As global warming issues are getting more and more attention, government and authorities are looking for a way to reduce carbon emissions. One of the ways is by replacing conventional gas and diesel-powered vehicle with electric vehicle as main mode of transportation. Malaysia is currently expanding the battery electric vehicle (BEV) infrastructure to cope with the market. Induction motor is one of the best candidates for electric vehicle (EV) application. However, producing dynamic performance and accurate control of induction is difficult to attain due to the complex non-linear nature of the system and the ever-changing driving condition. This research is mainly focused on studying the different variable frequency drives (VFD) for controlling the induction motor of an electric vehicle. Scalar control volts per hertz (V/f), vector control dual PI loop field-oriented control (FOC), and vector control hysteresis based conventional direct torque control (DTC) are the controlling methods that are studied, designed, and evaluated. MATLAB/Simulink software is utilized for modelling, simulation, and analysis on the performance of VFD control on induction motor. Each VFD control system is being tested on numerous driving scenarios to assess the performances. The performance evaluation is divided into two phases: starting phase and driving phase. For starting phase, DTC response time is quickest with 0.15s followed by FOC with 0.5s and V/f with 1.1s. For driving phase, FOC response time is quickest with 0.1s followed by DTC with 0.15s and V/f with a range of 0.4s to 0.8s. FOC and DTC manage to achieve zero speed error steady state while V/f manage to achieve steady state with a small constant error ±3RPM. FOC produces the best torque response followed by DTC and V/f.
