Design and performance improvements of solar based efficient hybrid electric vehicle

Hybrid energy in electric vehicles has been globally accepted as the fossil fuels will be exhausted by the middle or end of 21st century. The hybrid vehicles have emerged as a major source of clean and renewable energy to support the never-ending demand of vehicles. The main idea of the paper is the use of hybrid energy in working of e-rickshaw, which has become the most favorite area of research in automobile industry, recently. The proposed model is powered by lead-acid battery and this battery is charged by either using electric plug or solar panel. In the present study, hardware model has been analyzed e-rickshaw in terms of different parameters like mileage, charging and discharging time of battery, charging current, discharging current from the performance as well as security point of view. The hardware model has been developed with Photovoltaic (PV) module, capacitor bank, and Arduino circuit. Here, a modified e-rickshaw has been developed which has improved vehicle performance as compared to existing conventional e-rickshaw. The mileage has improved from 80 to 120.61 km and starting current has been reduced from 57 to 41 A on full load conditions. This has enhanced the battery life and Arduino circuit was implemented to enhance security features. The proposed model of e-rickshaw has improved vehicle performance as compared to existing conventional e-rickshaw in terms of mileage, starting current, battery life, and security feature of the vehicle.