The History of Creation

Electric sports car «KhADI-11e» was built by the students of Kharkiv Automobile and Highway Institute under the guidance of the Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering B. Ye. Korotenko, the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR V. K. Nikitin and the Teaching Assistant          of  the  Department  Yu. K. Stebchenko.

«KhADI-11e» was created with the sole purpose of verifying the reliability of design procedure and hardware that gave possibility of adjusting the current on the run without resistance in the armature circuit, which greatly increased the power of the electric car. The control system and power train were designed in-house using some of the standard automobile parts. Instead of the internal combustion engine, direct current motor with series excitation and the capacity of 30 kW (tank starter-generator) was installed; the gearbox was excluded from the transmission. The speed control system was absent (the control was carried out using only the accelerator pedal). The power was supplied by eight lead-acid batteries with the rated voltage of 24 V, which were located on both sides of the racing driver's seat. For mixed parallel-series connection the voltage in the electric system was 90 V. The undercarriage and car body underwent almost no changes as compared to «KhADI-5». The expectations of the tests appeared to be justified. The electric car gained another position in the battle for its existence that lasted for more than a century and a half.

  In May 1972 a new electric car from KhAHI caused not only admiration of experts, but also confusion among strict and impartial judges. They were unprepared for a meeting with a record-breaking electric car.