JPH10278596A - Electric vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electric vehicle in which the effective utilizing space of a car body is side, the whole body of the car body can be made in a light weight, the center of gravity of the car body is low, the stability and the riding comfortability of the automobile are good, and the load holding is also good. SOLUTION: In the electric vehicle in which the electric energy stored in batteries is fed to a rotary type electric motor for running, and wheels are driven by this rotary type electric motor, a floor structure 1 is composed of side frames 2 and 2', and center frames 3 and 3', which are hollow in the axial directions, batteries B are housed in the center frames 3 and 3', and control devices 4 and 4', a battery charger 5, a cooling and heating unit 6, and the like are housed in the side frames 2 and 2'. And at least a part of the rotary type electric motor is housed in the wheel part 10 of the wheels, while the rotary type electric motor and the floor structure 1 are connected through a suspension device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a rotary electric motor for driving, wherein electric energy stored in a battery is supplied to a traveling rotary motor, and wheels are driven by the rotary electric motor.
For example, it relates to a four-wheel electric vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In contrast to gasoline or diesel vehicles driven by an internal combustion engine burning fossil fuel, electric vehicles whose wheels are driven by electric energy stored in a battery have no problem of exhaust gas and are environmentally friendly. It is expected to spread from the aspect. By the way, the weight of the battery, the mounting method, the driving method, and the like are the bottlenecks in its spread.
Therefore, various methods of mounting a battery, that is, a battery storage method, a driving method, and the like have been conventionally proposed.

As a method for storing a battery, a method of storing the battery in a space such as a hood or a trunk room of a vehicle body is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Sho 52-3.
A battery storage method called a backbone method as described in Japanese Patent No. 5023 has also been proposed. That is, a backbone system is also known in which a tunnel-shaped storage casing is provided in the front-rear direction of an automobile, and batteries are taken in and out from the front or rear of the storage casing. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-47842 proposes a frame-like floor structure in which the floor of a vehicle body is composed of a plurality of hollow frames having a substantially rectangular cross section, and batteries are stored in these frames. Have been. Hereinafter, in this specification, a floor structure of this type is referred to as a battery built-in type frame (BBF).
Structure).

On the other hand, as a driving method of an electric vehicle, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, four types of methods are known. These systems are easily understood from the drawings and will not be described in detail. However, the system shown in FIG. 5A is called a conventional system in which a conventional internal combustion engine is replaced with a rotary electric motor. The method shown in (b) is a so-called no-transmission method in which the transmission is removed from the method shown in (a), and the method shown in (c) has rotary motors mounted by the number of drive wheels, and The deflation system without the moving device and the system shown in (d) are an in-wheel system in which a rotary electric motor is incorporated inside the vehicle instead of on the vehicle body.

[0005] A preferred embodiment of the in-wheel system is proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7-81430. In the in-wheel method, a rotary electric motor for driving forms an integral structure with a reduction gear, a bearing brake, and the like, and all or a part of the integral structure is housed in a wheel portion of a wheel.

[0006]

As described above, part of the problem of the battery housing method has been solved by adopting the BBF structure in the electric vehicle. In particular, in the BBF structure, there is an advantage that it is not necessary to provide a new space for accommodating the battery, and the entire vehicle body can be reduced in weight because the battery container and the frame structure can be used in combination. In addition, since the heavy battery is stored under the floor, there is an advantage that the center of gravity of the vehicle body is low, and the stability and riding comfort of the vehicle are improved. However, some points need to be improved. For example, the BBF requires the use of most of the floor surface in a planar manner, which may cause spatial interference with other components, for example, the driving device.

[0007] Further, by employing the in-wheel system for the driving device, it is not necessary to prepare a space for the driving device on the vehicle body, and energy transmission in the entire driving device from the rotary electric motor to the tires. There is also an advantage that the loss of elimination is eliminated. However, the in-wheel method has a drawback that load holding deteriorates because the so-called unsprung weight increases. An object of the present invention is to provide an electric vehicle that solves the above-described conventional problems or disadvantages. Specifically, the effective use space of the vehicle body is wide, the entire vehicle body can be reduced in weight, and the center of gravity of the vehicle body can be reduced. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electric vehicle that has low vehicle stability, good vehicle stability and ride comfort, and good road holding.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention first applies both the BBF structure and the in-wheel system simultaneously in one vehicle. That is,
The BBF structure is adopted to reduce the disadvantages of the in-wheel system,
Further, by adopting the in-wheel method, it is possible to reduce the drawbacks of the BBF structure and achieve the above object. By adopting both types in this way, an electric vehicle that has a large effective use space, can reduce the weight of the entire vehicle body, has a low center of gravity of the vehicle body, has good vehicle stability and ride comfort, and has good road holding can be obtained. . As described above, by storing the battery in the frame of the BBF structure, the effective use space is widened. However, in the electric vehicle, a control device for controlling the speed and torque of the rotary electric motor in addition to the battery and the driving device, Vehicle-mounted chargers, cooling and heating devices, etc. will also be installed, but by storing all or some of these in the internal space of the floor structure like batteries, it is possible to increase the effective volume inside the vehicle body Become. Then, in another invention, the above object is achieved by configuring so that all or a part of the control device, the cooling / heating device, or the like is housed in the frame.

Further, when the wheel house protrudes greatly into the vehicle body as in a conventional automobile, the effective use space cannot be widened. This problem can be solved by making the diameter of the wheel smaller, for example, half as compared with the conventional one. When the diameter of the wheel is reduced in this way, the load resistance per wheel decreases, and the vibration received by the vehicle body from the road surface also increases. Therefore, in another invention, the wheel 1
By replacing the wheels with two small-diameter wheels arranged in front and rear, and connecting the axles of the two small-diameter wheels arranged in front and rear with a rigid structural material such as metal, and connecting the rigid structural material from the vehicle body By installing an extending suspension mechanism and performing the same vehicle configuration as a bogie used frequently in railway vehicles, it is configured to minimize the vibration received by the vehicle body from the road surface.

That is, according to the present invention, in order to attain the above object, electric energy stored in a battery is supplied to a rotary motor for traveling, and wheels are driven by the rotary motor. In the vehicle, the floor structure of the vehicle is formed of a plurality of frames that are hollow in the axial direction, whereby the rigidity of the floor structure is increased, and a battery is stored in the floor structure. At least a part of the rotary electric motor is housed in a wheel portion of a wheel, and the rotary electric motor and the floor structure are configured to be connected via a suspension device. According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the floor structure according to the first aspect, wherein at least a part of a control device for controlling the speed and torque of the rotary electric motor is also housed. In the floor structure according to the first or second aspect, at least a part of the charger is also housed, and the invention according to the fourth aspect is the floor structure according to any one of the first to third aspects. The body is configured so that at least a part of the cooling / heating device is also housed therein. According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the front wheels and / or the rear wheels of the wheels according to any one of the first to fourth aspects are mounted so as to be continuously mounted in the front-rear direction. The invention described in claim 2 is the second aspect of the present invention.
The continuously mounted wheels are configured such that the axles are connected to each other by a rigid structural member, and a suspension device extending from the floor structure is mounted on the structural member.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment corresponding to the first to fourth aspects of the present invention.
1 is a schematic perspective view of a floor structure and a drive device of a passenger electric vehicle according to an embodiment. As shown in the figure, the floor structure 1 is configured such that the upper surface thereof is substantially flat from four hollow bodies having a substantially rectangular cross section. That is, the axially hollow side frames 2 located on both sides of the vehicle,
2 'and a center frame 3, 3' which is also hollow in the axial direction and located inside the center frame 2 '. Are arranged in parallel with each other so as to have a predetermined width, a reinforcing sub-frame is attached, and doors are provided on the side frames 2, 2 ', and the center frame 3, 3 'is provided with a conventionally known seat, steering wheel, accelerator or brake pedal, cowl, lever for determining a traveling direction, and the like, and constitutes a basic portion of an electric vehicle. However,
These are not shown in the figure.

The floor structure 1 is formed to have a predetermined width from the side frames 2, 2 'and the center frames 3, 3' as described above.
The production method, material, etc. of are not particularly limited. However, it is desirable to form by aluminum extrusion molding technology, for example. The center frames 3, 3 'and the side frames 2, 2' formed in this way can be divided into a plurality of parts in the front-rear direction in order to enhance the strength and the size of the storage items. Does not show an example of partitioning. The center frames 3 and 3 have a length substantially equal to a length obtained by subtracting a collision buffer portion at a front portion and a rear portion of the vehicle from the entire length of the vehicle, and have a height and a width corresponding to the shape or size of the batteries B, B ',. In consideration of the height, the width of the batteries B is slightly higher than the height of the batteries B, and so on. The side frames 2 and 2 'are shorter than the center frames 3 and 3' by the length of the wheel house, and have substantially the same height as the center frames 3 and 3 '.

According to the present embodiment, the floor structure 1 includes the center frame 3 having a substantially rectangular hollow section as described above.
3 'and the side frames 2, 2'..., The batteries can be stored in any of the frames 2, 3,..., But in the embodiment shown in FIG. The example shown in FIG. In this case, the batteries B, B,... Can be stored from the front or the rear. However, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, a driving device including a driving motor for driving the wheels 8, 8, a speed reducer, and the like is disposed on the right rear side in FIG. 1. It is designed to be put on and taken out from the table D. The side frames 2 and 2 'include control devices 4 and 4' for controlling the speed and torque of a rotary electric motor, which will be described later, a charger 5 for charging batteries B, B,... Etc. are stored.

The in-wheel drive devices 7 and 7 'themselves can be applied to the device as disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-81430. It is integrally formed from a reduction gear mechanism for reducing power consumption, a mechanical brake, bearings for supporting rotation, and the like. The outer frame, which is mounted inside the wheels 8, 8 'of the drive wheels and to which the armature of the rotary electric motor is fixed, is mounted on the suspension arm. Wheels 8, 8 'have tires 9,
9 'is attached to enable running. Arms, springs, dampers and the like forming a suspension are attached to the in-wheel drive devices 7 and 7 ', but are omitted in FIG. The front wheels 10, 1
0 'is also attached to the center frames 3, 3' via arms, springs, dampers, etc. forming a sub-frame and a suspension, but is also omitted in FIG. 1 and specific examples thereof are shown in FIGS. Is shown in In addition,
In FIG. 1, the in-wheel drive devices 7, 7 'are mounted only on the rear wheels 8, 8', but they can be mounted only on the front wheels 10, 10 ', or on the four wheels. It is also possible to attach to all the wheels 8 to 10 '.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view schematically showing a second embodiment of a floor structure and a driving device of an electric vehicle according to the inventions of the fifth and sixth aspects. Since the floor structure 1 is a BBF structure similar to the embodiment shown in FIG.
The same reference numerals are used to avoid redundant description. In the present embodiment, the diameter of the wheel is made smaller than that of the conventional one, the effective use space is further secured, and the reduction in the withstand load per wheel caused by the reduction in the diameter of the wheel is set to two wheels. It is supplemented by replacement. That is, the floor structure 1 has four relatively small rear wheels 13, 14, 13 ', 14'.
Similarly, four relatively small diameter front wheels 15, 16, 15 ', 1
It is supported by 6 '. In the present embodiment, the in-wheel drive devices 7 and 7 'are also applied. The in-wheel type driving devices 7, 7 'are provided with rear wheels 13, 13', 1
2 or 4 symmetrically to 4, 14 'or front wheel 1
5, 15'16, 16 'can likewise be mounted symmetrically on two or four wheels, or even on all eight of these wheels 13-16'. However, in FIG. 2, only the rear wheels 13, 13 'are provided with the in-wheel drive device 7,
An example in which 7 'is attached is shown. The wheels 13 to 16 'are similarly attached to the center frames 3, 3' via arms, springs, dampers, etc. forming a suspension structure. Is shown in

FIGS. 3A and 3B show a first embodiment of the suspension device 20, wherein FIG. 3A is a plan view and FIG. 3B is a front view. Since the floor structure 1 is the same as that of the above-described embodiment, the same reference numerals are given and the description will not be repeated. According to the present embodiment, the floor structure 1 is suspended by the double wishbone type 20, 20 '. That is, the center frames 1 and 1 ′ have first horizontal sub-frames 21 and 21 ′, and vertical second sub-frames 22 and 21 ′.
22 '. And, between the first sub-frames 21 and 21 'and the outer frame of the rotary electric motor, cushioning members 23 and 23' made of a spring and a damper are provided. Thereby, the rotary electric motor and the floor structure 1 are connected via the suspension device. Second subframe 22, 2
Lower arms 25, 25 'are provided between 2' and wheels 16, 15, 16, 16 ', and upper arms are provided between center frames 1, 1' and wheels 16, 15, 16, 16 '. Arms 26, 26 'are provided.

FIG. 4 is a view showing an embodiment according to the sixth aspect of the present invention, that is, a second embodiment of the suspension device 30, in which (a) shows only a pair of wheels 15 and 16 taken out. FIG. 2B is a plan view showing a specific example of the suspension, and FIG. The floor structure 1 is the same as that of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, so that the same reference numerals are given and the description will not be repeated. In the present embodiment, the floor structure 1
Means two wheels 1 by a suspension 30 composed of a combination of a bogie structure and a double wishbone system 20.
6 and 15 are supported. That is, the suspension 30 of the present embodiment includes a rigid structural member 31 connecting the two wheels 16 and 15 and the structural member 31 with respect to the axis in the horizontal direction in FIG. The auxiliary structure member 32 is freely rotatably attached, and the double wishbone type 20 is attached to the auxiliary structure member 32. In the present embodiment, the outer frame to which the armature of the rotary electric motor is fixed is
Although not shown in the figure, it is attached to the structural material 31.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described. The electric vehicle according to the present embodiment can also be driven by the same driving method as a normal passenger car. That is, when the lever for determining the traveling direction is tilted to the side of the display of “forward” and the accelerator pedal is depressed, the electric power stored in the batteries B, B,. Similarly, the motors are sent to the rotary motors in the in-wheel type drive devices 7 and 7 'through the control devices 4 and 4' for controlling the speed, torque and the like stored in the side frames 2, 2, and '. Start. This rotational force is transmitted through the reduction gears in the in-wheel type driving devices 7 and 7 'to the wheel rim 8,
The electric vehicle is started by being transmitted to 8 'and tires 9, 9'. When the brake pedal is depressed at the time of stop, first, the control devices 4, 4 'for the speed, torque, etc. contained in the side frames 2, 2' are activated, and the in-wheel drive devices 7, 7 ' The rotary electric motor acts as a generator to generate electric power with the mechanical power for decelerating the vehicle, and the electric power obtained here is stored in the center frames 3, 3, and ′ through the control devices 4, 4 ′. The charged battery is charged. When the vehicle is stopped in an emergency or when the vehicle is stopped from a very low speed, an in-wheel drive device or a mechanical brake provided on another wheel is simultaneously operated to obtain a deceleration force.

The present invention can be implemented in various forms without being limited to the above embodiments. For example, in the above embodiment, the number of the center frames 3 and 3 'is two, but a small battery that is reduced in weight by increasing the number of frames can also be applied. Also, side frames 2, 2 '
Contains a control device 4, a 4 'charger 5, an in-vehicle cooling / heating device 6, and the like. When all of these devices cannot be stored, a part of them is stored. Suspension 2
Obviously, 0 and 30 are not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be implemented by other methods, for example, other suspension methods such as a strut type and a trailing arm type. Furthermore, although the present embodiment relates to a passenger electric vehicle, it is apparent that the present invention can be widely applied to trucks, buses, and the like.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, the floor structure of an automobile is composed of a plurality of frames that are hollow in the axial direction, thereby increasing the rigidity of the floor structure. The battery is housed in the floor structure, at least a part of the rotary electric motor is housed in a wheel portion of wheels, and the rotary electric motor and the floor structure are connected via a suspension device, so that Large space can be used effectively. Moreover, since the battery is housed in the hollow body constituting the floor structure, the position of the center of gravity of the electric vehicle is low. Therefore, despite the adoption of the in-wheel type driving device, the influence of the unsprung weight can be minimized, and the riding comfort of the vehicle is also improved. Claim 2
According to the invention described in the fourth aspect, since at least a part of the control device, the charger, and the cooling / heating device are housed in the floor structure, the effectively usable space in the vehicle interior is further expanded. According to the fifth and sixth aspects of the present invention, since two wheels are continuously attached in the front-rear direction, the diameter of the wheels can be reduced. Therefore, it is possible to minimize the reduction of the effective space due to the protrusion of the wheel house for the wheels into the vehicle interior, and it is possible to further increase the available space in the vehicle interior. In addition, since the interference between the door mounted on the side of the car and the tire house can be significantly suppressed, the degree of freedom of the mounting position of the door is increased, and as a result, the ease of getting on and off the occupant is increased, and the passenger compartment is also increased It can be expected that the space can be used more effectively.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of an electric vehicle according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a second embodiment of the electric vehicle according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a view showing an embodiment of a suspension device, and FIG.
Is a plan view, and (b) is a front view.

FIG. 4 is a view showing another embodiment of the suspension device, in which (a) is a plan view and (b) is a front view.

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically showing a driving method of the electric vehicle.
(A)-(d) is a top view which shows a different example, respectively.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Floor structure 2, 2 'Side frame 3, 3' Center frame 4, 4 'Control device 5 Charger 6 Cooling / heating device 7, 7' In-wheel drive device 20, 20 'Suspension 30, 30' Suspension

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An electric vehicle in which electric energy stored in a battery is supplied to a rotary motor for traveling, and wheels are driven by the rotary motor. It is composed of a plurality of frames that are hollow in the axial direction, whereby the rigidity of the floor structure is increased, and a battery is housed in the floor structure, and at least a part of the rotary electric motor is provided with wheels. An electric vehicle stored in a wheel portion, wherein the rotary electric motor and the floor structure are connected via a suspension device. 2. An electric vehicle in which at least a part of a control device for controlling the speed and torque of a rotary electric motor is housed in the floor structure according to claim 1. 3. The floor structure according to claim 1 or 2,
An electric vehicle in which at least a part of the charger is also stored. 4. An electric vehicle in which at least a part of a cooling / heating device is housed in the floor structure according to claim 1. 5. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the front wheel or the rear wheel or both of the wheels are two-wheeled in the front-rear direction.
An electric vehicle that is continuously mounted. 6. The two consecutively mounted wheels according to claim 5, the axles of which are connected to each other by a rigid structural member, and a suspension device extending from the floor structure is mounted on the structural member. Electric car.