CHENNAI: Battery voltages on electric cars can vary significantly, depending on the model. This can make it difficult to find compatible charging solutions that can be used by everyone.
Aware of this issue, Indian researchers recently developed a charger that can be adapted to batteries with voltages ranging from 120 to 900 volts — nothing short of a mini revolution.
As with the field of mobile phones, where USB-C will soon become the universal standard, electric vehicle charging will also have to move towards a single solution, adapted to any type or make of car, to become accessible.
While there's still a long way to go, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology here, are working on a universal charger capable of charging any electric vehicle battery between 120 and 900 V.
The voltage of an electric car battery is measured in volts (V), but this varies from one model to another, making it very difficult to charge all of them from a common infrastructure.
The battery charger developed here works in two "stages," starting with a voltage correction circuit, followed by a DC-DC converter. This means that it first corrects the charger's voltage, ie, increases it when the battery voltage is higher than the input voltage, or decreases it if the reverse is true.
According to the lead researchers on this project, this new charger is safe and efficient for charging batteries at any voltage between 120 and 900 V. It is slightly less effective at lower voltages, from 48 to 120 V. The team behind the invention hope to eventually also make it compatible with bicycles, motorcycles and small electric city cars.
In their view, this charger could also be used as a portable unit, like an emergency kit, to be carried by a driver at all times. In fact this type of solution could one day be marketed as an on-board charger. In any case, they have filed a patent and hope to work with commercial partners to launch a first model.
The study outlining their work is published in the September issue of IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.
