Design and Development of Bidirectional DC-DC Converters Using Battery/Supercapacitor for Electric Vehicle Applications

Abstract

In the last two decades the pollution problems and the increase of the cost of fossil energy (oil, gas) have become planetary problems. The automobile manufacturers started to react to the urban pollution problems in the nineties by commercializing the electric vehicle. But the battery weight and cost problems were not solved. The batteries must provide energy and peak power during the transient states. These conditions are severe for the batteries. To decrease these severe conditions, the supercapacitors and batteries associated with a good power management present a promising solution. Supercapacitors are storage devices that enable to supply the peaks of power to hybrid vehicles during the transient states. During the steady states, batteries will provide the energy requested. This methodology enables the decrease of the weight and increase of the lifespan of the batteries. Hybridization using batteries and supercapacitors for transport applications is needed when energy and power management are requested during the transient states and steady states.