T E C H N O L O G Y F O R T H E E N V I R O N M E N T

A Clean Ride: Electric Vehicles i n Hong Kong and Singapore It has been over one hundred and sixty years since Thomas

Davenport developed the first battery powered vehicle, yet elec­

tric vehicles are far from commonplace on our roads. Now

research in Singapore and Hong Kong is helping the make these

enx^ironmentally friendly modes of transport more practical.

by A n d r e w H a n i b e l z

P roponents of electric vehicle tech­

nologies have long placed big hopes

on the development of electric

vehicle (EV) prototypes f rom the mature

automobile industries of Japan and the

United States. Of the two, Japan, w i t h its

excessive reliance on petroleum imports,

has "been regarded as the country w i t h the

most urgent incent ive to aggressively

pursue EV init iatives. Tradi t ional deter­

rents, those of range and speed, are also

less of a problem i n Japanese cities, where

typica l distances between destinations

and average dr iving speeds rarely exceed

EV limitations. The same arguments apply

to the development and testing of EV

prototypes i n Singapore and Hong Kong.

EVs in Singapore

yrently, there are 15 electric vehicles

on Singapore's roads, for

research and t e s t i ng

purposes. According to

the Land Transport A u ­

tho r i t y (LTA) . any ve­

hicles that can meet its

technical , construct ion

and safety requirements

f o r r e g i s t r a t i o n , a nd

wh i ch pay the necessary

taxes, are allowed. Lead­

ing the charge for viable

E V d e p l o y m e n t i n

Singapore is the Centre

f o r E l e c t r i c Veh i c l e s

formed i n June 1996 by

the S ingapore P o l y ­

technic's Electrical En­

gineering Department.

The Centre has two

areas of focus, namely,

conversions and R&D.

Regarding conversions, Professor Phi l ip

Chin, Head of the Polytechnic's Electrical

Engineering Department, claims progress

has been rapid, beginning w i t h the suc­

cessful conversion of a ten-year-old Mazda

929 i n early March 1997. Following which,

i n May 1997, the Centre successfully

obtained a license plate f r om the Land

Transport Au tho r i t y for the first manu­

factured EV i n Singapore.

Later that same year, i n September,

the Centre successfully converted a 19-

seater diesel engine bus, called the E-Bus.

The project was under taken w i t h the

collaborative assistance of local bus fleet

operator, Trans Island Bus Services, and

a local EV company, Green Fue l Re­

sources.

Retrofi t t ing the bus w i t h an electric

battery system took a ten-person team a

mere four weeks. The engine and exhaust

Singapore's E-Bus with the battery components on display.

system were replaced w i t h a liquid-cooled

induc t ion motor-drive system imported

from Europe and the batteries, wh i ch were

modif ied before they were installed, came

f rom Germany. The Polytechnic is cur­

rent ly wo rk i ng on deve loping its o w n

version of the motor-drive system and on

improv ing the battery technology.

It also aims to improve the insulation

system and the materials fo r the battery

casing, and to change the instrumenta­

t ion so that the bus can be operated w i t h

simple push but ton actions.

Long-distance E-Bus

The bus can travel up to 200km on a single

charge, claims Chin, wh i ch is roughly the

distance a bus travels i n Singapore every­

day. This is almost four times the possible

distance of electric buses wo r l dw ide , he

added, c i t ing tests i n the Un i t ed States,

Europe and Bri tain wh i ch had registered

distances of 60 to 80km.

The bus uses about 420 volts of ZOXY

zinc-air batteries 一 from 408 cells 一 and

204 volts of Booster Advanced Lead A c i d

Batteries ― from 51 batteries. Road trials,

s t i l l underway, promise to improve the

range of the E-Bus to up to 300km per

charge.

"Each time the brakes are applied, the

batteries are recharged. For the same

weight , the energy density of Z i n c -A i r

Batteries is at least f ive times that of the

Advanced Lead Ac i d batteries, that is the

reason w h y the E-Bus can travel much

longer distances when compared to other

electric buses using conventional batter­

ies," explains Chin.

A th i rd of the power generated by the

batteries is used for the air-condit ioning

system. A safety feature m u c h i ike the

home circuit breaker cuts off

the power supply i f any fault

is detected. Further projects

to be unde r t aken by the

Centre this year include the

conversion of two vehicles

for Power Gr id , a London

Taxi , and a 45-seater diesel

bus.

To achieve these conver­

sions, the department has

two conversion teams, one

for buses and the other for

all other vehicle classes such

as cars, taxis, vans, and golf

carts. A total of 12 facul ty

members are invo lved .

W i t h regards to research

and development, 12 faculty

members, all of w h o m are

PhDs， are i n v o l v e d . The

areas of appl ied R&D are:

A S I A ENGINEER, APRIL 1 9 9 8 1 3

T E C H N O L O G Y F O R T H E E N V I R O N M E N T

Prototype Motor , con­

troller and drive train, A d ­

vanced Direct Wheel Drive,

Battery Management Sys­

tem, Energy Management

System, EV s imula t ions ,

D ig i t a l I n s t rumen ta t i on ,

Bat tery chargers, E M C /

E M I . The Centre has also

authored a mult imedia CD-

ROM, t i t l e d "EV-Story ,"

wh i ch traces the history of

EVs to their present status.

EVs in Hong Kong

Both of the SAR's f r an -

chised suppliers of elec­

tric power, China Light and

Power and Hongkong Elec­

tric, have been runn ing a

test fleet of over 20 EVs for

over a decade and the Hong

Kong government encour­

ages the in t roduc t ion of EVs by way of

tax incentives.

Hong Kong's o w n l u m i n a r y i n the

f ie ld of EV research and development is

Professor Chan Ching-chuen, Endowed

Honda Professor and Head o f t he Depaxt­

ment of Electrical and Electronic Engi­

neering at the Univers i ty of Hong Kong.

The "U2001," an electric vehicle with advanced motor drive, intelligent energy

management system and navigation system, developed by the University of

Hong Kong in collaboration with industry.

Chan, founder of the Internat ional Re­

search Centre for Electric Vehicles and

co-founder of the Wor ld Electric Vehicle

Association, is known as one of the three

wisemen of the international EV commu­

ni ty .

The Centre, founded i n 1986, has been

involved i n the development of a number

of EV prototypes. These

include an EV van, an EV

car, three off - road m i n i

EVs and f ou r EV bikes.

The EV car even possesses

a va l id registration ― ap­

p rop r i a t e l y denoted as

H K U - E V l . Chan sees a

bright fu tu re for electric

cars i n A s i a , as m a n y

countries l i k e India , I n ­

donesia and China are as

yet not completely depen­

dant on cars running fos­

sil fuels. "These countries

do not have an expensive

gasoline based infrastruc­

ture to replace, as do the

Americans and Europe­

ans," contends Chan. "As

such, they are i n a better

position to adopt the I*

eco-fr iendly EV alterna­

tives that are now gaining

credibi l i ty ."

About the Author

Andrew Hanibelz is director of Esanam

Research Correspondents, a company

specializing i n ad hoc research.

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