Design of ultra-fast electric vehicle battery charger

Abstract

As the world move towards using Electric Vehicles (EVs) as a sustainable way of commuting, the demand for finding solutions to charge EVs as quickly as filling a fuel tank of an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle increases. In this paper, the performance of a 2kW Cuk converter operating in Continuous Conduction Mode (CCM) and Discontinuous Inductor Conduction Mode (DICM) are assessed for Ultra-Fast Charging (UFC) of low voltage EV batteries such as the one used in golf carts. Besides, state-space modeling for the Cuk converter operating in DICM is carried out to design the output current controller. The designs were simulated and verified using MATLAB/Simulink, and the results show that the size and the complexity of the controller can be reduced when the Cuk converter operates in DICM, meeting the requirements of international standards.