On-board bidirectional battery chargers topologies for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles

Over the last years, Electric Vehicles (EV) have gained a growing interest as an alternative option for Internal Combustion Engine driven vehicles due to the increasing concern of global warming issue. Since the battery is the key component in the development of electric vehicles technology, the battery charger is also indispensable for their emergence. Typically battery chargers are composed of two stages of conversion and they can be implemented inside (on-board) or outside (off-board) the vehicle. The on-board chargers are limited by size and weight thus they are restricted to low power (slow charging). So to achieve high power level (fast charging) several integration solutions with the existent drivetrain in the vehicle have been proposed. Battery chargers can support bidirectional power flow between the vehicle and the grid which introduces “Vehicle-to-Grid” technology. This paper presents an overview of on-board bidirectional battery chargers. Different topologies for both two-stage chargers and integrated chargers are reported and their operation principals are explained.