Energy Consumption of Electric Vehicle System Under Various Speed and Voltage Levels

The battery voltage used in electric cars is usually the same as the motor and its controller voltage specifications even though the most existing available battery from the market is 12 Volt, especially in developing countries. This paper shows the energy consumption of a 48 Volt brushless motor system on various speed and voltage levels. The experiments were carried out under three different rpm speed. Various voltages were obtained from battery configurations using 12 Volt of sealed lead acid batteries. The voltage values in the experiments are 12, 24, 36 and 48 Volt. Step up (boost) DC-DC converter is used after the battery to create a constant voltage on the input side of the motor controller. The voltage performances to the motor are remain the same for all battery voltage levels because it has the same voltage input from motor controller. Energy is measured by energy meter and the results show that higher voltage require more energy at low speed and lower voltage requires more energy at medium and full speed.