A Technical Overview of an Electric Saturn at the 1993 Solar and Electric 500 931791
Dreisbach ElectroMotive, Inc. (DEMI) under the sponsorship of Arizona Public Service with assistance from Motorola Semiconductor Products and GM’s Saturn Division, has developed a second-generation high performance Zinc-Air powered electric vehicle (EV). The EV is based on a 1992 Saturn SC coupe chassis and uses a dual battery hybrid configuration to demonstrate acceleration, top speed and operating range approaching gasoline vehicle specifications.
This electric powered Saturn SC beat a conventional Saturn SC1 in a 5 lap sprint race during the third Annual Solar and Electric 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. The DEMI/APS Saturn set a new electric stock car lap record of 40.8 seconds during the race and was about 1 second per lap faster than the stock reference car. Both cars were set up by the Saturn Engineering department just prior to the race and used identical race-prepared tires.
Details of the electrical design of the DEMI conversion of the Saturn to electric drive, track test data and comparative gasoline car specifications are presented along with the actual race data.
Citation: Cheiky, M., Danczyk, L., and Hobbs, R., "A Technical Overview of an Electric Saturn at the 1993 Solar and Electric 500," SAE Technical Paper 931791, 1993, https://doi.org/10.4271/931791. Download Citation
Author(s):
Mike C. Cheiky, Len G. Danczyk, Ray S. Hobbs
Affiliated:
Dreisbach ElectroMotive, Inc., Arizona Public Service Co.
