Abstract
With worldwide growing demand for the conventional fossil fuels in developing countries and thereon the exponential increase in the vehicle population has led to many problems. Among these the impact of fossil fuels on environment is considered to be the prime and all stake holders including the researchers, policymakers and industry are concerned for the fossil fuel emissions primarily from the transportation sector. An emerging market for transportation sector, India recently has initiated its focus on alternative energy resources, clean fuels and with the view of clean fuel option there is steep rise in electricvehicle or battery operated vehicles in two-three wheeler segment (fast growing sector). Due to the increasing number of battery operated three –wheelers (e-rickshaws) in India the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways vide their notification G.S.R. 709 (E) has notified e-rickshaw and e-cart as separate categories of transport vehicle. The utilization and the licensing guidelines are already being notified by Government of India and the testing / endurance / performance evaluation part is still under progress with accredited laboratories in India. The various components and the battery (the prime mover of the - rickshaw) are separately being tested and approved in testing government approved testing agencies (ARAI / ICAT / CIRT). In the present study we have focused on the performance evaluation of e-rickshaw on the controlled conditions i.e., chassis dynamometer based testing. The paper describes the steps which are taken in consideration for formulating the chassis dynamometer based testing protocol adopted for e-rickshaw (12V 100AH / 1.5 KW). The steps involved the determination of road load coefficients (RLCs) for the e-rickshaw to operate on 37 KW chassis dynamometer. The study also focuses on the formulation of testing protocol by preparation of duty cycle suitable for the operation of e-rickshaws and thereon the performance evaluation. The test protocol is referred from the automotive industry standards (AIS) which are available for the electric vehicles performance evaluation. The tests were then conducted on the duty cycle prepared for the e-rickshaw to evaluate their performance in terms of battery utilization.