Linde Material Handling GmbH based in Aschaffenburg together with Karabag based in Hamburg, converted a conventional FIAT 500 into an electric car. Maik Manthey is VP of the “Electronic Systems and Drives” (ES&D) department at Linde MH.

How did you come to make this electric car and what were your goals? Maik Manthey: Linde MH has been involved in electric mobility for over 40 years and has more experience than almost anyone else. We have excellent components for electric mobility and also deliver these, for example, to manufacturers of mobile machinery.

About two years ago we started to open up new application areas. We transferred our forklift truck components into other applications, such as a shunting vehicle for pulling a freight train, the CargoMaster container loader for the Airbus A380, a go-kart and into automobiles. We then use these findings in the next generation of our forklift and warehouse trucks. The ES&D business is an innovation and technology centre, which deals with technology issues that our forklift and warehouse truck products bring us.

Machinery manufacturing companies rarely deal with electronics, and usually outsource it. What does Linde MH do? Maik Manthey: We have recognized the need to develop and manufacture the electronics and motors ourselves for a long time. Only in this way can we get exactly what we want and do not provide our know-how to others. For example, we build around 50.000 inverters and 400.000 Electric Motors per year and because of

Forklift Technologythat we are the market leaders in Europe in this performance class. Moreover, you can only create good specifications, when you understand the technology. When we sell our components to the manufacturers of special machines or to the automotive sector, we can increase the number of sales. This not only provides a contribution to our margins and increases the economy of scale for our production lines, but it also provides a positive PR effect.

How was the collaboration with KARABAG established?Maik Manthey: Karabag were searching for a partner to convert a conventionally powered car into an electric one and approached us at the end of 2010. Being a FIAT dealer, they already had a solution in the programme offered by an Italian supplier; however this was found to be too expensive. Our first conversion was done very pragmatically. We simply tried most things and changed as little as possible on the car. After four days the prototype was running. We were able to use existing forklift components such as the motor, inverter, controller, fuse and charging circuits, and basically left them unchanged. Next, came the definition of driving behaviour, the risk analysis, EMC testing and manufacturer’s declaration. After nine months the project was complete.

Maik Manthey (left) and Erich Flach (right) explain to Rainer Becker (Yokogawa), the electric drive of the new KARABAG 500E.

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To drastically reduce the cost, the battery capacity was reduced by a factor of 2. Despite the small 11 kWh battery, the range was only reduced from 140 km to 100 km. With the optimal balancing of the motor, inverter and controller, losses could be minimized, and moreover the driving behaviour is now many times better than before. Compared to the previous conversion kit, we were able to achieve it without the complete cooling system. Additionally, our current solution is smaller and lighter. The electronics fit into a single box and can be easily replaced if necessary.

How many vehicles have been sold so far and what’s next? Maik Manthey: Karabag now has a huge competitive advantage with its affordable electric car. By the end of last year Karabag, in conjunction with a support programme, has sold 200 cars and thus became the market leader in electric cars in Germany. For next year, another batch of several hundred is planned. As large automobile manufacturers are currently behaving quietly, now is the ideal time to act and gain wide acceptance in the market.

Our strategy is simple. We begin with the FIAT 500. When that’s ready, we’ll continue with a large van, the Ducato, because whoever can do both the smallest and the largest can also do everything in between. This is expected to be available in late 2013.

The first 200 cars were purchased by companies, but some were also private purchases. The car was offered at a price of 19,900 euros with 4 years warranty on the battery. The model with an internal combustion engine costs about 13,000 euros. Overall, the electric car is cheaper than the gasoline version, since the cost of electricity is only around 3 euros per 100 km.

With Ducato I see even greater opportunities. There’s a big market especially for delivery vehicles in city centres and for short distances, e.g. Site traffic at large companies. Here it’s all about costs. Other benefits include less noise and the absence of emissions.

In the future we also want to offer conversion kits for small workshops. These are pre-assembled and contain all the necessary parts. It just needs the battery to be procured, mechanical adjustments to be made and the TÜV authorization to be carried out.

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Preparations for the Electronica 2012 show: Anna Krone, Ugur Gürsoy, Rainer Becker (all Yokogawa) and Erich Flach (Linde, standing) at Linde Material Handling GmbH in Aschaffenburg.

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An example of the New Karabag 500E was displayed by Yokogawa at the Electronica fair where the latest measurement applications for electric vehicles were on show.

The New Karabag 500E is a conventional Fiat 500 retrofitted with an electric drive. The vehicle has a three-phase asynchronous motor, providing 20 kW of nominal power, and a 125V 11 kW Lithium polymer battery. These enable it to reach a top speed of 105 km / h with and a range of 100 km. The conversion components come from a Linde forklift with appropriate adjustments.

On the booth there was a DL850V ScopeCorder and a WT1800 Power Analyser connected to the electric vehicle. The ScopeCorder is a multi-channel recording instrument for analogue and digital signals, with sampling rates as high as 100MS/s, 16-bit resolution and it can withstand voltages up to 1 kV due to its input channel isolation. Moreover, it is able to monitor the CAN bus and decode the payload. By direct storage

of the data on its internal hard drive, longer duration recording is possible. The DL850V ScopeCorder is used to monitor the starting (inrush) currents and voltages of the three phases of the motor. For voltage measurements, the 100MS / s module is used. The three voltages can be directly connected using standard measuring cables and current transformers are used for current measurement. In parallel, the transmitted CANbus payload is recorded. Using the manufacturer-specific CAN DBC files, the status of various vehicle functions is extracted from the CAN bus messages and viewed. This data can be shown as waveforms or as a multimeter display. The queried vehicle functions include: direction indicators, lights, parking brake, doors, charging status, battery temperature, battery voltage and battery current. The measuring instrument is connected via a dedicated CAN test box which is installed in front of the main control unit.

The WT1800 power analyser has six current and voltage inputs, so that the current and voltage characteristics of all three phases of the inverter can be captured and displayed. The synchronous measurement of electrical and mechanical power allows an accurate calculation of efficiency. Because of the 5MHz bandwidth, a dual harmonic analysis on two phases up to the 500th Order is possible. In addition, a wide range of options for representing the measured values on the display are available. Currents up to 50 Arms and Voltages up to 1000 Vrms can be measured directly. Current transformers are required for higher currents.

On the right: The representation of the current and voltage waveform of the inverter on the WT1800 power analyser

The new KARABAG 500E at the electronica 2012 on the Yokogawa stand, right next to the measuring instruments.

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