Technical - Economic Analysis for the Conversion of Conventional IC Scooter into Electric Hybrid Scooter
Author(s):
Surya Prasad Adhikari†,*, Sujata Basyal‡, Ashmita Karki‡, Bashant Bist‡, BikramPhewdin‡
Affiliation(s):
† Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Pulchowk Campus, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal
‡ Department of Automobile and Mechanical Engineering, Thapthali Campus, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal
Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The battery-powered two-wheelers are environmentally friendly but cannot compete with gasoline-powered vehicles due to slight drawbacks.Therefore, this project aims to fabricate a scooter from a used IC scooter that combines up the advantages of both electric and IC scooters. IC scooter was converted into the hybrid scooter by integrating Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) hub motor in the front wheel of the IC scooter. The main propulsion units consist of a four-stroke internal combustion engine and a hub motor attached to the front wheel of the scooter.The scooter has two modes namely engine mode and hybrid mode. In hybrid mode, the scooter was operated by the battery at a speed slower than 30 km/h and toggles the drive control to the engine mode at a speed higher than 30 km/h. During engine mode, the scooter was propelled by the engine only. Considering the economical range of the engine speed, 30 km/h was taken as a threshold value to switch the propulsion system from the battery to fuel power in battery modeto achieve better fuel economy and reduce harmful pollutants. The technical and economic analysis showed that the converted model could provide better performance and cost-effective service than a conventional IC scooter.