Review of multiple input DC-DC converters for electric and hybrid vehicles

Batteries, ultra capacitors, fuel cells, and solar arrays are widely used in electric and hybrid vehicles (EVs/HVs) as an electric power source or an energy storage unit. In the structure of the electric power system of modern EVs/HVs, more than one of these units may be employed to improve the performance and efficiency; hence utilization of a multi-input DC-DC converter is inevitable to obtain a regulated bus DC voltage. In this paper, a review of multiple input DC-DC power electronic converters (MI-PEC) devoted to combine the power flow from several on-board energy sources of an EV/HV is presented. Several multi-input DC-DC converters based on various topologies are studied and analyzed. The operating modes of each topology is presented and compared with other topologies.