DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF AN
ELECTRIC MINIBUS
Ahmet Apak1, Yigit Koyuncuoglu, Hasan Heceoglu, Ali Behlul Samur, Umut Dogan, Erkan
Kurtulus, Bulent Unver, Metin Gokasan, Ata Mugan
1
: Corresponding author, E-mail: ahmetapak1985@gmail.com
Istanbul Technical University, Mechatronics Center, Maslak, Istanbul 34469, Turkey
Abstract - The design and construction stages of an electric
minibus planned as a shuttle on the university campus are
presented in this article. The electric vehicle (EV) is powered
by an electric motor and no gear box is used. The criteria used
in the choice of the electric motor, battery and power
electronic units are presented. Important design parameters
of electric vehicle are explained with a structural diagram. In
addition, the controller of the vehicle and the communication
between vehicle controller and motor controller via CAN
Communication are given. Simulation studies are carried out
to evaluate the energy consumption and the performance of
selected components. Following, the first prototype electric
minibus is constructed and tested. Various controllers are
tested on the vehicle to improve the safety and efficiency.
Keywords — electric vehicle, vehicle control
I. INTRODUCTION
Having limitations on oil sources, increasing effect of
global warming and rising pollution levels made necessary
to find alternatives to the internal combustion engine
powered vehicles. The aim of this project is to construct a
minibus which is planned to run as shuttle on the main
campus of Istanbul Technical University (ITU) and solely
uses electric. The first electrically powered land vehicle
was produced in 1834 before the invention of internal
combustion engine. The electric vehicles are used in the
rural areas widely until the Mid-1910s. The cheap oil and
rare electrification of rural areas assured victory for internal
combustion engine vehicles [1]. Nevertheless electric
vehicles have entered its third century as a commercial
product [2]. Nowadays, almost all vehicle manufacturers in
the world have been working on electrical or hybrid
vehicles. The recent studies showed that the generated
energy and the energy to power the vehicle is 97 percent
cleaner than that of the internal combustion engine in terms
of noxious pollutants. Besides, about 20 percent of the
chemical energy in gasoline is converted to drive a vehicle
having an internal combustion engine, while at least 75
percent of the energy from a battery can be converted to
useful work to move the vehicle [1]. In this project, a
battery formed of serially connected 100 cells made of
lithium iron phosphate is used to drive the permanent
magnet brushless DC motor with 330 V. In the electric
minibus, there is no gear box and the torque generated by
the electric motor is transmitted to the front wheels by
using differential gear. In order to control the vehicle, the
main processer is dSpace Microautobox 1401 which is
connected to the gas and brake pedals, electric motor drive
unit, battery management system, forward/backward
direction button. The temperature of each battery cell,
remaining battery capacity, the current and voltage
supplied to the electric motor, water temperature at the
inlet and outlet of the electric motor and electric motor
torque and speed signals are monitored by a control
algorithm. The design specifications are as follows: The
total weight of the minibus is about 3500 kg including 600
kg batteries and maximum capacity of the minibus is 4500
kg with passengers and luggage. The maximum available
speed is 150 km/h and the traveling range is minimum 120
km at the maximum load and cruising a predefined route
on the main campus of ITU. The vehicle can climb the hills
having about 20 percent slope at the maximum load. The
acceleration of the vehicle is limited by the controller
software such that it can reach 75 km/h in 11 seconds.
This electric minibus is designed and constructed to
improve the mechatronic research in the automotive
industry by the graduate and undergraduate students in
Mechatronic Research Center. Research and development
of the vehicle will continue such as adding the regenerative
breaking with ultracapacitors, designing the new control
algorithm which including this new additional components.
The electric minibus batteries, electric motor, controller
and the view of minibus are shown in Figure-1.
 Figure 1.Electric Minibus and Main Components
II. COMPONENTS OF ELECTRIC MINIBUS
The electric minibus consists of 100 cells of LiFeP04
battery supplying 330 VDC, battery management system,
an electric motor of UQM having continuous power of
100kW with its driver, a dSpace Microautobox 1401
vehicle controller, two quantities of 12 VDC gel batteries
to drive Microautobox and UQM motor controller. The
electric minibus does not require any gear box because
the control software is available and electric motor
supplies sufficiently high torques at low voltage levels.
There is only a differential gear with the ratio of 5.28 to
amplify the revolutions of the electric motor.
Figure 2.Electric Minibus Component Diagram
III. ELECTRIC MINIBUS WORKING PRINCIPLE
Connections of the components on the vehicle (i.e., electric
motor and its driver, batteries and dSpace Microautobox
1401) are shown in Figure 3 [8].
Figure 3.Electric Minibus Working Principle
The electric motor (EM) is UQM Power Phase 150 having
three phase connections with its controller powered by
Lithium iron phosphate DC batteries. The Hall Effect
signal between the electric motor controller and EM is
determined with the rotor position cable, CAN
communication with the Microautobox is provided with
another line carrying CAN high and CAN low information,
user ground, 12 VDC voltage and RS 232 connections.
Battery is connected to soft start circuit which is set up to
avoid high inrush currents to the inverter as shown in
Figure 4. This problem comes from charge of internal
capacitance.[8].
Figure 4. Soft Start Circuit
In Figure 4, the contactor Y1 and resistance R1 enables
internal inverter capacitors to be charged before closing of
Y2 main contactor. This is because high insurance currents
are to be avoided. F1 and F2 are fuses which protects the
controller from receiving high currents.
 IV. SELECTION OF ELECTRIC MINIBUS
COMPONENTS

A. Electric Motor Selection and Its Performance

The EM selection criteria when designing an electric

vehicle is associated with the features of the EM types.
Permanent Magnet Direct Current (PMDC) motors
generally have great stability of operation, good
controllability, linearity, high speed, high efficiency and
straightforward structure [3, 4]. The magnet material has
the enormous effect on motor performance, size and cost
Figure 6. UQM 150 Power, Speed and Torque Graph
[3]. On the other hand, Brushless Direct Current (BLDC)
motors are used in the fields where high performance and As shown in Figure 6, the EM peak torque is 650 Nm,
low maintenance are desired [5]. A multitude of brushless continuous power is 100 kW and peak power is 150 kW.
dc motors are used in applications in the power range up to When maximum speed 5000 rpm, the full power input
a few hundred watts. Consequently, Permanent Magnet voltage range is 300-425 VDC [7]. This high performance
Brushless Direct Current (PMBLDC) Motors are optimum motor enables the electric minibus to travel around the
selection as the main traction motor in electric vehicles. campus, and the associated speed- time graph of the
vehicle on the shuttle route on campus is presented in
When making the EM selection, the combination of rolling Figure 7.
resistance ( ), aerodynamic Resistance ( ), inclination
resistance ( ) and acceleration resistance ( ) constitute
the total resistance [6]. This total resistance is multiplied
with the vehicle speed (V). These parameters enable to find
the required power needed by the EM vehicle as shown in
Figure 5. This required power is calculated with the
parameters of the electric minibus route which is the
Maslak Campus of Istanbul Technical University in
Istanbul, Turkey; thus, the speed limits and inclinations are
related with the real road parameters.

Figure 7. The Minibus Speed-Time Graph.

The peak speed is 72 km/h in 11 seconds when travelling

around the campus at the test drive.

Figure 5. Required Vehicle Power and Speed Graph

The torque of the EM is multiplied by the differential ratio

of 5.28 employed in the connection between the EM and
wheels. By the use of the vehicle dynamic calculations
briefly presented in Figure 5, the EM is selected as water Figure 8.The Minibus Torque Time Graph

cooled UQM Power Phase 150 Traction System whose

torque, power and speed graph is shown in Figure 6 [7].
The torque control of the EM is accomplished by the
software on vehicle controller and it can be adjusted from
situation to situation considering the safety and battery
charge level issues. The Figure 8 shows the maximum
torque when travelling on the campus which is observed to
be 591 Nm.
Figure 9. EM Performance Graph
It is obvious in Figure 9 that the EM efficiency can be as
large as about 95 % but the diesel or gasoline engine
efficiency is about 30% [1].
B. Vehicle Controller
Figure 10. Flow Chart of Control Algorithm
dSpace Microautobox is used to control the vehicle which
require power supply within the range from 6 VDC to 40
VDC; hence, 12 VDC gel batteries are used [9]. The
vehicle controller design process can be evaluated in two
parts: Vehicle Basic Control such as driving
forward/backward, starting the movement, cutting off the
voltage and Vehicle Communication Network (namely,
CAN Communication).
At the beginning, vehicle signals are transmitted as a
universal command and then they are processed with the
control network. The basic operations are designed and
sent to the universal command block in dSpace toolbox as
shown in Figure 10.
The acceleration signal is triggered by a potentiometer
determining the vehicle speed. Moreover, brake signal
comes from the brake pedal which enables vehicle to stop.
In addition to them, the start command is used to give the
battery voltage (330 VDC) to the EM in order to prepare
the vehicle to run. Furthermore, the forward and backward
signals command the vehicle in forward and backward
directions. All these signals and others are transferred from
the command blocks which are connected with
Microautobox pin outs to universal command block.
Universal command is a CAN communication block
including control types which are torque control, voltage
control or speed control that transmits the signals as the
message packets.
When the commands are processed, the feedback
information is necessary to understand the conditions such
as voltage, torque, speed, current, temperature.
The CAN control set up is used to organize the data type,
baudrate and some other information about the
communication process such as module type, module
number [10]. In the real time application of electric
minibus, the baud- rate is 500 kbit/s, the torque control is
used, identifier type is 11 bit. The EM address is described
to communicate with the Microautobox.
Thanks to CAN Watchdog property, no communication
problem has been observed. Watchdog status enables to
understand communication error and the Watchdog Timer
can reset the situation as shown in flowchart.
CAN Watchdog Status including commands and errors is
used to avoid the communication problem at the electric
motor side. Likewise, in Microautobox, the CAN
communication errors are averted by CAN Bus Recovery.
In Figure 10, the status is related with the address priority
and the recovery module reset the process when default is
done.
 TABLE I

BATTERY CHARACTERISTIC

Properties/Battery Type Pb-PbO2 Ni-Cd Ni-MH Zn-Br2 Na-NiCl Na-S Li-Ion Lİ-Fe-Po4
Working Temperature 300 to 300 to (-40) to
°C 0 to 45 0 to 50 (-40) to 50 20 to 40 350 350 60 (-45) to 85

Specific Energy Wh/kg 161 236 300 430 794 795 275 250
110 to 120 to 150 to
Energy Density Wh/l 60 to 80 60 to 90 100 to 150 60 to 70 120 130 200 120 to 175
80 to 150 to 150 to 350 to
Specific Power W/kg 75 to 100 120 to 150 140 to 200 100 200 200 400 250 to 340

Cell Voltage (charged) 2.1 1.35 1.35 1.79 2.58 2.08 3.6 4

C. Battery

While thermal energy sources are converted to mechanical placed on the vehicle is about the inertial resistance of
energy with low efficiency in internal combustion engines, the cell packs. If the cells of packs have big inertial
the batteries store the electrochemical energy with better
resistance between each other, the charge and
efficiency and vice versa [11]. In sum, the batteries are one
discharge problems can be observed; thus, the cells
of the most important technological equipments for electric
vehicles. Moreover, the battery efficiency affects the range are grouped against inertial resistance.
of the electric vehicle; therefore, selection of battery type
determines the electric vehicle performance. Table 1 shows
the battery types and its characteristics in market. In Table
1, the specific power, energy density and cell voltage
shows that the lithium ion batteries have better
performance. The lithium ion batteries are the most
advanced batteries in battery technology [12]. There are
small cells in this technology which are not only effective
but also portable. On the other hand, Lithium Iron
Phosphate batteries have lower specific power and lower
energy density than lithium ion batteries but it is changed
over time by slower rate of capacity loss [13]. The charged
cell voltage in lithium iron phosphate Thunder sky Cells
are 4 VDC. Another advantage of lithium iron phosphate Figure 11. Inertial Resistance of Battery Cells
batteries is their ability of working at high temperature
values which is better than lithium batteries as shown in In our vehicle, there are 100 cells and they are packed
Table 1. The lower bounds of operating temperature range in 20 groups; namely, each five cells set up one pack.
are about the same for the lithium ion (-40oC) and Lithium Figure 11 shows the cell inertial resistances and
Iron Phosphate batteries (-45oC). number of cells. The batteries are packed with respect
to their inertial resistance. That is, inertial resistance
In sum, the batteries are chosen as Li-Fe-Po4 which
of each cell in one pack must be near to each other
has more than 3000 times life cycle when the depth of
because the discharge life will increase with this
discharge is 80% and it has 160 Ah nominal
arrangement. If the inertial resistances in one battery
capacities (i.e., 50 kWh). When charge operation
packs have big differences, the situation can damage
voltage is 4 VDC, the discharge is 2.8 VDC [13].
the battery packs.
One of the important case when the battery cells are
The Battery Management System (BMS) is used to monitor
the state of charge and cell temperature values as shown in
Figure 12. The communication with the controller is also
enabled by the BMS.
[6] Thomas D. Gillespie, “Fundamentals of Vehicle Dynamics”, Society
of Automotive Engineers Inc. , 400 Commonwealth Drive Worrendale,
PA 15096-0001, PP. 21-39&78-119.
[7] UQM Technologies, Inc., User and Installation Manual for Power
Phase 150 Traction Systems, 2009

[8] UQM Technologies Inc., Power Phase 150 Spectrum Sheet,2009

[9] Microautobox dSPACE 1401 Hardware Installation and Configuration

Guide, pp.24, Release 5.3, March 2007.

[10] UQM Technologies Inc., CAN document, Version 4.07, November

2009, referring to firmware versions 4.07 and above ,

[11] M. Barak, “Electrochemical Power Sources”, IEE Energy Series,

Figure 12. User Interface of the BMS Peter Peregrinus, London 1980.

[12] M. Broussely, P. Flament, Ch. Morh, G. Serre,“Lithium-Carbon

Liquid Electrolyte Battery System for Electric Vehicle”, EVT’95 Paris
1995.
V. CONCLUSION
[13] Thunder Sky Battery Limited Instruction Manual, Version 2007.
In this paper, design and construction of a full electric
minibus is presented. The vehicle is constructed and tested
on the university campus. Performance of the electric
minibus is evaluated and compared with the forecasts
based on preliminary simulation studies. In the future, an
active safety algorithm, the regenerative breakings through
ultra capacitors and optimum energy management
strategies will be added to the vehicle controller to increase
the performance and efficiency.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank State Planning Office

(DPT), Karsan A.S., A-Z Tech Ltd., Hayyen Enterprise for
their support.

REFERENCES

[1] S. Leitman, B. Brant,”Build Your Own Electric Vehicle”, New York:

Mc Graw Hill, 2009

[2] James Larminie, John Lowry, “Electric Vehicle Technology

Explained”, New York John Wiley & Sons, 2003

[3] Frank N. Klein, Member, IEEE, and Mark E. Kenyon “Permanent

Magnet DC Motors Design Criteria and Operation Advantages”, IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications, Vol. IA 20, No.6,
November/December 1984

[4] Prof. Dr. Ir. G. Maggetto, Ir. J. Van Mierlo, “Electric and Electric
Hybrid Vehicle Technology: A Survey”, IEE, Savoy Place, London
WC2R OBL UK

[5] Austin Hughes, “Electric Motors and Drives”, Third Edition, pp.357