Electric vehicle

An electric vehicle comprising:

• a direct current power supply;
• a switching element;
• a switching element drive circuit that drives the switching element;
• an inverter that converts a direct current voltage of the direct current power supply to an alternating current voltage;
• an inverter control circuit that controls the inverter;
• a travel motor rotated by the alternating current voltage;
• a smoothing capacitor connected between input terminals of the inverter;
• a discharge circuit that discharges the smoothing capacitor;
• a control power supply that supplies electric power to the inverter control circuit;
• a holding capacitor that stores the electric power supplied from the control power supply and supplies the electric power to the inverter control circuit;
• and
• a collision detector that detects a collision of the vehicle, wherein
• the inverter control circuit has:
• a switching circuit that switches between a state of supplying the electric power to the switching element drive circuit and a state of stopping supplying the electric power to the switching element drive circuit;
• and a discharge control circuit that controls the discharge circuit,
• the collision detector is configured to transmit a first signal and a second signal that follows the first signal to the inverter control circuit when detecting the collision of the vehicle, and
• the switching circuit stops supplying the electric power to the switching element drive circuit when the inverter control circuit receives the first signal, and the discharge control circuit discharges the smoothing capacitor when the inverter control circuit receives the second signal.