Date of Publication

2023

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering

Subject Categories

Mechanical Engineering | Transportation Engineering

College

Gokongwei College of Engineering

Department/Unit

Mechanical Engineering

Thesis Advisor

Neil Stephen A. Lopez

Defense Panel Chair

Jose Bienvenido Manuel B. Biona

Defense Panel Member

Aristotle T. Ubando
Ivan Henderson V. Gue

Abstract/Summary

The adoption of battery electric vehicles is on the rise due to the lowering cost of battery-electric vehicles, along with the growing population of “eco-conscious” consumers. However, the price gap between electric vehicles compared to their internal combustion engine (ICE) counterparts still greatly favors fossil-fuel powered vehicles. One way that some large automakers and smaller startups have used to reduce the cost of electric vehicles leverages a key advantage of electric vehicles - their versatility.

By taking advantage of how modular and versatile electric vehicle components such as motors and batteries are in terms of packaging compared to their ICE equivalents, the cost of electric vehicles can be reduced. This is achieved by having several vehicles share many common chassis elements and parts, reducing production costs, maintenance costs, and allowing manufacturers to take greater advantage of the economies of scale.

The study aimed to acknowledge this advantage and identify if any possibilities for a common electric vehicle platform that can be shared between 2 or more vehicles in different transportation sectors in the Philippines was possible. Determining what transportation sectors had overlapping needs and preferences would be achieved using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods. The two MCDA methods selected for this study were the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) for acquiring weights and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) for evaluating the viability of different vehicle types using the weights derived from AHP. The fuzzy variants of these methods were selected, as they were better at dealing with vague linguistic terms than regular AHP and TOPSIS. Survey data for these MCDA methods would be collected through interviews with experts from four different transportation sectors in the Philippines.

The results of the study showed that there were very common trends for the future of electric transportation in the Philippines, such as the will to put aside vehicles with a traditional aesthetic, in favor of vehicles with an eco-friendlier aesthetic. The results found that there were two possible common electric vehicle platforms that could be explored, and rough 3D renders of these platforms were created to better illustrate the purpose and value that this study can bring to the development process of electric vehicles, by demonstrating tradeoffs, areas to prioritize and de-prioritize, and possible innovations that may have merit to be explored given the results of these surveys.

Abstract Format

html

Language

English

Format

Electronic

Keywords

Electric vehicles—Design and construction; Multiple criteria decision making

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Embargo Period

8-3-2023

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