• electric car
• electric vehicle
• maintenance
• RCM
• reliability
• reliability centred maintenance

The reduction of environmental pollution is one of the greatest challenges for humanity, today and for the immediate future. Air quality is one of the most critical aspects in determining people’s health, particularly in big cities, and transportation emissions are currently considered accountable for almost 32% of total air contamination.
The more widespread use of green vehicles could have important effects both on the environment and the economy, and this thesis work intends to focus on reliability and maintainability of pure-electric vehicles (EVs).
The main objectives of this paper are:
• To conduct research into state-of -art of pure-electric car powertrain technology, describing the functions and operations of its various components: mechanical, electrical and the control links between those components are all carefully considered.
• To identify and define a long term maintenance plan for the power train system, utilising the RCM method.
In order to achieve these targets and objectives, a wide literature review will be conducted on existing electric vehicle technology, taking already published and available information from similar technologies which are more mature than EVs one, but with comparable run conditions and operations.
The method adopted for this maintenance study is Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM): this logic will be reviewed and applied to the powertrain system, designing and completing proper worksheets (COFA worksheet and PM task worksheet) which will form the suggested maintenance plan. This proposed plan consists of various elements including: failure modes identification, failure effects on the vehicle, criticality classification of the components, failure causes identification and suggested preventive maintenance tasks with proper periodicity.
In the final part of the paper, the results and outcomes of the analysis will be discussed, and possible future developments will be identified.