Ricardo develops range-extended electric vehicle

So far, most EV products and research demonstrators have focused on urban ’city’ car segment applications.

For larger C-D segment vehicles, issues of cost, range anxiety and real-world duty cycles requiring, for example, intermittently fast operation with frequent stopping present some potentially significant and fundamental challenges.

Through its work with the LCVTP, Ricardo aims to develop technologies offering solutions to the challenges of EV applications across all vehicle segments.

Ricardo will lead in the development of a technology demonstration platform based on a Freelander 2 SUV that has been loaned to the LCVTP team by project participant Jaguar Land Rover.

The EV technology demonstration platform will be developed through three key stages of work within the LCVTP.

The first will see the vehicle converted from its respective conventional power train into a simple battery EV (BEV) incorporating efficiency-optimised control strategies within the framework of a simple architecture based on a conventional 3kW recharging rate.

This basic BEV implementation is planned for completion in spring 2011.