Electric vehicle

(21) Appl. No.: 10/278,204

(22) Filed: Oct. 22, 2002

(65) Prior Publication Data

US 2003/0079924 Al May 1, 2003

(30) Foreign Application Priority Data

Oct. 25, 2001 (JP) 2001-328089

Oct. 30, 2001 (JP) 2001-333224

Oct. 30, 2001 (JP) 2001-333231

(51) Int. CI.7 B60K 1/00

(52) U.S. CI 180/65.1; 180/65.8

(58) Field of Search 180/65.1, 65.2,

180/65.3, 65.4, 65.5, 65.8, 300, 308, 165, 248, 197; 318/432, 373, 433, 447, 112, 139, 802, 11, 778; 37/257, 219, 234, 266

(56) References Cited

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6,566,826 B2 * 5/2003 Imai et al 318/11

FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS

JP 59017807 1/1984

* cited by examiner

Primary Examiner—Hau Phan

(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Adams & Wilks

(57) ABSTRACT

A dual-motor electric vehicle having a control section that determines whether three conditions are satisfied, (1) that a straight-ahead travel instruction has been supplied to the vehicle, (2) that an actual number ol motor rotations ol an electric motor is less than a target number ol motor rotations, and (3) that a motor control signal lor bringing the actual number ol motor rotations closer to the target number has reached a predetermined upper limit output value. When all conditions are satisfied for at least one ol the electric motors ol the dual-motor vehicle, the control section performs a downward motor-rotation correction process for at least one ol motors by incrementally reducing one ol the target number ol motor rotations and the upper limit output value ol the motor control signal until the respective actual numbers ol rotations ol the left and right motors substantially coincide with each other.

20 Claims, 9 Drawing Sheets