Purdue Electric Vehicle Club

Electric Vehicle Club (EVC) is an undergraduate student organization that is focused on providing students with hands-on engineering experience through electric vehicle design projects. Our current project roster includes three electric go-karts, a custom electric hovercraft, a high-performance battery team, and an electric motorcycle, among others. Through these projects, our members are exposed to a wide variety of skills, including those outside of their discipline like PCB design, CAD, and many other design processes.

We have 100+ members, across 20 different majors including EE, CompE, ME, MET, ChemE, MDE, CS, and FYE. We currently support 23 electrical/computer engineers.. We are motivated and excited by the work we do and are very hopeful that we can work together to continue our work and provide our opportunities to as many students as possible!

EVC is seeking a relationship with PCBWay to allow us to advance our many projects, detailed below. More information, including contact info, and our sponsorship packet can be found on our website.

Our Current Projects

Battery Team

Battery team is focused on developing and testing custom battery packs for our various projects. This includes Cell selection and characterization, Case design and fabrication, BMS design and integration, along with testing in all of these areas. Battery team members will use CAD, Manufacturing processes, analog and digital design, PCB design, and many forms of iterative testing. 

The BMS (battery management system) is our most complex undertaking this year, involving the integration of many different systems in an easy-to-use, versatile package capable of dynamically monitoring and protecting our batteries.

Our BMS, pictured above, is capable of monitoring up to 24 series cells, with 200mA balance current per cell, thermistors distributed throughout the pack and onboard the BMS, and high current sensing capability. The BMS is capable of onboard solid state switching up to 100A, used for low-power discharge applications as well as charging, and can switch an external contactor for high-power applications. The onboard ESP-32 provides wireless functionality, allowing us to log battery data and view and adjust battery parameters wirelessly in real-time.

We are continuing development of our high performance racing batteries, pictured below.

These batteries are 88.8V nominal at 45Ah. They are capable of 40kW of continuous discharge at 450A, while weighing only 52 pounds. This is a significant improvement over our previous iteration of batteries. We are continuing to improve the mechanical assembly of the packs to ease both reliability and durability while improving ease of assembly. This involves many custom CNC parts, as well as complex assembly techniques.

Karting Team

The karting team builds electric racing go-karts to compete in Purdue's EV Grand Prix and additional exhibition races in the fall. We assemble and maintain parts, create wiring harnesses, and collect data on kart performance to maximize our speed and efficiency. Members learn CAD software, circuitry, data acquisition and analysis, and mechanical maintenance skills to build the fastest kart on the track.

This year, we are planning on designing a custom dynamometer to improve our tuning capabilities, and are looking into new drivetrain options. This will include the integration of a new motor and motor controller to our existing system.

Hovercraft Team

This year, hovercraft team will begin development of an electric, single person Hovercraft, or ACV (Air Cushion Vehicle). This project has very few design parameters, allowing the team to take the project in any direction they see fit. This will provide Hovercraft team members with extensive experience in chassis design, closed system power distribution, controls, and various aspects of system integration.

The team is currently finishing the preliminary chassis design and component selection. We have already begun the development of PCBs for distributed battery monitoring, and have had custom brushless motors manufactured. At the start of spring semester, the team plans to begin assembly for initial tests of the system. PCB Way's assistance in custom-machined parts would be extremely beneficial to the advancement of this project.

Technical Tinkering Team

Technical Tinkering is a new team this year focused on approachable mini-projects to teach Mechanical & Electrical Skills. The team will be working on areas such as learning how to CAD, 3D print, solder, and wire circuits. Some projects include, RC planes or cars, a motorized couch, and PCB nametags. PCBWay's assistance with this team would help members gain valuable basic skills related to the industry.

Motorcycle Team

EVC conducted a gas-to-electric conversion of a motorcycle and is still in the process of perfecting the design.

The hard part of the conversion is complete, but the bike needs a new, more compact battery design and has many quality features, such as an advanced dashboard, in the works.

Autonomous Kart Team

EVC is also developing a fully autonomous go-kart. The kart runs on a Jetson device, and our goal is to make it capable of entirely optical navigation, without prior knowledge of the track. This is a daunting goal, and will likely require more custom hardware, both mechanical and electrical.