ELECTRIC CAR

摘要

A drive system (11) for an electric car has four wheels (12, 13, 14, 15) to each of which is connected an electric motor (18). The electric motors (18) are connected to a power supply (25) and are controlled by a supervisory control unit (20) and separate motor control units (19) for each motor (18). Control of the torques delivered by the motors (18) is dependent upon instructions received from the driver of the car through the accelerator pedal (21), brake pedal (22) and steering wheel (23) and upon the temperatures of the motors (18) detected by the sensors (24) located on each motor (18). In this manner, the torques drawn from the motors may be maximised without damaging the motors thus improving the electric car's performance and permitting the use of smaller motors than those previously used thereby reducing the total weight of the car.