Mass Performance Analysis for Low-power Electric Vehicles in Urban Transportation

This study analyzes how gross vehicle weight ranging from 200 kilograms (kg) to 400kg impacts key performance metrics in a 5 Horse-power (HP) 3.73 kilowatts (KW) electric vehicle. A first-principles model, developed in MATLAB/ SIMULINK was deployed. Simulation results reveal a 59.2% reduction in acceleration and a 56.9% decrease in energy efficiency when the model moves from 200kg to 400kg making a case for weight optimization as essential for achieving viable operational performance. It is important to maintain low gross weight for low power electric vehicles to balance payload requirements with efficiency and agility expectations of modern urban transportation.