Formula Student Electric

[blister]

What do you think about the new electric class at FSG from an engineers point of view?

http://www.formulastudent.de/electric/

[RollingCamel]

With rapid development of fast chargers and battery technology i think that it is the future.

Our team is planning a car for 2010 and an all electric one has crossed our minds before. I think we'll discuss it next meeting.

Thanks for the notification.

[JVC]

I think this is a great initiative, preparing students on one of the big challenges automotive industry currently faces. And it is certainly worth serious consideration to participate.

Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C8EVrYkgCs) you can also find an interview two of the three people involved in setting up FSE.

Cheerio,
Julien

[Chris_S]

http://www.playitback.org/player.aspx?f=184&c=227

The cars from Herts and Zurich proved that 1a can be just as quick as the Class 1 cars. Oxford brookes appeared to have brought along the car they used the previous year, so it really showed how much development Zurich and Herts had done.

[John Furtado]

Hey, what other teams are considering building a car for FSG-E this year? We are still trying to weigh the benefits, but I think it has some great potential. It might be nice if some of the teams this year can talk during the design phase and help eachother out, so the event can start off with some really competitive cars and not some EE-nerds science experiment on wheelshttp://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

John Furtado
2010 KTH Racing
2008 WWU PM
2007 WWU TD
2006 WWU Powertrain

[murpia]

Don't forget, an electric car would also be eligible for FSUK Class 1A:

http://www.formulastudent.com/...s/CLASS+1%28A%29.htm (http://www.formulastudent.com/events/CLASS+1%28A%29.htm)

Regards, Ian

[Thrainer]

As far as I know, Graz and Stuttgart have a new team each for FSE, Eindhoven and AMZ have switched. I'm not up to date on DUT's and Zwickau's plans (maybe two cars for each?).

There will be an official FSE Forum at the FSG website, but I wouldn't mind an FSE section here at this place.

Thomas
AMZ

[mumbles]

I wish there was a class for electrics in the US competitions. After having to deal with electric vehicles at work and then seeing the RMIT E-racer, I was on board with the idea. This FSAE Hybrid stuff is just silly. One or the other!

[Zac]

Didn't they try an electric formula competition in the US 10 or so years ago? I think it struggled to gain traction and only last a year or two.

[TimR]

Originally posted by Zac:
Didn't they try an electric formula competition in the US 10 or so years ago? I think it struggled to gain traction and only last a year or two.

Maybe because the Stonecutters hold back the Electric Car in the US http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Zac]

I don't know about that, I figure they'd be too busy keeping the martians under wraps.

[John Furtado]

Originally posted by Thrainer:
As far as I know, Graz and Stuttgart have a new team each for FSE, Eindhoven and AMZ have switched. I'm not up to date on DUT's and Zwickau's plans (maybe two cars for each?).


Thanks Thomas and glad to hear you guys are in! Anyone from the above teams care to comment?

[J. Vinella]

John what are you doing in Sweden?

[Bemo]

It is true that we'll take part. We set up a second team for FSE called Greenteam Uni Stuttgart. Same for TU Graz. Their new team already has a website online, but I don't remember the link. I think you can get there from the TUGracing website.
We'll be present at the FSG-Workshop on Saturday, so I hope to see a lot of you there.

[John Furtado]

Jack, good question, I ask myself that every day. I haven't seen a mountain or a good microbrew in months...anyway, enjoying the Swedish education system http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

Cant seem to find the Graz site. Sadly, none of us at KTH can make it to the workshop but I hope it goes well.

[John Furtado]

Found it, TU Graz Electric is: http://e-power.tugraz.at/

[Thrainer]

Here: http://e-power.tugraz.at

John, is your team developing an electric car as well?

[Bemo]

http://e-power.tugraz.at/

Here it is. As soon as our website is online I'll post it here.

[John Furtado]

A few of us at KTH Racing are going to design an electric powertrain and make a campaign for sponsorship. If we can find the resources needed we will go ahead with the project. Anyone have any suggestions on LiFePO4 suppliers that like to give away their batteries?

[AxelRipper]

well... this looks to be a more successful venture than the old formula lightning cars... 400v indy cars with an easy couple tons of lead acids down their sides that could be swapped out in a minute... the technology is much better now

[J. Vinella]

Originally posted by John Furtado:
I haven't seen a mountain or a good microbrew in months...

http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_frown.gif

Good to hear you are enjoying yourself. Best of luck with the project.

Regards,

[Thrainer]

As it looks to me, the FSE class in Hockenheim will be fully booked (one dozen entries) already in 2010. There were about 14 teams that are seriously thinking about building an electric FS car.
Thus, I'm expecting the number of FS UK class 1A entries to double, if FSE teams decide to follow the additional rules.

[BryanH]

John, have a look at lipo prices at hobbycity.com. I believe they have a DE warehouse so freight cost wouldn't be expensive. I use the Zippy 25c and their performance(current output & capacity)is better than all the "name" brands I've owned, and they were 4-5 times the price.

[John Furtado]

Originally posted by Thrainer:
As it looks to me, the FSE class in Hockenheim will be fully booked (one dozen entries) already in 2010. There were about 14 teams that are seriously thinking about building an electric FS car.

Thrainer, did the organizers specifically say they would cap registration at 12? I cant find anything in the rules about this but maybe it was said at the workshop. Thanks for all your help!

[Thrainer]

John, I don't remember where I read it, but it said 12 entry slots for electric cars. ... Ah, found it here: http://www.formulastudent.de/p...y-2010-are-on-track/ (http://www.formulastudent.de/public-relations/fsg-news/news-details/article/preparations-for-formula-student-germany-2010-are-on-track/)

However, at the workshop, the officials stated that every electric car will be allowed to compete, even if there are more than twelve.

Regards,
Thomas

[TMichaels]

Hey guys,
to correct something: The initial number of registration slots is 12. We will try to let every team compete with its electric car, but we are limited regarding time and space. Therefore additional teams will be at first set on the waiting list. Let's see what happens on registration day.

BTW: A new draft of the FSE Rules, v1.2, has been released last weekend: http://www.formulastudent.de/electric/rules/
There are still some changes and additions to come until 30th November.

Regards,

Tobias

[tagg0009]

Hi All,

I was just wondering if I could get some help with rough dimensions for the batteries thats would be used in a Formula SAE electric vehicle. I am doing my final year thesis on chassis design of a Formula SAE car and I am not sure about the size of the batteries that a car like this would use. I will need to take the size of the batteries into account when designing the chassis, but because my University hasn't competed in this competition before and I have limited knowledge in this area. Any help would be much appreciated!

[BeunMan]

If you look at the total power capacity of any fse car and take the capacity and size of a single cell you can, with the battery geometry (parallel/serial) do a rough calculation of the size of them. They are mostly either split into two or three banks.

note: these numbers are mostly public and on almost any site of any fs(a)e car.

yours,

Tristan

ps: Quite an old topic to dig up.

[Bemo]

I'd also advise you to do some research on the teams' websites. Most of them have numbers of the capacity and the cell types of their cars posted there.
One thing you have to consider is, that due to different concepts, the battery sizes vary in quite a large range.
If a team is using motors at the front wheels to recuperate brake energy, they will propably use much smaller batteries. And that is just one example.
Try to estimate what capacity your battery should have. As Tristan already said, if you know the capacity and the size of a cell, you have a start, don't forget to consider some space for fuses, relais, BMS...