Retrofitting of Conventional Two-wheelers to Electric Two-Wheelers
Nirmal A Kumar, M Navaneeth, Allan Sabu Joseph
Abstract
The paper's principal objective is to retrofit a typical Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) two-wheeler to a pure Electric bike. One of the pre-eminent causes of air pollution is the tailpipe effusions in ICE. Instead of discarding the existing ICE, transforming them to Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) will mitigate the initial cost and EVs' carbon footprint. Here, Bajaj Pulsar 220 was retrofitted with a 2KW BLDC motor & 72V / 60Ah Li-ion battery. Design alteration was executed to accommodate the new electric drivetrain without affecting the bike's structural stability. This paper shows the procedure involved in retrofitting a motorcycle. A regional drive cycle is introduced to understand the road conditions of India. Besides, reverse engineering-based powertrain modelling was used to analyze the power requirements for various drive cycles. The benefits of converting an ICE-based bike to an electric bike is also discussed towards the end.