Evaluation of Electric and Hybrid 3-Wheeled Vehicles for Handling and Stability. Volume 1: Executive Summary

摘要

This report describes the results of a project to determine the handling, stability, and braking characteristics of 3-wheeled vehicles, and how they compare to small 4-wheeled vehicles. Analysis and full-scale tests of four 3-wheeled electric and four 3-wheeled gasoline vehicles were performed. The test vehicles were selected from an extensive survey of candidates and included both 2-front/1-rear wheel and 1-front/2-rear wheel configurations. Two vehicles from each class were selected and tested for steady-state understeer, transient steering response, rollover, crosswind sensitivity, straight brake, brake in turn, and double lane change maneuvers. Results were compared between vehicles and across vehicle groups.