maximum cell temperature of 50 °C, under natural cooling. In forced air-cooling mode, the split air duct model provides better cooling over the battery cover surfaces with maximum temperature of 55 °C with ΔT of 4°C. The study also presents comprehensive details of modelling approaches and outlines the scope of further research for developing thermally efficient BTMS for E2Ws.
Single motorcycle accidents are common in Nagano Prefecture where is mountainous areas in Japan. In a previous study, analysis of traffic accident statistics data suggested that the fatality and serious injury rates for uphill right curves and downhill left curves are high, however the true causes of these accidents remain unclear. In this study, a motorcycle simulator was used to evaluate the driving characteristics due to these road alignments. Evaluation courses based on combinations of uphill/downhill slopes and left/right curves were created, and experiments were conducted. The subjects of the study were expert riders and novice riders. The results showed that right curves are even more difficult to see near the entrance of the curve when accompanied by an uphill slope, making it easier to delay recognition and judgment of the curve. Expert riders recognized curves faster than novice riders. Additionally, expert riders take a large lean of the vehicle body, actively attempted to ride on the inside corner, while that of novice riders was less. On the other hand, for downhill left curves, there was a tendency for delayed judgment of sharp curves, and riders were more likely to increase their speed. Also, the expert riders recognized curve curvature earlier and had a greater lean angle of the vehicle body than the novice riders, but there was no significant difference. From these results, the road alignment combination of uphill/downhill slopes and left/right curve has a significant impact on the risk of motorcycle accidents.
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