BUT has a unique electric car

VUT SUPER EL II electric car passed the acceptance test, received certification for road transport and a registration number in June after having been developed for two years. It is the only electric passenger car to have been manufactured by Brno University of Technology. In 2009, BUT received a Škoda Superb 2.0 TDI car as a gift from Škoda Auto a.s. Having neither certification for road transport nor vehicle registration document, the car was to be converted to an electric car. Ing. Martin Solař, a doctoral student at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and Bc. Miroslav Svačina, doctoral student at the Faculty of Information Technology, started work on the conversion designing a solution and, in cooperation with head of the project Ing. Jaromír Marušinec transformed the Škoda Superb 2.0 TDI car into an electric car using some components of a non-certified Škoda Superb II car

Work on the electric car was carried out at Hulín-based EVC Group s.r.o. As BUT lacked funding for this project, the labour and some materials were paid by sponsors of EVC Group, TUV-SUD, and TILI. The car was fully operable already one year after the work started being presented at the Brno 2010 motor show. Although its components were certified for road transport, the testing and certification procedure took another year.

As the original car form Škoda Auto was not certified and had no vehicle registration document, it was not possible to ask for a conversion permit. Therefore, it was necessary to get a permit for building a new car with the donated Škoda Superb II being used as a source of components. The new car received its own VIN as if BUT was a carmaker under the brand name of VUT SUPER EL II.

VUT SUPER EL II has an action radius of 137 m off the motorway and 100 m on the motorway with a maximum speed of over 100 mph. An internal one-phase 230V/15A charger may be used to load the batteries in 10 hours, or a three-phase 400V/32A charger to load the batteries to 90% capacity in one hour or a 400V/64A one to do the same in half an hour. A DC CHAdeMo standard charger is under preparation that can be used to load the batteries to 90% capacity in 20 minutes with an output of 100 kW.

The electric car is equipped with an ABS, power-assisted steering, brake booster, and electric heating. In addition, an electric air-conditioning system is being developed. A GPS navigation is part of the equipment, too, showing 161 charging sites in the Czech Republic.

Practical use and further development

The VUT SUPER EL II electric car was tested by Škoda Auto during the development of a Škoda Green E Line electric car prototype. Today it is used as a model for converting the electric cars of EVC Group on the Škoda Superb II platform under the brand name of EVC S7.

Within the next two years, the electric car will be equipped with robotic vision and steering replacing the driver in some situations and new batteries will be tested.