Modeling a Battery-Electric Three-Wheeled Car Concept

This paper describes a multi-degree-of-freedom model of a three-wheeled car,implemented in Matlab®. The purpose was to investigate the dynamics of the car(assumed to be rigid on its suspension) during cornering. While the problemsassociated with three-wheeled cars are well-known, much of the guidance in theliterature and off-the-software assumes a conventional four-wheeled car.Consequently, the authors were approached with a battery-electric concept car whichwas thought to offer better performance than existing variants, because the use of hubmotors lowered the centre of gravity and hence reduced rollover coefficient. However,simulation of the vehicle model in cornering shows that the concept is still prone toinstability. Indeed, it suffers greater roll velocities than a comparable three-wheeled carwith internal combustion engine, because the ratio of sprung to unsprung mass issignificantly altered. This paper therefore recommends a programme of furthersimulations and model-based design changes to progress the concept to a marketableperformance product.