At this years Geneva Motor Show Swiss car maker Protoscar SA unveiled the LAMPO – a full size sport electric cabriolet . LAMPO is powered by two BRUSA electric motors (one rear and one front), optimized for maximizing acceleration and regenerative braking respectively. They deliver a total output of 268 HP and a torque of over 440 Nm. The lightweight Lithium-Ion battery pack has a capacity of 33.6 kWh which allows for a range of over 200 km.

The acceleration of this all electric vehicle is 0 to 100km/hr ( about 63mph) in 5 seconds.

 

The company has developed several interesting features to augment the Lampo design

Intelligent charging system

 The user of the vehicle is able to choose and set – directly in the vehicle – some charging parameters which will control the onboard battery charger, e.g.

- Earliest charging time/ latest charging stop

- Maximum charging yield

- Charging status to be achieved by end of the charging

Accelerated charge (for public and private charging points)

 

 

Based on today’s European energy supply standard (typically 240V and 10 to 16Amps) the charging time for an EV vehicle like the LAMPO is around 12 hours (considering a 16Amps plug): the typical available overnight time.

In fact, with a small extra-investment, this time could be reduced by 50%:

The company suggests that with very small adaptations (basically 2,5 mm2 cable instead of 1,5 mm2 connections, and a little on/off electronic switch avoiding current-flow during the plug-in action) a 16Amps plug easily can be upgraded to deliver 32Amps, meaning a power of 7 kW. The resulting charging time will then still not be as fast as for liquid fuels, but interesting enough for significantly recharging the batteries over lunch or shopping time, and allowing a shifting of the charging time – during nights – into periods where energy is available over-abundantly.

Such energy supply optimizations are studied and developed in association with Alpiq (www.alpiq.com), the Swiss energy leader.

Public charging & payment system

 

 

In order to avoid high cost of metering and billing the “Park & Charge” concept has been created (www.ecs-five.ch/parkcharge/d/index.htm). It is a very simple system, and it is based on a lump-sum payment, combining low investment cost with low operation cost – exactly like it happens with the well known yearly “sticker” allowing to pay for the use of Swiss highways. This service is offered by the Swiss Electric Vehicle Association (ECS) and has been in operation for over 10 years, counting 600 charging points all over Switzerland. At the moment, in EU, there are 1346 public charging points: over 100 of them are “Park and Charge”. A detailed list of public charging points in Switzerland and Europe is available at: www.lemnet.org.

EVA Range estimator

Protoscar has developed an interactive advanced navigation system, which gives the driver a “radar graph” of the residual range integrated with standard navigation capabilities such as charging station location, advanced long-distance trip planning. TheLampo nav systems integrates vehicle operational data such as charging time and GPS features such as recommended locations to charge.

The EVA system is being developed in cooperation with Virve, W&B (www.virve.ch).

All wheel drive for max. regenerative braking & safety

 

 

When accelerating, the load is automatically shifted to the rear axle and while in braking the load is shifted to the front axle. This is to take advantage of the fact that the greater the load that is put on an axle, the more more successfully the traction is transferred to the wheels. By design the two electric motors have differential tasks (primarily to pull or primarily to regenerate) which gives the vehicle an overall total efficiency that is greatly increased.

This optimized traction system has been conceived, developed and implemented together with the company BRUSA (www.brusa.biz).