Analysis of CVT as Transmission in Bev & HEV

Battery electric vehicle and hybrid electric vehicle are coming out as a practical solution in the urban driving conditions, by reducing emission. Electric vehicles are of different types, according to the different layout of engines and the different types of transmission used. Electric motor is either a primary source or secondary source of power in battery electric vehicle and hybrid electric vehicle. In the condition of Hybrid electric vehicle, an internal combustion engine is also used. Electric motor has better torque characteristics than internal combustion engine even at zero speed. It was observed that, generally the battery electric vehicle use single speed transmission. Prius by Toyota reduced fuel consumption greatly, and at the same time also maintained the driving comfort by the use of eCVT, which is only for hybrid electric vehicle. Many electric vehicles use single fixed ratio transmission like Leaf by Nissan; Tesla's starting model and iMIEV by Mitsubishi because of the cheap manufacturing cost, light weight drive-train and smaller power-train volume. This paper gives a brief analysis on the use of CVT in EV and HEV and their effect on the range of the vehicle.