Design of hybrid electric bike with self-charging

Manoj G1, Mohan Raj D2, Natraj NM3

1,2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology
Bengaluru-562157
3
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology,
Bengaluru-562157
1
manojgowda2805@gmail.com , 2 mohanrajd27798@gmail.com, 3 natrajnm@gmail.com

Abstract
The concern over the environment with respect to pollution, conservation of fuel resources in the world, the
automotive industry has entered into a new dimension in production of more fuel efficient, low emission vehicle
with new technologies .On of the greatest innovations is Hybrid electric vehicle. The Hybrid electric vehicle
consists of two or more energy sources for total propulsion of vehicle. The plug-in electric vehicles are already in
use. In India there is no availability of electricity throughout the country for all 24 hours of a day. The present
hybrid two wheelers need plug-ins to charge the battery, due to electricity issue in our country this is not suitable to
use. In this paper we are proposing a modification to overcome the problem by having a self-charging in a vehicle.
There are 4 wheelers with this technology available in market but there are no hybrid bikes with self-charging
available in the market. We are proposing a modified self-charging hybrid electric bike where the bike generates
power while running on gasoline engine, which is stored in a battery and used in an electric mode, which is very
much useful for people of India.
Keywords: Self-charging, hub motor, DC to DC converter, thermoelectric generator.

Objective society by satisfying many of its needs for mobility in

Our objective is to make two wheeler hybrid vehicles
which will run by both gasoline and battery. The main
objective is to increase the mileage and reduce the
emission of pollutants. We are proposing a geared
hybrid bike with self-charging of batteries. In our bike
the battery alone provides power for low-speed driving
conditions. Whenever high speed is required, during
long highways or hill climbing, gasoline engine drives
the vehicle solely with generation of power from the
hub motor for charging batteries.
everyday life [3].
However, the large number of automobiles in use
around the world has caused and continues to cause
serious problems for the environment and human life.
Air pollution, global warming, and rapid depletion of
the Earth’s petroleum resources are now problems of
paramount concern. In recent decades, the research and
development activities related to transportation have
emphasized the development of high efficiency, clean
and safe transportation [2].

Introduction In order to meet the requirements of society and to

overcome the scarcity of petroleum fuels, the
The development of internal combustion engine
automotive industries come up with the many
vehicles, especially automobiles, is one of the greatest
alternatives such as hydrogen propelled vehicles,
achievements of modern technology. Automobiles
biodiesel, biofuels, and alcohol based engines.
have made great contributions to the growth of modern
Electric vehicles, Hybrid electric vehicles, Solar hybrid
vehicles and Fuel cell vehicles have been typically
proposed to replace conventional vehicles in the near
future. In this paper we are going to focus on Hybrid
electric bike with self-charging.

Concept of hybrid bike

A Hybrid bike is a vehicle with multiple distinct
energy sources which could be separately or
simultaneously operated to propel the vehicle. The
Hybrid electric vehicles, integrating two well
established technologies of electric motor and IC
Engine [1]
The most commonly adapted hybrid vehicle which Classification of Hybrid electric vehicles
combines propulsion sources of an electric motor and
an IC engine. The power supply to electric motor Hybrid electrical vehicles are mainly classified into
comes from onboard batteries. In a Hybrid electric four kinds [2].
bike, the IC Engine cooperates with an electric motor
1. Series hybrid
which leads to a more optional use of engine. Driving
in city traffic involves frequent starts and stops of the 2. Parallel hybrid
3. Series- parallel hybrid
vehicle.
4. Complex hybrid
During idling, the engine consumes more fuel without
producing useful work thus contributing to higher fuel
consumption less efficiency and unnecessary emission
from exhaust. The HEV solves the problem by
switching to power transmission through the motor and
shutting off the engine. This way no fuel will be
consumed during idling with no exhaust emission.
Another advantage of HEV is that when fuel tank gets
empty while driving the engine, the vehicle can be
driven on electric power within its maximum range.
HEV are the vehicles with more than two energy
sources are present. The major challenges for HEV
design are managing multiple energy source, highly
dependent on driving cycles, battery sizing and battery
management.

HEVs take the advantages of electric drive to

compensate the inherent weakness of ICE, namely
avoiding the idling for increasing the fuel efficiency
and reduce emission during starting and speeding
operation [4].

Components

BLDC hub motor

In order to make operations more efficient, more

reliable and less noisy, the recent trend is to use
brushless dc motor. They are also lighter compared to
brushed motors with the same power output. The
brushes in conventional DC motor wear out over a
period of time and may cause sparking. Thus a brushed
DC motor cannot be used for operations demanding
long life and reliability.
position (this is determined by sensing the back EMF
voltage from the non-energized stator coil due to
passing of rotor permanent magnet), direction of
rotation and energy optimization.

The rotor of BLDC is a permanent magnet and the

stator has a wound coil arrangement with stacked
laminated steel plate. In a typical out runner design the
hollow cylindrical rotor spins around a fixed stator
axle. There is a radial air gap between the stator and
the rotor. Pulse width modulated current is used to
supply current to the stator.

The reason for choosing the hub motor is that it does

not require any transmission system thus reducing
transmission loses due to friction. The back EMF
generated by this motor can be easily stored in the
battery. It has great traction control. The BLDC hub
motor has longer life as there are no brushes to wear
out when compared with crushed DC motor.
Lithium ion Battery

Lithium-ion batteries are incredibly popular these days

because of high energy efficiency, very less or no self-
discharging, and relatively long cycle life. These
batteries can deliver high power output as they can
store high power per unit of battery per unit mass of
battery, allowing them to be lighter and smaller than
other kind of batteries. We can use four 12V 26Ah
capacity battery in series connection to use it as 48V
26Ah battery to power 48V 1000W hub motor.

Rectifier

A rectifier is an electrical circuit which converts

pulsating alternating current (AC) to one directional
direct current (DC). The process is called rectification.
We use a 6 diode bridge rectifier to convert three phase
AC output from the hub motor to DC output to store it
in the battery.

Electronic speed control (ESC)

The electronic control is used to power the BLDC hub

motor from battery. The main function is to provide
the supply to the stator windings by sensing the rotor
DC to DC convertors / regulators In engine mode the bike runs normally along with
recharging the batteries by hub motor.
These are the electrical circuits used to step up the
varying DC voltage to constant DC voltage. As we all 2 Electric mode
know that we cannot charge a battery from lower
potential to higher potential there is a need of the DC Speed Battery powers the
to DC convertor for efficient charging and battery life. controller motor to drive the bike

Working

In our hybrid bike we have two sources of propulsion

one is hub motor and other is IC Engines .We have not
made any modifications to the engine. The front wheel
of the bike is powered with the hub motor and back
wheel is as usually powered by IC Engine.

The hub motor is powered by a lithium ion battery of

48v 26Ah.This battery is charged by plug in charger
and also charged when the engine is running.

The bike is propelled by hub motor only when the

speed required is less than 40kmph, when the high
speed is required we can switch over to the normal
engine mode, while the battery gets recharged by the
hub motor which acts as generator.
Engine wont
Driving modes operates
1 Engine mode

In electric mode there is no need of any transmission

system, it operates on electronic speed controller by
Hub motor working
which we can vary the speed. It is like a front wheel
as generator
drive.

Advantages

 These bikes produce less pollutant per distance

Recharging of battery
by rectifying the 3
phase AC to DC
when compared to others.
 There is no compromise with the speed of the
vehicle as that as in electrical vehicles.
 It has extended millage range and the cost per
km drive is comparatively less than gasoline
bike.
 There is no limit of range as in electrical
vehicles.
 The overall efficiency of the bike is increased
considerably
 Less wear on engine components.
Engine to rear  Easy maintenance.
wheel through
transmission
Result

Comparison between electric vehicle, gasoline vehicle 3 Kishore .H & Sanket S. “Design and fabrication of two wheeler
and proposed model. hybrid vehicle”, ISSN :2319-7064.

4 “Design and Development of Hybrid Electric Two Wheeler

S Gasolin suitable for Indian Road conditions “,SHARADA PRASAD N,
Characteristic Electric Proposed Asst.Prof, Jain University, Research Scholar,RNSIT,Bangalore, K
L e
s vehicle model R NATARAJ Prof. & Head, Department of Electronics and
no vehicle
Communication Engineering, SJBIT, Bangalore.
1 Speed Low High High
2 Range 50km 60km 130km
Plug in
3 Yes No Yes
recharge
4 Gasoline No Yes Yes
Range
5 No - Yes
extender
Very less
pollutant Moderat
6 Pollutants high
s e
produced

Future enhancement

 Automatic switching of driving mode.

 The system can be made more compact and
reduce the weight.
 The efficiency can be improved.
 Introducing thermoelectric power generation.
 Using solar panel to charge the battery.

Conclusion

With the need to control the pollution of the

environment by the combustion of fossil fuels, this is
the technology that can be adapted to the future bikes
and also to the present running bikes by which we can
reduce the pollution of the environment. This kind of
vehicle is with electric mode and hybrid mode of
working can be used for both the short rides and long
rides. With the electric mode it can be used for short
rides like college students, office goers, delivery
persons etc, with sudden change in plans of daily
routine we can switch to hybrid mode and drive the
vehicle.

References

1 Prof A.BOUSCAYROL, Dr.R.TRIGUI “ Generalities on

Electric vehicles (EV’s) & Hybrid Electric Vehicles
(HEV’s)”MEGEVH Network

2 Mehrdad Ehsani, Yimin Gao, Sesbastien E.Gay & Ali Emadi

“Modern Electric, Hybrid Electric, and Fuel Cell Vehicles, CRS
Press , Newyork.