The Golf Electric, a concept car produced by AC Propulsion, seats four passengers in a modified Golf IV platform. With the 200 horsepower AC propulsion drive system, the Golf Electric provides exciting acceleration and effortless highway driving, and thatís not all. Alan Cocconi, AC Propulsion President, drove the car up into the San Gabriel mountains on its maiden outing and commented, "The new Golf platform is very solid and we put a lot of effort into battery placement to get good balance. This is one of the best-handling EVs we have built. With all that power and a chassis that can use it, this car just rockets up the mountain."
The outstanding performance comes at no cost to range. The AC Propulsion drive system achieves excellent efficiency over a broad operating range. Its highly effective regenerative braking extends urban range by 30%. With attention to airflow over and under the car, the Golf Electric slices the air cleanly compared to truck-like EVs from other manufacturers. The result is 70 mile range in normal driving, urban or highway, using low-cost lead acid EV batteries from Optima Battery.
Unlike other EVs that may have greater initial range, the Golf Electric can recharge in just one hour using its onboard ReductiveTM charger. The Reductive Charger is patented technology from AC Propulsion that is actually an integral part of the drive system. The Reductive Charger uses the same motor windings and IGBTs (insulated gate bipolar transistors) that power the car while driving, to charge the car when it is plugged in. By using the same components to perform two functions, Reductive technology reduces size and cost of the charger and also reduces the time it takes to charge the battery.
"With the capability of charging at up to 20kW, the Golf Electric can drive 70 miles, charge in one hour and go another 70 miles", Cocconi noted. "We know that pure EVs will never make good long-distance cruisers, but for people who do a lot of local driving, we can offer the realistic capability of 300 or even 400 miles in a day. Other EVs might go 100 or 120 miles on one charge, but without the Reductive Charger, they will take six to 12 hours to charge up again. We think we have a better solution for the average user."
"Working with Volkswagen is a great opportunity for us", Cocconi added. "They had the vision to make EVs that people want to own and drive. We hope we can provide the innovation to make that happen. The program has made excellent progress but we still have a lot of development work to do on battery systems and vehicle efficiency. We see vehicle efficiency improvement as the key to customer acceptance. Itís easy to increase range with a more expensive battery, but when you increase vehicle efficiency, you increase range, reduce battery cost, and reduce charging time. Itís a real winner for the customer. We will be working very hard on that over the coming years."
AC Propulsion is a California corporation founded in 1992 to develop, manufacture, and license system and component technology for electric vehicle drive systems. It operates R&D and manufacturing shops in San Dimas, California. The facilities include an extensive power electronics and electric motor development laboratory, electronics assembly and test equipment, automated battery test equipment, a 200 horsepower motor and transmission dynamometer with automated data acquisition, machine shop, fabrication shop, composite shop, and complete vehicle service bays. In addition to EV drive system development and manufacturing activity, AC Propulsion conducts R&D programs for automotive OEMs and other clients in areas such as electric and hybrid vehicle development, battery testing, and hybrid power unit development. |
