drivetrain

The drivetrain is the sole thrust of a Formula Student EV. So, the performance of the drivetrain will dictate many dynamics of the vehicle thus, when designing the drivetrain, we must consider those dynamics. We will focus on two dynamics when designing the drivetrain Top speed, and Acceleration.

before we started designing the drivetrain, the structure team supplied us with a draft of the frame design, so we can estimate the usable space and position of the drivetrain on the car. We found that the space provided is quite narrow, too narrow to fit a traditional planetary gear. But since the space is constrained by the suspension geometry and we prioritized suspension geometry when designing the car layout, we will use a different gear layout to overcome the space constraint instead. The overall package will be T-shape with the output shaft coming out at the bottom of the “T” so that the wider part that contain the motor and some of the gearset can be mounted higher where there are plenty of space and the output shaft which need to be mounted low into the narrow section of the frame can be made as narrow as possible. 

The Drivetrain in the car