Development of an Electromechanical Model for a Corbin Sparrow Electric Vehicle

A method for modeling a Corbin Sparrow, a small electric vehicle (EV), is presented in this paper. The model is divided into two parts: (1) the mechanical dynamics model - the physics-based model that estimates how much power is necessary to accelerate the vehicle's mass and overcome various sources of friction; and (2) the electromechanical drive train model - the model of the motor and power electronics drive that estimates how much power must be drawn from the battery to develop the mechanical power at the motor shaft. This model improves on prior EV modeling by: 1) demonstrating how parameters can be measured from real-world driving data; 2) incorporating elevation data estimated with GPS and an electronic topographic map; and 3) using the model to estimate the vehicle energy consumption as a function of speed and rate of acceleration. More information about the performance of this model using actual drive data is presented in a separate paper.