Overview on battery chargers for plug-in electric vehicles

The paper deals with the battery chargers for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). At first, the conventional battery chargers based on front-end diode rectifiers are described, dwelling on the topologies that improve their power factor. Then the bidirectional battery chargers are illustrated, highlighting their capabilities both to achieve a nearly unity power factor and to execute vehicle-to-grid services. At last, the so-called integral battery chargers are presented, showing that they are a viable solution to reduce the power electronics onboard the PEVs.