1
Comparative Study of Electrical Energy Storage
Systems in Electric Vehicle
G. Praneeth1, M. Sri Venkata Sai Surya2, K. Bhogeshwar Reddy3,
Ch. Pavan Kumar4, K. Pavan Kalyan5, N. Nishith Reddy6
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering,
SRM Institute of Science and Technology,
Kattankulathur. Chennai – 603203. India.

Abstract— Energy storage systems play an important role in
designing an efficient hybrid electric vehicle. This paper deals
with parameters of different batteries used in hybrid electric
vehicle by simulation. Although the model has been tested for
lithium ion, lead acid and nickel metal hydride batteries, it can be
effectively tested to other batteries too. This model provides
various parameters such as average current, average voltage,
state of charge, output power. These batteries are tested under
two different drive cycles. Batteries under test are 24V,30V,36V
of lithium ion, lead acid and nickel metal hydride batteries
respectively the parameters of these batteries of the respective
voltages are compared and efficient battery is stated for
respective drive cycles.
Keywords— EES, Battery, SOC, Electric Vehicle, Drive Cycle.
I. INTRODUCTION
Electric vehicles use an electric motor powered by electricity
from energy storage systems. Unlike other conventional
vehicles which use diesel or gasoline powered engines. Electric
vehicles are being produced on a large scale due to increasing
price of gasoline and environmental pollution. When compared
with the conventional vehicles, the core technology of the
electric vehicles is the energy storage system. Energy storage
systems those which are mainly based on batteries help in
supporting the power grid on the issues such as stabilizing the
energy produced by renewable sources and in ensuring better
quality of electric supply to the electric vehicle. The growth of
the battery storage systems in applications such as electric
vehicles determines the need for their accurate modelling. The
approach of battery powered vehicles is for technological
optimization [1]. Future improvements which can be made in
this field are to increase the reliability and durability of
batteries, decrease weight and size, improving safety and cost
reduction. The stored chemical energy in the battery can be
converted into electrical energy and supplied to the electrical
vehicle. Li-ion, Lead acid, nickel metal hydride are the types of
batteries generally used [2].
A. Lithium Ion Battery:
A lithium-ion battery is a rechargeable battery in which
negative electrons move from cathode to anode during
discharging state and during charging state this is reversed. Due
to this electricity flow is created and can be used for electronic
applications.
During the discharge cycle, lithium present in the anode, which
is a carbon material, is ionized and emitted to the electrolyte
[3]. Lithium ions move through a porous plastic separator and
get inserted into atomic sized holes in the cathode, which is
lithium metal oxide. At the same time, electrons are released
from the anode. This becomes electric current traveling to an
outside electric circuit. When charging, lithium ions go from
the cathode to the anode through the separator. Since this is a
reversible chemical reaction, the battery can be recharged [4].
Due to certain features such as high energy efficiency, no
memory effects and relatively long cycle life compared to other
batteries, these batteries are mostly used for consumer
electronics such as laptops, cell phones etc. These are the
mostly suitable existing technology for electric vehicles
because they can produce high output power per unit of battery
mass and energy. Lithium ion batteries are lighter and smaller
than other rechargeable batteries.
B. Lead Acid Battery;
Lead acid batteries consists of cells kept in series that contain
lead dioxide as positive electrode and sponge lead as negative
electrode. They are immersed in an aqueous solution of
sulphuric acid electrolyte and separated by a micro-porous
material. There are two categories in these batteries namely
flooded type or vented type, which is a normal one and the other
type is VRLA type (valve regulated lead acid) which contains a
valve to seal the battery and acid electrolyte in static condition
[5]. Lead acid batteries are the cheapest and in pas, most
common traction batteries available. Most electrical vehicles
have used lead acid batteries due to high availability and low
cost. Lead acid batteries have extraordinary cycle stability and
excellent discharge characteristics at very high currents low
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temperatures. No lead acid battery should be discharged below various kinds of storage elements, Metal-Air batteries have the
50% of its capacity as it shortens battery’s life [6]. highest energy density.
Battery Cycle Cycle Self-discharge Energy Power
C. Nickel Metal Hydride: Efficiency Life per day density density
The nickel metal hydride is used in electric vehicles because it
doesn’t have any sort of resource and environmental concerns. Lithium >90% 1,000– 0.1–0.3% 100– 250–
ion
The demands such as low cost per cycle long cycle life high 10,000+ 250 340
power density and maintenance free operations are satisfied by Wh/kg W/kg
these batteries. So, it is the reason why nickel metal hydrides Lead 70–90% 500– 0.1–0.3% 30–50 75–
acid
are highly preferred in the construction of storage systems in 800 Wh/kg 300
electric vehicle. These batteries and MH electrodes are prepared W/kg
by the evaluation and comparison of conventional batteries
such nickel-cadmium(Ni-Cd) and lead acid batteries [7]. NiMH 66% 500– 0.5–1% 60–80 250–
1,000 Wh/kg 1,000
W/kg
II. PARAMETERS

I. Cycle Efficiency:
The cycle efficiency is the product of charging efficiency and
discharging efficiency, where charging efficiency is the ratio of
electrical energy stored in an Electrical Energy Storage to the
total energy supplied to that element during the entire charging
process, and discharging efficiency is the ratio of energy
derived from an EES element during the discharging process to
the total energy stored in it.
II. Cycle Life:
During the lifetime of the Electrical Energy Storage element,
which is nothing but a battery, its capacity will tend to decrease
gradually due to irreversible chemical and physical changes and
after that Electrical Energy Storage element is no longer usable.
The cycle life may be defined as the number of cycles an EES
element can perform before its capacity drops to a specific
percentage (60–80% typically) of its initial full charged
capacity. It is one of the key performance parameters and gives
an indication of the expected working lifetime of the Electrical
Energy Storage element. The cycle life of an EES element
depends on the depth of discharge (DoD) before the Electrical
Energy Storage element is recharged.
III. Self-Discharge:
The self-discharge rate of electrical energy storage element is
a measure of how fast a storage element will lose its energy
when it simply sits without being used for any applications.
This is determined by the inner structure, chemistry, ambient
temperature and humidity, the self-discharge characteristics III. OBJECTIVES
significantly affect the energy storage period of the any
electrical energy storage element storage element. Metal-Air A. SOC
batteries, such as nickel metal hydride, have very small self- SOC is short for the State of Charge and it is used to describe
discharge rate and are thus suitable for long-term storage of how full a battery is. When a battery is fully charged, the SOC
energy. Regular ordinary batteries can store energy up to of this battery is said to be 100%. State of Charge can be used
several weeks. The capacitor and the supercapacitor have large to describe how fully the lead acid battery is charged, because
self-discharge rate when compared with others and are only the lead acid battery always need to be fully charged for storage.
useful for short-term energy storage for a maximum of several Lithium batteries and Nickel batteries also take SOC to describe
hours [8]. their energy reserve. The formula for describing the relationship
IV. Power and Energy density of SOC and DOD, that is “SOC = 100% - DOD”. Where DOD
Power density can be calculated as the rated output power is short for depth of discharge [9].
divided by the volume of the Electrical Energy Storage element. B. Average Current
Energy density can be calculated as the stored energy divided The average of all the instantaneous values of currents over the
by the volume of Electrical Energy Storage element. Among drive cycle is called Average Current.
 3

iavg=(1∕T) ×∫i.dt cD = drag coefficient

C. RMS Voltage m = mass of vehicle [kg]

The average of all the instantaneous values of voltages over
A = frontal surface area [m2]
the drive cycle is called Average Voltage.
g = 9.8 m/s
Vavg=(1∕T) ×∫V.dt
r = density of air, 1.2 kg/m3

D. Battery Efficiency: P= FDV

EOUT VAVG ×IAVG ×t
EIN V × AH
City Driving Cycle Fd Power
KMPH (1-10 Newton Watt
seconds)
IV. RESULTS
0 0 0
Drive cycles: 10 146.77 406
Driving cycles are most commonly used to express the behavior 20 154.48 857
of the motion of the vehicle with respective to the time. Drive 40 185.32 2053
cycle is basically a graph plotted between x and y axes taking 40 185.32 2053
velocity of the vehicle in the y axis and the time in the x axis. 50 185.32 2053
This method is used as a way to estimate about the performance
50 208.451 2887
of the vehicle, based on its velocity, and is used to estimate the
40 185.32 2053
values of their parameters [10].
20 154.48 857
In this paper, two different driving cycles are selected. One is
when the vehicle moves on village road and the other one is for 10 146.77 406
city roads. Power is calculated based on the selected velocities. 5 144.84 200

City Driving Cycle Village Driving Cycle

Village Driving Fd Power
KMPH (1-10 seconds) KMPH (1-10 seconds) Cycle
0 0 KMPH (1-10 Newton Watt
10 5 seconds)
20 10 0 0 0
40 10 5 144.84 200
40 20 10 146.77 406
50 10 10 146.77 406
50 5 20 154.48 857
40 5 10 146.77 406
20 10 5 144.84 200
10 10 5 144.84 200
5 5 10 146.77 406
10 146.77 406
5 144.84 200
The forces acting on the car are caused by internal, tire, and air
resistance. The resultant of these forces, the total drag force, Fd
can be estimated by the following equation:

FD = cRmg + (1/2) ρcDAV2 1.

A. City Road
Lithium ion battery:
Where:

cR = coefficient of rolling resistance

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CITY LITHIUM ION

ROAD BATTERY

VOLTAGE AH SOC IAVG EFFICIENCY

24 25 77 58.38 24.46

24-V Lithium ion: 30 20 76 46.75 24.47

36 16.66 76 39 24.5

(a) Battery power(w) (b) Power required(w)

(a) Battery power(w) (b) Power required(w)

(a) SOC% (b) Current(A) (c) Voltage(V)

(a) SOC% (b) Current(A) (c) Voltage(V)

3. Nickel Metal Hydride:
2. Lead acid battery:
CITY NICKEL METAL HYDRIDE
ROAD BATTERY
CITY LEAD ACID BATTERY
ROAD VOLTAGE AH SOC IAVG EFFICIENCY
24 25 78 57.5 24.45
VOLTAGE AH SOC IAVG EFFICIENCY
30 20 79 46.02 24.48
24 25 74 68.0 24.54
83 36 16.66 79 38.42 24.49
30 20 74 54.5 24.55

36 16.6 74 45.5 24.6 24-volt Nickel Metal Hydride:

6

24-volt Lead acid:

 5

(a) Battery power(w) (b) Power required(w)

(a) Battery power(w) (b) Power required(w)

(a) SOC% (b) Current(A) (c) Voltage(V)

(a) SOC% (b) Current(A) (c) Voltage(V)

2. Lead Acid Battery:

VILLAGE LEAD ACID BATTERY

B. Village Road ROAD

1. Lithium Ion Battery: VOLTAGE AH SOC IAVG EFFICIENCY

VILLAGE LITHIUM ION 24 25 94 14.94 5.96

ROAD BATTERY
30 20 94.3 11.97 5.981
VOLTAGE AH SOC IAVG EFFICIENCY
24 25 94.2 13.58 6 36 16.66 94.3 9.97 5.983

30 20 94.5 10.88 5.98

24-volt Lead acid:
36 16.66 94.5 9.05 6

24-V Lithium ion:

 6

(a) Battery power(w) (b) Power required(w)

(a) Battery power(w) (b) Power required(w)

(a) SOC% (b) Current(A) (c) Voltage(V)

(a) SOC% (b) Current(A) (c) Voltage(V)
3. Nickel Metal Hydride

VILLAGE NICKEL METAL HYDRIDE V. CONCLUSION

ROAD BATTERY

VOLTAGE AH SOC IAVG EFFICIENCY REFERENCES

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 7

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