Abstract
With the ever rising price of oil, driven by the gradual depletion of global oil deposits, along with the serious global warming issues caused by substantial CO2 emissions, energy saving and environmental protection awareness are expanding issues of global concern. The trend of green energy industry is prevailing in the industrial design and development of vehicles. Therefore, electric vehicles focusing on low energy consumption and zero pollutant emission have become the development direction of the future, recognized in succession by various global vehicle manufacturing giants. The design methods of the Powertrain System for electric vehicles vary depending on different structures and arrangement methods of the vehicle; there are also two different practices in regard to the Drive System design. On one hand, as the powertrain characteristics of a traction motor differ from those of an engine, in order to make an electric vehicle which possesses the same performance as a traditional vehicle, it is required to match the traction motor with the transmission. On the other hand, being an electric vehicle, the number of traditional vehicle components used should be reduced, while only using a traction motor equipped with a single ratio gearbox. This study conducted an analysis on the performance discrepancy between an electric vehicle with 5-speed transmission and that with a single ratio gearbox, and compared their strengths and weaknesses by observing their performance in overcoming road loads through simulation.