Auxiliary Inverter Charger (AIC) — Concept & Experimental results

Electric Vehicle (EV) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) have been globally developed to realize sustainable world. An on board charger is required for charging at home, but it is not necessary to bring the charger while driving. The on-board-charger becomes only `weight' while driving vehicles. A newly developed Auxiliary Inverter Charger (AIC) eliminates a stand-alone on-board charger. AIC integrates an on board charger with an existing on board auxiliary inverter. AIC works as a charger while parking and exclusively AIC works as an inverter while driving the vehicles. This means that AIC offers time-sharing function of charger and auxiliary inverter. AIC offers three benefits. 1) 30% smaller in volume and 35% lighter in weight compared with a stand alone conventional charger and an auxiliary inverter. 2) No additional cooling parts in vehicle is required for charger function, with more than 96% efficiency of power conversion from commercial AC line to battery DC line. 3) Bidirectional 3.3kW charging for smart grid, home energy management system (HEMS) and building energy management (BEMS) is easily realized. Concept, Design and Experimental results of AIC are shown in this paper.