IT sparks a revolution in electric vehicles

The Indian-made electric car ''Reva'' has hit the road in Bangalore. Anand Parthasarathy reports on the part played by high-tech computer design

IT'S A chunky looking 2-door hatchback that can comfortably seat 2 adults and 2 kids. It has a maximum speed of 65 km/hour and can go 80 km without a recharge. It has no clutch or gear and runs off a battery power pack. The running cost is claimed to be 40 paise per kilometre and the first dozen units that hit the road in Bangalore last month cost their owners Rs 2.5 lakhs apiece - about the same as a petrol -driven Maruti 800. Say hello to the Reva, 'India's first eco friendly, electric car.

In the strict sense this is not the first electric car to be made in India. Mahindra and Mahindra launched a battery operated three wheeler ``Bijlee'' in Delhi two years ago. And even earlier, in 1994, the Chalakudi, Kerala-based Eddy Current Controls (India) Ltd, put on road its own pioneering chopper controller, DC motor- driven electric passenger car the ``Lovebird''.

The public sector Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) and the Central Electronic Engineering Research Institute (CEERI) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai, have also developed all-electric vehicles .

Unfortunately, the national policy on non conventional energy alternatives notwithstanding, commercial Electric Vehicle ( EV) initiatives in India have received little governmental support - and most such initiatives have failed to take off because of two reasons: one: they cannot compete price-wise with the well entrenched petrol and diesel technology and two: battery technology is as yet inadequate to provide the complete solution, endurance and speed-wise, for an all- electric passenger vehicle. As a result such EV initiatives, have been limited to applications like golf carts or airport and factory floor service vehicles.

But the Reva will hopefully be the exception to this dim scenario. For one thing the climate for EVs is changing for the better - and as the ongoing controversy in Delhi over the use of CNG (compressed natural gas) for public vehicles shows - there is now a sense of desperate haste to find ecofriendly alternatives to conventional motor vehicles. Another reason why Reva has a fighting chance is the way it has been put together: professionally designed, harnessing state-of-the-art computer tools and incorporating some of the best of contemporary energy management tools.

For this alone the Reva has the makings of an interesting case study of how Information Technology can be harnessed at every stage of a product, from concept to design to development, testing and validation

Automating the design process

Mr Chetan Maini, Managing Director of the Reva Electric Car Company, explains: ``We were using a variety of engineering tools which were not always compatible.

sWe decided to go in for a single designing system. The feature that we were looking for was being able to access all the data in real time on any computer in our system and more importantly to be able to change the design at any point in the design cycle.

For example if a change became necessary at the tooling stage, we wanted something that would automatically update all other drawings. We also wanted fairly good surface qualities in our 3-D design modules''.

Reva's search led them to ``Pro/Engineer'' a 3-D product development solution from Parametric Technology (India) Pvt Ltd, Indian end of the US-based company that is a market leader in high end Computer- aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) tools. Complementing Pro/Engineer is Parametric's solution for collaborative product commerce, ``Windchill'', which enables dozens of engineers to use the Internet to bring together designers, parts suppliers, customers and manufacturers into a single environment.

According to Mr Bhupesh Lall,Country Manager of PTC India, the Reva car design was achieved across 10 SGI work stations equipped with Pro/E. A complete model of the car was created in 3D and the structural and motion analysis was done using Pro/Mechanica.

The design team thus analyzed critical components like the chasis and the suspension and ironed out all foreseeable mechanical problems before the actual prototyping began. (since the Reva car project began, Pro/E has been harnessed to design a Formula 1 car for Ferrari and the new Airbus double decker A3xxx passenger aircraft).

Under-the-hood IT

On the road, the Reva car continues to harness state of art IT tools. A strategic collaboration between the Bangalore-based Maini group and the California-based AEVT group which specialises in aerospace technologies for the automotive industry, has ensured that the Reva has its heart, an Intelligent Energy Management System (EMS) that interfaces with all on-board electronics and optimises the battery charging process.

The State of Charge (SOC) estimation routine utilizes real time modeling to detect changes in battery parameters, thus protecting the weakest battery from over charging and over discharge.

The computer-controlled charger incorporates a stabilizer and auto shut off mechanisms which allow the vehicle to be charged from any domestic 15 amp, 220 volts AC outlet.

The prime mover (equivalent of the engine in a conventional car) is a high torque motor which is controlled by a Curtis computerized motor controller. Its microprocessor-based logic controls the speed in forward, reverse and economy modes as well as the regenerative breaking system (this means the braking action recharges the batteries).

An advanced vehicle diagnostics system provides dashboard audio and visual warnings and enables trouble shooting by service engineers with the help of a Portable Electronic Tools (PET) - a hand held or a notebook computer. Energy efficient are already being perceived as the only option for a world whose conventional resources are under tremendous pressure.

Today the world's leading manufacturers - Ford, Chrysler, General Motors, Nissan and Toyota - offer electric cars at least for niche markets.

If and when the Indian government also decides to nudge the indigenous automotive industry towards environment-friendly options, EV systems like Reva, may have a critical technological edge. It's a rEVolution that has just begun.

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