Engineering Research Practice: Electric Vehicle Analysis, ENG 5004

This assignment explores the background and importance of electric vehicle (EV) research, focusing on battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVS) as a solution to reduce carbon emissions. The research question investigates if electric vehicles are the future and how they address global carbon emission problems. The student narrows the research scope to BEVS due to time and cost constraints, acknowledging the challenges of lithium-ion batteries, including explosion risks and recycling difficulties. The research approach involves investigating existing literature, battery design, and the potential for hazardous components, with a focus on testing lithium-ion batteries to identify safety improvements. The student aims to provide clear evidence on battery design and toxicity to enhance the safety of electric vehicles.

Engineering Research Practice
2018
Assignment 1
Name: Peter Edward
ID: ENG 5004
Student No: 11021254

1. Describe the general background/context and importance of the research question
(Some background information that familiarises the reader with your research question
and helps him/her to understand the importance of your topic).
Governments all around the world at this present time are focusing on how to eliminate
environmental impacts by fuel consumption and carbon emissions of air pollution, green
house gases that are caused by gasoline automobiles globally.
The latest technology to the automobile efficiency is the battery-operated electric car
also known as electric vehicle or (EV). Battery operated electric car is powered by an
electric motor instead of a gasoline engine as the electric motor generates energy from a
controller that regulates the amount of power based on the driver’s usage controlled
through the acceleration pedal. The design of the electric vehicle uses the energy stored
in the rechargeable batteries to power the vehicle through common household electricity.
There are three main types of electric powered vehicles, they are hybrid electric vehicles
(HEV), plug in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), Battery powered electric vehicles (BEVS).
Purely for this study is the focus will be on battery powered electric vehicles (BEVS).
Battery powered vehicles use electricity that stores chemical energy in a battery pack to
power an electric motor to operate and to turn the wheels of the vehicle.
The advantages of using a battery powered electric vehicle as they can reduce carbon
emissions to save the vehicle owner money because the electric motor is energy efficient
as electric motors react a lot quicker. (BEVS) battery powered electric vehicles are very
responsive and have very good engine torque as (BEVS) are often more digitally
connected than conventional vehicles with many charging stations providing the option to
control charging from a smart phone app.
2. Write a clear and focused research question
Are electric powered vehicles the way forward of the future? And how are they going to
solve the worlds carbon greenhouse emission problems?
3. Look at your research question and answer the following:
a. How have you focused your research question to make sure you can undertake this
research with a reasonable expenditure of time, money and effort?
The previous illustration mentioned earlier in this research as electric powered vehicles
come in three prototypes as to perform the research on all three prototypes would be an
expensive and time-consuming exercise to undertake. It is for this apparent reason to
focus of this research will be consistently and purely on battery powered electric vehicles
(BEVS). The main issues with electric powered vehicles are the lithium-ion (li-ion)
batteries as previous research through other journals have illustrated the batteries are
known to explode and to catch fire. Also (Li-ion) batteries are extremely difficult to
recycle as they are very toxic and flammable battery that could end up in landfills. To
focus time and money on these two issues as this will be a major aspect that will be
needed to consider.
b. Will the process of solving this problem be more than a simple exercise in reviewing
some existing information or will it involve some investigation? (To answer this, you
need to explain very briefly how you are going to answer your research
question/solve the research problem and show that this is more than just reviewing
some existing information.)

The study and research into battery powered electric vehicles has been around since
the 19th century but this has only been taken seriously in the past eighteen years due
to global warming. From this research there is some information that outlines the
operation of battery powered electric vehicles, mainly how they are designed and
what possibilities of reducing greenhouse carbon emissions caused by gasoline
vehicles. Information of how lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries have a potential to explode
or fire hazardous by studying into what chemicals or toxic substances that maybe
inserted into the batteries componentry to cause it to become hazardous and what
can be done as a safety measure to avoid the batteries becoming a fire hazardous
liability as nothing has really been tested.
To undertake this research testing of Lithium (Li-ion) batteries will provide the
foundation and to give clear evidence to understand how Lithium (Li-ion) batteries are
designed to identify the cause and why the batteries are very toxic by having the
potential to be a hazardous component to determine the results for any
improvements to be made available to ensure a safer operation of battery powered
electric vehicles.