Solar/Battery Electric Auto Rickshaw Three-Wheeler

Auto rickshaws are three-wheeled vehicles used extensively in many Asian countries as taxis of people and goods. Although the vehicle design is well-suited to the environment in which it operates, it is a crude, inefficient design. Due to poor vehicle maintenance and the use of inefficient 2 or 4 stroke engines with very little pollution control, auto rickshaws present a huge pollution problem in major Indian cities. Illinois Institute of Technology's (IIT) rickshaw project is aimed at developing an advanced solar-based electric auto rickshaw. This paper presents research on the conventional auto rickshaw, future conceptual infrastructure designs for electric rickshaws, and the recent design research and simulations of the next auto rickshaw. IIT's solar/battery electric three-wheeler is meant to match and exceed the conventional vehicle's performance, but with a more intelligent and efficient design. We introduce the next overall design of the rickshaw in this paper as the Auto Rickshaw 2.0, where the conventional vehicle is version 1.0. IIT's technical development aim for Auto Rickshaw 2.0 is to decrease the total electric power needed for propulsion with an optimized battery system and a more efficient motor. Four system drive train options are covered, and the selected configuration is simulated and analyzed in ADVISOR software. Additionally, conceptual infrastructure designs are modeled and optimized in HOMER software.