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The author analyses the performances of small electric vehicles, briefly named solarcar, with batteries and photo-voltaic array (PVA) on board. The performances are evaluated by means of a computer model which implements analytical descriptions of the road-vehicle system, from the point of view of the principal energy sources or sinks: mechanical losses in motion electric engine performances battery behaviour PVA's energetic contribution mission characteristics. As example, the computer is applied to analyse the performances of a solarcar constructed for race activity, according to international regulamentations. The computer model proves to be a very usefull instrument for comparing the differences of performances caused by design characteristics of the solarcar (as weight, transmission ratio, etc.) and by the kind of utilized batteries (in particular, three types of batteries are considered: Ni-Cd, Pb and Ni-Zn).