ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE ISSUES IN ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is an important issue in any motor vehic le, Anecdotal reports abound of cars with spark ignition hazards becau se of fuel tank designs, and even toll collectors reluctant to collect money by hand from certain late-model cars, As electric vehicles move from the laboratory and test track to the production floor and showro om, ESD concerns take on a new context and become more critical. In th is paper, the attributes of electric vehicles that give rise to concer ns about ESD are introduced, When the concerns are taken into account, certain basic design constraints become evident, A candidate design i s analyzed for its ESD properties, Some common design practices, espec ially the practice of isolating the battery bus, can create reliabilit y problems because of ESD.