茄子直播

The rooftop solar installation at the University of Toronto can be used to charge this electric car, says Professor Trecases (photo by Marit Mitchell)

Canadian-made electric car comes to 茄子直播

A2B, the world鈥檚 only completely Canadian designed and made electric car, is rolling onto the University of Toronto campus.

Olivier Trescases, a professor in the Energy Group of the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, has collaborated over the past two years with the car鈥檚 manufacturer, Toronto Electric. He struck a deal with the company鈥檚 president, Steve Dallas, to bring the one-of-a-kind vehicle to 茄子直播.

鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely unique鈥攏owhere in Canada will you find a vehicle like this,鈥 says Trescases. 鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting because this is far beyond what we could possibly build in-house. Even the chassis is custom-designed to house the massive 380-kilogram lithium battery pack. Aside from my own projects, I hope that this car gets our ECE students excited about electric mobility, in the same spirit of Team Blue Sky. We even have a rooftop solar installation that can be used to charge this EV and turn it into a true zero-emission vehicle.鈥

A2B was born out of Dallas鈥檚 drive to create a powerful and zippy electric car unlike anything the American auto-makers were producing.

鈥淚 wanted to create something that was Canadian,鈥 says Dallas. 鈥淪omething that if you looked at it, you鈥檇 say, 鈥榃hat is that? It doesn鈥檛 look like a GM or a Ford.鈥欌

Dallas and Trescases had worked together to analyze A2B鈥檚 energy consumption and battery performance in the past, and it became apparent to both what a rare testbed the car provided. Through their ongoing collaboration on battery management and hybrid energy storage systems, Trescases鈥 group gains unfettered access to all the vehicle鈥檚 hardware and software systems鈥攁n unprecedented opportunity for modification and testing.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an open platform to us, and that鈥檚 what makes it incredibly valuable,鈥 says Trescases.

Trescases has a few modifications to make before he and Dallas show the vehicle this fall at EVV脡2013, Electric Mobility Canada鈥檚 annual conference and trade show in Gatineau, Quebec. In the future, he hopes to test out new power converters, control algorithms and a different battery management system鈥攎odifications that would be impossible on commercially available electric vehicles.

A2B is an extraordinary engineering platform, and it鈥檚 road-worthy and licensed. But how does it handle?

鈥淚t鈥檚 a really fun car on the racetrack,鈥 says Dallas. 鈥淚t drives like a tank because it鈥檚 done with all race-car gear鈥攃ompletely custom-made everything.鈥

Watch out for Trescases and his students tearing around campus starting this summer 鈥 in the name of research, of course.

Marit Mitchell is a writer with the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering at the University of Toronto.

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