Comparison of Different Power Train Topologies for an Off-Road Electric Vehicle

This paper deals with a comparative study between different power train topologies regarding batteries aging index factors for off-road electric vehicle (EV) applications. The studied power train topologies are battery pack supplying the motor- drive directly (original), two-stage inverter motor- drive and embedded quasi-Z-source inverter motor- drive. The comparison is conducted in terms of battery aging performance indexes for an electric vehicle considering the same on-board energy capacity. The modeling and the control design for both topologies are presented and discussed. Simulation investigations are performed to verify the different topologies. It is shown that the embedded quasi-Z-source inverter produces better aging performance index in terms of root-mean-square of the current, average values of the battery currents than other topologies. Embedded quasi-Z- source inverter and two-stage inverter reduce RMS, average values with a slight superiority for embedded quasi-Z-source inverter for standard deviation and variation coefficient. The results demonstrate that under the same operating conditions, the transient and the steady state performances of different topologies are comparable. These results prove that embedded quasi-Z-source inverter is a good candidate topology to be used in multi-source electric vehicle system.