Power transfer in hybrid electric vehicles with multiple energy storage units

With increasing urban pollution and increasing greenhouse gas pollution, there is much interest in reducing pollution from vehicles. One of the more promising technologies is hybrid electric vehicles; unfortunately the cost of storing electrical energy is still high. A combination of batteries and supercapacitors is an economically viable storage option provided that the energy can be transferred without expensive DC/DC converters. This paper demonstrates a new power flow topology that doesn't use converters and discusses its application in two vehicles, the GM Holden ECOmmodore and the aXcessaustralia LEV.