Designing a plug-and-go solution to expand the electric vehicle market

Abstract: The transport sector stands for almost a quarter of the carbon emissions released into the atmosphereand is a sector where a lot of work remains to be done to mitigate climate change. To make a changequickly, the vehicles currently traveling the roads will need to be converted from internal combustionengine (ICE) driven vehicle to battery electric vehicles (BEV). The reduction in the use of fossil fuelswill then have an immediately effect, which production of a new BEV does not, as otherwise the oldICE still stays on the road up until taken out of service. With a growth of economy in developingcountries, such as Kenya, comes an expansion of the transport sector. It is very important to limit thenegative environmental effect this may cause. One way to do this is to introduce electric vehicles.Therefore, a field study was held in order to recognise the different demands put on a vehicle in theKenyan national parks, a Toyota Land Cruiser in use of the safari business. From this, a drive draindesign was established. To have a broader span of applicability, it was made with the thought offlexibility to expand production to other models and set a standard to work in the future. To achievethis flexibility, the drive train components were divided into different compartments. Thesecompartments should fit together, forming the entire drive train. When converting different vehicles,different types of compartments can be fitted together to answer its specific needs. Thesecompartments allow for a more modular product and can be easily adaptable when need be. The hopeis that this way of installation can offer services to a wide range of vehicle models without having tomake specific designs for every single one. With a growing number of electric vehicles on the roads,coupled with the high capacity of renewable energy sources found in Kenya, it has the potential tomore become more self-reliant.