998
3, MARCH 2016
Hybrid Energy Storage Systems for Electric Vehicles:
An Experimental Analysis of Performance
Improvements at Subzero Temperatures
Peter Keil, Matthias Englberger, and Andreas Jossen
Abstract—Electric vehicles based on high-energy lithium-ion
batteries often exhibit a substantial loss in performance at subzero
temperatures: Due to slower electrochemical kinetics, the internal
resistances of the batteries rise and diminish available power and
capacity. Hybrid energy storage systems (HESSs) can be used to
overcome these weaknesses. In this paper, the performance of two
HESSs, combining a high-energy lithium-ion battery with either
a high-power lithium-ion battery or a lithium-ion capacitor, has
been investigated experimentally for a driving scenario at vari-
ous temperatures. Both configurations enable driving at __ 20 ◦ C,
which was not possible without hybridization. The HESS using
the high-power lithium-ion battery provides a substantially higher
driving range due to its higher energy density. An analysis of
different operating strategies has helped to maximize the driving
range: Discharging the high-energy battery with a constant cur-
rent and keeping the high-power cell at a higher state of charge
(SoC) extend the driving duration, as the requested driving power
can still be provided at a lower SoC of the high-energy battery.
In addition to the HESSs, two energy storage systems without
hybridization, consisting of different generations of high-energy
lithium-ion cells, have been examined to disclose improvements
in battery technology. These improvements narrow the benefits
of HESSs, as the high-energy batteries have become less reliant
on the support of an additional high-power device. Although
HESSs lose importance for current lithium-ion battery systems,
they can be a valuable option for next-generation lithium batteries,
which are expected to provide higher energy densities but exhibit
reduced rate capability.
Index Terms—Batteries, hybrid energy storage systems
(HESSs), lithium-ion batteries, lithium-ion capacitors.
I. I NTRODUCTION
L ITHIUM-ION batteries are well suited for fully electric
vehicles, as they provide higher specific energies and
higher energy densities than other rechargeable cell chemistries
[1]. However, their poor low-temperature performance is still a
critical issue for electric vehicle applications, since the target
operating temperatures reach down to −30 ◦ C [2]. In our
previous work, we showed that hybrid energy storage systems
Manuscript received March 15, 2015; revised August 24, 2015; accepted
September 13, 2015. Date of publication October 2, 2015; date of current
version March 10, 2016. The review of this paper was coordinated by
A. Bouscayrol.
The authors are with the Institute for Electrical Energy Storage Technology,
Technische Universität München, 80333 Munich, Germany (e-mail: peter.
keil@tum.de; matthias.englberger@tum.de; andreas.jossen@tum.de).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TVT.2015.2486040
0018-9545 © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 65, NO.
(HESSs), combining different energy storage technologies, can
be used to improve the low-temperature performance of electric
vehicles [3].
Although HESSs and their application in electric vehicles
have been frequently discussed in literature (e.g., [4]–[14]),
there is little information about the benefits in low-temperature
performance of these systems. Most HESS publications focus
on improvements in power capability and efficiency and do not
analyze the performance at different temperatures. In [3], we
examined three HESS configurations combining high-energy
lithium-ion batteries with an electric double-layer capacitor,
a lithium-ion capacitor, or a high-power lithium-ion battery.
At −10 ◦ C and −20 ◦ C, the HESS containing the lithium-ion
capacitor and the HESS containing the high-power lithium-ion
battery were able to improve power capability and driving range
considerably.
As lithium-ion battery technology advances, capacity and
performance of high-energy lithium-ion cells improve succes-
sively. In this paper, we want to show the impact of these
developments on the advantages and disadvantages of HESSs
for improved low-temperature performance of electric vehicles.
Therefore, we have continued and extended our experimental
investigations on HESSs. Compared with our previous work
[3], cells with higher energy densities and lower internal resis-
tances are used in this paper to compose and examine HESSs
and energy storage systems without hybridization. The different
energy storage systems are again tested, with a focus on cold
temperatures of 0 ◦ C and below. Furthermore, different operat-
ing modes were implemented on the HESS to identify effective
control strategies for maximizing the driving range at subzero
temperatures. The aim of this paper is to support the design
process of energy storage systems for future electric vehicles.
II. M ETHOD
This section presents the experimental design of our inves-
tigations on performance improvements at low temperatures
achievable by HESSs. It consists of a characterization of the
energy storage devices employed, an introduction of the self-
developed dc–dc converter board, and an overview on the
HESSs and the energy storage systems without hybridization
examined in this paper. Furthermore, the implemented operat-
ing modes for the HESSs are explained, and the load profiles for
the different energy storage systems are presented. Finally, the
test procedure and the measurement equipment are described.
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 KEIL et al.: HYBRID ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES
TABLE I
P ROPERTIES OF THE E NERGY S TORAGE C ELLS E XAMINED
A. Characterization of the Different Energy Storage Devices
The aim of the HESS is to combine energy storage devices
with complementary energy and power characteristics. The
energy storage cells examined in this paper are listed in Table I.
For the high-energy part of the HESS, high-energy lithium-
ion cells (LiB-HE) with a nominal capacity of 3.3 Ah are
used. These cells have many similarities to those used in the
Tesla Model S, which also feature an 18650 form factor, an
NCA cell chemistry, and a capacity above 3 Ah. For the high-
power part, either a high-power lithium-ion battery (LiB-HP) or
a lithium-ion capacitor (LiC) is used. Lithium-ion capacitors,
which are a special subset of supercapacitors, provide power
and energy characteristics that lie in between electric double-
layer capacitors and lithium-ion batteries. An electrical and
thermal characterization of a lithium-ion capacitor can be found
in [15]. No conventional double-layer capacitor is taken into
consideration, as it cannot provide appropriate support for an
electric vehicle due to its low energy content [3]. A second
high-energy lithium-ion cell model, i.e., LiB-HEold , is also
examined to evaluate advancements in lithium-ion battery tech-
nology. This cell model was released about five years earlier
than LiB-HE.
Table I lists the characteristic properties of the different
cells used in this study. To determine the capacity and energy
contents under identical conditions, all cells were discharged
at 25 ◦ C with a constant current of 1 A. Prior to discharging,
each cell had been charged with a constant current of 1 A until
its maximum voltage was reached. The subsequent constant-
voltage period lasted until the charging current dropped below
0.1 A. Table I reveals the spread in specific energy and energy
density of the different cells: For the two high-power cells,
energy densities differ by a factor of 15, and specific energies
differ by a factor of 10. For the three different lithium-ion
batteries, energy densities and specific energies vary up to a
factor of 2.4.
At low temperatures, the minimum voltage specification
is often the limiting parameter for the available discharging
currents: As the voltage drops are higher at low temperatures
due to increased internal resistances, lower discharging currents
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999
Fig. 1. Temperature dependency of the internal cell resistance Rac, 1 kHz . For
a better comparability, the resistance values of the lithium-ion capacitor were
multiplied by 5, as it has about five times the volume of the lithium-ion batteries.
can already cause the cell voltage to drop to the minimum volt-
age level. To examine the increase of internal cell resistances
at low temperatures, Rac,1 kHz , i.e., the real part of the cell
impedance at 1 kHz, is evaluated. This resistance value is in
good agreement with the ohmic part of the cell resistances,
which can be used to estimate the instant voltage drop at load
changes. As the ohmic part of the cell resistances is rather
independent from state of charge (SoC) (see [16] and [17]),
the Rac,1 kHz values depicted in Fig. 1 were extracted from
impedance spectroscopy data at 50% SoC. Fig. 1 illustrates
how the internal resistances Rac,1 kHz increase for temperatures
down to −20 ◦ C. To improve comparability, the resistance
values of the LiC were multiplied by 5, as its volume is about
five times the volume of the other battery cells, which are all of
type 18650 (see Table I).
A lower internal resistance improves power capability, as
higher discharging currents can be provided by the cell without
violating the minimum voltage limitation. As shown in Fig. 1,
LiC exhibits the lowest Rac,1 kHz , which indicates a superior
power capability, even at −20 ◦ C. The resistance values of
the lithium-ion batteries are about two to eight times higher,
which corresponds to a lower power capability. For a wide
range of temperatures, the more recent high-energy battery
LiB-HE exhibits resistance values about 30% lower than the
older cell model LiB-HEold . This reveals advancements in
power capability of high-energy lithium-ion batteries. Only at
−20 ◦ C, LiB-HE exhibits a disproportionately high resistance
value, which lies even above LiB-HEold . The Rac,1 kHz values
of LiB-HP lie in between the values of LiB-HE and LiC.
In addition to the increased internal resistance Rac,1 kHz ,
which can be attributed to low electrolyte conductivity, the
total cell resistance increases even more with lower temperature
due to slow charge transfer kinetics and reduced solid-state
lithium diffusivity [18]. As a general trend, cells with a higher
energy density exhibit higher internal resistances and a higher
sensitivity to low temperatures [3].
B. DC–DC Converter for Hybrid Energy Storage Systems
To combine different energy storage devices to an HESS,
which is capable of managing current flows, additional power
electronics are required [5]. Therefore, a universal dc–dc con-
verter board was developed, which allows an investigation of
HESSs on cell level. Fig. 2(a) presents the HESS topology used
in this study. The dc–dc converter unit is located between the
 1000
Fig. 2. (a) Topology of the hybrid energy storage system, combining a high-
energy (HE) and a high-power (HP) battery. (b) the dc-dc converter board used
for the experimental investigations.
Fig. 3. Schematic representation of the dc-dc converter board comprising
a four-transistor noninverting buck-boost converter. A microcontroller (μC)
measures voltages and currents at both inputs, as well as at the output of the
dc-dc converter and controls the two pairs of switches.
high-energy battery and the output. As peak loads will be cov-
ered by the high-power storage device, which is connected di-
rectly to the output, the dc–dc converter for the high-energy part
can be dimensioned smaller in such a topology. Fig. 2(b) de-
picts the corresponding converter board with two inputs for
different energy storage devices and one common output to
the load.
Fig. 3 illustrates the design and Table II lists technical
parameters of the converter board. The dc–dc converter unit was
designed as a four-transistor noninverting buck–boost converter
[19]. The four-transistor design enables bidirectional current
flow, which is required for regenerative braking and recharging.
Fig. 3 also shows the microcontroller, which measures voltages
and currents at both inputs and the output of the converter
unit. It also controls the power switches by 100-kHz pulsewidth
modulation (PWM) signals. In this paper, the converter unit
operates in buck mode, as long as the voltage of the high-
energy source is above the high-power source, and switches to
buck–boost mode when the voltage of the high-energy source
is below or equal to the high-power source.
C. Composition of Hybrid Energy Storage Systems
The large variations in energy density and resistance charac-
teristics of the capacitor and batteries examined in Section II-A
allow the composition of diverse HESSs. For the two HESS
configurations examined in this paper, the volume of the addi-
tional high-power part is chosen to be similar to the volume of
the high-energy part. Although a larger high-power part would
be necessary for a capacitor-based HESS to cover an entire
acceleration period from 0 to 130 km/h, such a configuration
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 65, NO. 3, MARCH 2016
TABLE II
T ECHNICAL PARAMETERS OF THE DC–DC C ONVERTER U NIT
seems not to be feasible for electric vehicle application, where
the maximum space for the energy storage system is limited:
A reduced share of the high-energy part would lead to re-
ductions in available range, which would not be tolerated by
the customer. Hence, the following two HESS configurations
have been composed: The first HESS combines a high-energy
lithium-ion cell LiB-HE with a high-power lithium-ion cell
LiB-HP; it is called HESS-LiB. The second HESS combines
a lithium-ion capacitor LiC with high-energy lithium-ion cells
LiB-HE and is called HESS-LiC. To obtain the same volume for
the high-power and high-energy part, HESS-LiC contains five
LiB-HE cells.
For our evaluations, an application scenario is assumed,
where the converter for the HESS is integrated into the power
electronics of the electric motor. Thus, no additional space
for the converter has to be considered. This constitutes a best
case scenario, which allows an identification of the maximum
potential of hybrid systems. Consequently, the space demand of
the dc–dc converter is neglected, when comparing HESSs and
energy storage systems without hybridization. Thus, the energy
storage volume of the HESS amounts to twice the volume of the
high-energy battery part. This enlargement by a factor of 2 is
also considered for the high-energy lithium-ion battery systems
without hybridization by reducing the load profile for a single
LiB-HE or LiB-HEold cell to half power.
D. Operating Strategies
In the HESS configurations, the high-power part is intended
for supporting the high-energy lithium-ion battery. The load
distribution between both storage devices is determined by the
operating strategy of the HESS. On our converter board, dif-
ferent load management strategies were implemented. For this
study, the following two operating modes are investigated: fixed
duty cycle and constant load on LiB-HE. They represent the two
extreme cases of operating a HESS, as the high-energy battery
is exposed either to the maximum dynamic of the load changes
at the output or to no dynamic at all. In the first mode, no active
regulation of the power flow takes place. The power distribution
is only a result of the voltages and the internal resistances
of both energy storage devices. In contrast, the second mode
keeps the discharging current for LiB-HE constant. This keeps
the load changes at the output away from the high-energy bat-
tery. As a secondary effect, a constant discharging current for
LiB-HE leads to phases of surplus power. These phases are
used to recharge the high-power device. Only when the high-
power device reaches its maximum voltage, the discharging
 KEIL et al.: HYBRID ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES 1001

current for LiB-HE is reduced to prevent an overcharging of the

high-power device. To obtain maximum performance of the
HESSs operating with constant load on LiB-HE, several runs of
the test procedure have been performed to iteratively determine
an appropriate current value for discharging LiB-HE, which
provides a high capacity utilization.
In the literature, many operating strategies for HESSs can
be found, such as filtering [20], [21], rule-based limitations of
the operating window of the high-energy battery [22], [23],
or optimized load splitting for predefined load profiles [24].
Concerning the load dynamics at the high-energy battery, they
all range between the two extreme strategies examined in
this paper.
By using the fixed duty cycle mode, it is also possible to
derive information about passive hybrid battery configurations,
in which high-energy and high-power modules are connected
directly in parallel. This cannot be examined on cell level,
when the voltage levels of the high-energy and high-power cells
differ. Here, the dc–dc converter operating at a fixed duty cycle
provides the necessary voltage transformation to couple the
dissimilar cells without having to connect different numbers
of cells in series to obtain the same voltage on module level.
The duty cycle used in our HESS configurations corresponds
to the voltage ratio of high-power part to high-energy part.
It was set to 0.88 for HESS-LiC and 0.98 for HESS-LiB.
Although the two lithium-ion batteries of HESS-LiB could have
been connected directly in parallel, the setup with the dc–dc
converter, operating at a duty cycle close to 1, was chosen.
This provides a better comparability of the results between
both HESS configurations and the two operating modes, as
comparable contact and conduction losses occur in all cases.
Moreover, the usage of the converter board enables the mea-
surement of the current distribution among the high-energy and
high-power part.
E. Load Profile for the Experimental Investigations
The experimental investigations on the low-temperature per-
formance of HESSs and energy storage systems without hy-
bridization require a suitable reference load profile. The US06
highway driving cycle [25] is employed in this study, as it is
derived from a real driving scenario and features frequent load
changes with considerable acceleration and deceleration rates.
Such high-power driving situations are most demanding for
the energy storage system of an electric vehicle, particularly at
low temperatures. This driving cycle represents a worst case
scenario, as electric vehicles are often used in urban traffic
conditions, where, despite of more frequent stop-and-go driving
conditions, the battery load is considerably lower [26]. Hence,
if the energy storage system provides sufficient power for the
US06 driving conditions, it automatically covers other urban
or rural driving conditions as well. Fig. 4 shows the velocity
profile of this driving cycle. Within a duration of 10 min, a
distance of about 13 km is covered.
The velocity profile of the driving cycle is converted to a
power profile by using a vehicle simulation model, as described
in [26]. The vehicle model consists of all relevant driving
resistances, such as drag, rolling resistance, and acceleration
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Fig. 4. Velocity profile of the American US06 highway driving cycle.
Fig. 5. Reference load profile on cell level derived from the US06 highway
driving cycle (positive values represent discharging).
resistance. Climbing resistances are neglected. For this study,
the vehicle parameters are based on a compact passenger car
with a mass of 1500 kg and a 60-kW engine. With an assumed
drivetrain efficiency of about 85%, this leads to a maximum
discharge power of 70 kW at the battery. For the reference
load profile, a battery pack consisting of 2000 cells of type
18650 is assumed. Fig. 5 shows the computed reference load
profile for a single high-energy lithium-ion cell, where the total
power demand has been divided by the number of cells of
the battery pack. As no considerable inhomogeneity in current
distribution has to be expected in a battery pack of an electric
vehicle, the results obtained on cell level with the presented
load profile are representative for the performance of the entire
battery system. With LiB-HE cells, such a battery system allows
more than 110 km of driving for the US06 highway profile at
25 ◦ C. Such a configuration is in good agreement with the
results of sizing studies for HESSs, which reveal that perfor-
mance improvements can be obtained particularly for small
battery systems providing driving ranges below 120 km [27] or
220 km [28].
Within this paper, discharging power and discharging cur-
rents are defined positive. As the operating voltage range of the
HESS corresponds to the operating voltage range of its high-
power cell, the voltage ranges of HESS-LiB and HESS-LiC
differ considerably (see Table I). Thus, a power load profile
is used instead of a current load profile to obtain comparable
results. Moreover, the load for HESS-LiC is multiplied by five,
as it has five times the volume of HESS-LiB. To obtain a
fair comparison between HESSs and energy storage systems
without hybridization, the high-energy lithium-ion cells are
also exposed to a half-power load profile. This corresponds
to a high-energy lithium-ion battery system of double volume,
which is similar to the volume of HESS-LiB.
 1002 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 65, NO. 3, MARCH 2016

F. Experimental Setup and Test Procedure

For conducting the experiments, a BaSyTec HPS battery test
system with multiple 18-V test channels is used, which features
16-bit resolution for all voltage and current measurements.
A 360-A test channel is used for the HESS-LiC, a 24-A test
channel is used for the HESS-LiB and LiB-HE, and a 7-A test
channel is used for the LiB-HE x2 measurements. Moreover,
a Vötsch VT4021 climate chamber is used to provide constant
environmental conditions.
To investigate the performance of the HESSs and lithium-ion
battery systems without hybridization at various temperatures,
all experiments are conducted at 20 ◦ C, 0 ◦ C, −10 ◦ C, and
−20 ◦ C. Moreover, the battery cells are enclosed by pipe
insulation to reproduce the heating of the cells in a large battery
system of an electric vehicle. The insulation consists of foamed
polyethylene with a thickness of about 1 cm. To guarantee
similar test conditions, the cells are always fully charged at
25 ◦ C before each test run. The charging procedure consists of
a 1-A constant current phase and a subsequent constant voltage Fig. 6. Voltage curves for discharging high-energy lithium-ion cells at 0 ◦ C
and -20 ◦ C with the reference driving load profile (top) and the driving load
phase, as already described in Section II-A. profile with half power (bottom), representing a high-energy lithium-ion battery
For each test temperature, the computed US06 driving load of double size (LiB-HE x2), which corresponds to the volume of the HESS-LiB
profile is executed on the battery test system, after the cells
have fully acclimatized to the environmental temperature. The
profile, which is presented in Fig. 5. The bottom plot shows the
load profile is repeated with rest periods of 30 s between each
discharge behavior, when the load is reduced by a factor of 2,
run as long as the energy storage system is able to provide
which represents the high-energy lithium-ion battery system of
sufficient driving power. To prevent overcharging and overdis-
double size (LiB-HE x2). This size is similar to the volume
charging, the battery test system automatically reduces the load
of HESS-LiB, which also doubles due to the additional high-
power, when the maximum or minimum voltage specification
power part.
is reached. As this keeps the voltage of the HESS or the battery
At 0 ◦ C, the lithium-ion cells can be discharged with both
always within the specified operating range, a separate end-
profiles. As the load of LiB-HE x2 is reduced by a factor of 2,
of-drive criterion has been defined: When the energy storage
voltage drops are substantially lower. The minimum voltage
system is no longer able to provide 70% of the maximum
and the end-of-drive criterion are reached after 159 min, which
discharge power of the respective load profile, the driving
is considerably later than twice the driving duration of LiB-HE
procedure is stopped. This criterion allows a minor reduction
(68 min). This demonstrates that a load reduction leads to a
in driving power at low SoC, but stops the test, when the power
better utilization of the energy stored in the battery, which is an
reduction exceeds a certain extent, which is assumed not to be
advantage of larger battery systems.
tolerated by the driver, as it prevents higher acceleration, which
At −20 ◦ C, the cells show massive performance limitations.
might be necessary, for example, for an overtaking maneuver.
Due to the high internal resistances, the cells cannot follow
During each test run, the battery test system measures volt-
the load profile in any of the two configurations: Even for
age, current, and temperature. Moreover, voltage and current
the reduced half-power load, only about 50% of the requested
data measured by the dc–dc converter board at its inputs and
power is available. This results in a driving duration of less
output are recorded separately.
than 1 min. Hence, no operation of an electric vehicle with the
considered load profile is possible at −20 ◦ C. This confirms that
III. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION high-power applications at low temperature are still challenging
To investigate the improvements in low-temperature per- for high-energy lithium-ion cells.
formance of electric vehicles achievable by HESSs, different
HESS configurations and energy storage systems without hy- B. Hybrid Energy Storage System at Low Temperature
bridization have been discharged with a comparable highway
driving load profile at various temperatures. The results are In contrast to the energy storage systems without hybridiza-
presented and discussed in the following. tion, an HESS features an additional high-power part to provide
higher discharge power, even at low temperature. Fig. 7 shows
the discharge behavior of HESS-LiB: At −20 ◦ C, the two
A. Energy Storage Systems Without Hybridization
operating modes, i.e., fixed duty cycle and constant load on
For the two energy storage configurations without hybridiza- LiB-HE, are compared. Both enable driving at −20 ◦ C, which
tion, Fig. 6 shows the cell voltages during the driving load has not been possible with the energy storage systems without
scenario at 0 ◦ C and −20 ◦ C. In the top plot, the high-energy hybridization. The different operating modes provide sufficient
lithium-ion cell LiB-HE is discharged with the reference load driving power for 48 and 89 min, respectively.
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 KEIL et al.: HYBRID ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Fig. 7. Discharging the HESS-LiB, combining a high-energy lithium-ion battery LiB-HE and a high-power lithium-ion battery LiB-HP, with the highway load
profile: Current, voltage, and temperature curves are depicted for the two different operating modes. (a) Fixed duty cycle and (b) constant load on LiB-HE.
Fig. 7(a) illustrates the fixed duty cycle operating mode. The
voltage curves of LiB-HE and LiB-HP are almost similar. They
are only scaled by a constant factor of 0.98, which corresponds
to the duty cycle setting of the buck converter. Consequently,
both storage devices exhibit synchronous load changes accor-
dant to the changes in the total driving load. As the high-
power device has a substantially lower internal resistance, it
covers higher current amplitudes during acceleration and during
regenerative braking. Thus, sufficient power for the driving
load profile can be provided. Since LiB-HE is only discharged
and recharged with low current rates, it does not warm up
notably. Thus, its internal resistances remain high, and LiB-HP
continues to cover most of the power demand. Hence, the SoC
and the voltage level of LiB-HP gradually decrease. This results
in a reduction of the output voltage of the HESS. Finally,
the output voltage under load drops to the minimum voltage
limitation, and discharge power is automatically reduced by
the battery test system. The end-of-drive criterion of more than
30% power reduction is fulfilled after 48 min.
The results for the second operating mode, i.e., constant load
on LiB-HE, are depicted in Fig. 7(b). This operating mode leads
to a different discharge behavior: Here, the load on LiB-HE
is kept rather constant at about 1.7 A. Thus, LiB-HE only
provides a constant base power, whereas LiB-HP covers the
entire dynamic of the load profile. As LiB-HE is discharged
with an almost constant current rate from the very beginning,
it warms up faster than in the fixed duty cycle mode. During
periods of low load at the output, the surplus charge from
LiB-HE is transferred to LiB-HP to recharge the high-power
device for subsequent acceleration periods. Hence, LiB-HP
remains at a higher voltage level, which allows larger voltage
drops and, thus, higher discharge power for a longer time.
When the voltage of LiB-HP approaches the maximum voltage
specification during the charge transfer or during regenerative
braking, the discharging current for LiB-HE is reduced to
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1003
avoid an overcharging of the high-power device. Such current
reductions occur particularly in the early phase, when LiB-HP
is still at a high SoC. As Fig. 7(b) demonstrates, this operating
mode enables a driving duration of 89 min.
Comparing the two operating modes highlights that a sub-
stantially longer driving duration can be achieved at −20 ◦ C by
establishing a constant load on LiB-HE. As this operating mode
decouples LiB-HE mostly from the dynamics of the driving
load profile, high current pulses on LiB-HE are avoided. Thus,
no elevated voltage drops occur, and no early power reductions
are necessary to remain within the specified operating voltage
window. Hence, the minimum voltage limit is reached at a later
stage of the discharge process. At −20 ◦ C, the driving duration
is almost doubled compared with the fixed duty cycle mode.
Consequently, a constant load on the high-energy part of the
HESS enables a higher driving distance.
For both operating modes, the large voltage drops of LiB-HP
at the beginning of the test procedure disclose that there is no
considerable power reserve left at −20 ◦ C. It can be concluded
from this result that a smaller high-power part would not
have been sufficient to provide the driving power requested
by the load profile. Hence, the HESS-LiB configuration with
a high-power lithium-ion battery LiB-HP of identical volume
as the high-energy part is required to provide sufficient support
for LiB-HE at the beginning of the discharging procedure
at −20 ◦ C.
C. Comparison of Hybrid Energy Storage Systems
In our study, two different energy storage technologies are
considered for the high-power part of the HESS. The HESS-
LiB uses a high-power lithium-ion battery LiB-HP, and the
HESS-LiC uses a lithium-ion capacitor LiC as support for the
high-energy lithium-ion cells LiB-HE. Both HESS configura-
tions feature the same volume ratio between the high-energy
 1004
Fig. 8. Driving durations under different operating modes for the HESS-LiB,
containing a high-power lithium-ion battery, and the HESS-LiC, containing a
lithium-ion capacitor.
part and the high-power part of 1:1. As the absolute amount of
energy of the two HESS configurations is different due to the
larger size of the LiC, evaluating driving durations instead of
discharged energies provides better comparability.
Fig. 8 shows the discharge durations for both HESS con-
figurations under the two operating modes at four different
temperatures. Both HESSs enable driving with the employed
load profile at −20 ◦ C. The HESS-LiB provides driving dura-
tions between 48 and 131 min in fixed duty cycle mode and
driving durations between 89 and 138 min when operating with
constant load on LiB-HE. The HESS-LiC exhibits considerably
lower driving durations, which originates from the low energy
content of the capacitor: The driving durations range from 6
to 79 min for fixed duty cycle and from 37 to 89 min for
constant load on LiB-HE. The results of the fixed duty cycle
mode for HESS-LiC at −20 ◦ C disclose the limitations of this
operating mode: As the capacitor has a much lower internal
resistance, it provides almost the entire discharge power. As its
energy density only amounts to 3% of the energy density of
the LiB-HE cells, the SoC of the capacitor rapidly decreases,
and the voltage level of the HESS output reaches the minimum
limitation already after a few minutes. Moreover, keeping the
discharging currents of the LiB-HE part low prevents it from
warming up. Thus, the energy content of the LiB-HE cells
remains inaccessible.
All experimental results depicted in Fig. 8 confirm that
operating the HESS with a constant load on LiB-HE improves
the driving duration. This can be observed most pronouncedly
at subzero temperatures, where the difference in internal re-
sistance between high-energy and high-power device increases
substantially. At these temperatures, a high-power device peri-
odically recharged by the high-energy battery has turned out
to be most beneficial: It allows covering higher peak loads
without being restricted by the minimum voltage limitations of
the HESS, even at a low SoC of the high-energy battery.
Comparing both HESS configurations operating with a con-
stant load on LiB-HE reveals that HESS-LiB provides between
50% and 140% higher driving ranges. In our test scenario,
HESS-LiC cannot benefit from its higher power capability, as
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 65, NO. 3, MARCH 2016
Fig. 9. Comparison of driving ranges for the HESS and the lithium-ion battery
systems without hybridization, which have the same volume as HESS-LiB and
contain either LiB-HEold or LiB-HE cells.
the power capability of LiB-HP is already sufficient for provid-
ing the required driving power at −20 ◦ C. Consequently, HESS-
LiB outperforms HESS-LiC at all temperatures examined, as its
higher energy content results in higher driving ranges. Although
the lithium-ion capacitor provides a higher energy density than
a conventional double-layer capacitor, its energy density is still
too low for the application in an HESS for a fully electric
passenger car. Moreover, its power capability cannot be fully
used. Hence, an HESS-LiC seems to be better suited for other
applications where a higher power-to-energy ratio is required.
D. Improvements in Lithium-Ion Battery Technology
To evaluate the performance of the HESS in comparison with
conventional battery systems without hybridization, discharge
durations of two high-energy lithium-ion batteries are regarded.
In addition to LiB-HE, another high-energy cell model, i.e.,
LiB-HEold , is taken into consideration. As this cell model
was released about five years earlier than LiB-HE, it helps
to disclose performance improvements of high-energy lithium-
ion batteries over the last years. For both cells, the reduced
load profile is used for driving range measurements, which
represents high-energy lithium-ion battery systems with double
volume, which is identical to the volume of HESS-LiB.
Fig. 9 illustrates the driving ranges of the two high-energy
batteries and the two HESS with the constant load on LiB-HE
operating mode. As previously described, the two HESS are
the only systems providing sufficient discharge power for the
regarded load scenario at −20 ◦ C. At −10 ◦ C, the older lithium-
ion battery LiB-HEold is not able to provide the requested
driving power, as its higher internal resistances still limit the
discharge power substantially. We also obtained this result in
our previous study for another high-energy lithium-ion cell
model [3]. The release date of that cell model lies in between
LiB-HEold and LiB-HE: It was released about three years before
LiB-HE.
Comparing HESS-LiB and LiB-HEold x2 illustrates that this
HESS configuration provides a better performance than battery
systems based on older high-energy lithium-ion cell models: At
20 ◦ C and 0 ◦ C, driving ranges are rather similar, and at subzero
 KEIL et al.: HYBRID ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES
temperatures, the energy content of the high-energy battery
is only accessible with the HESS configuration, which covers
peak loads by its additional high-power lithium-ion battery.
The results of LiB-HE x2 demonstrate the performance
of a recent high-energy lithium-ion cell model. It exhibits a
better low-temperature performance, as it is able to provide
the requested driving power at −10 ◦ C as well. Moreover, the
increased capacity leads to the highest driving ranges for a wide
temperature range. Only at −20 ◦ C, an HESS configuration
has remained necessary to provide the desired discharge power.
Hence, the improvements of high-energy lithium-ion cells nar-
row the benefits of HESS.
Fig. 9 also demonstrates the limitations of HESS-LiC due to
the low energy density of the lithium-ion capacitor. At temper-
atures of −10 ◦ C and above, HESS-LiC can only provide about
50% of the driving range of LiB-HE x2. Thus, a capacitor-based
HESS is more suitable for applications with a lower energy
demand and a stronger focus on power capability.
IV. C ONCLUSION
To achieve acceptable driving ranges, electric vehicles re-
quire high-energy battery systems. The discharge power of such
a battery system is limited by the internal cell resistances and
the minimum voltage specifications. With lower temperatures,
the cell resistances rise and reduce the battery’s power capabil-
ity. Our study has confirmed that limitations in low-temperature
performance of high-energy lithium-ion batteries are still a
critical issue for the development of energy storage systems for
fully electric vehicles.
To overcome power limitations at subzero temperatures,
HESSs have been investigated. They enable driving without
power reduction, even at −20 ◦ C. The experimental investi-
gations have revealed that the available driving range depends
substantially on the configuration and the operational strategy
of the HESS. In our study, a high-power lithium-ion battery
and a lithium-ion capacitor have been used as the high-power
sources for two different HESS configurations. As both config-
urations were able to provide sufficient power for the selected
driving load profile, the HESS containing a high-power lithium-
ion battery has outperformed the capacitor-based HESS: As the
high-power lithium-ion battery features a higher energy density
than the lithium-ion capacitor, higher driving ranges have been
achieved at all temperatures examined. Capacitor-based HESSs
are more suitable for applications that require a higher power-
to-energy ratio.
For both HESS configurations, the driving range at sub-
zero temperatures has been extended markedly by decoupling
the high-energy lithium-ion battery from the load changes of
the highly dynamic driving load. By keeping the discharg-
ing currents of the high-energy battery at a moderate level,
performance reductions due to elevated voltage drops can be
avoided. The mostly constant load on the high-energy battery
also leads to a periodic recharging of the high-power device.
By keeping the high-power device at a higher voltage level,
sufficient driving power is available, even when the high-energy
battery is at a lower SoC. Furthermore, the constant load on
the high-energy battery leads to a faster warming of the cells.
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1005
All these effects lead to an improved driving range compared
with operating the HESS at a fixed duty cycle, which also
corresponds to a hard parallel connection of the different energy
storage devices. Consequently, the performance improvements
of an HESS at subzero temperatures come largely from its
ability to control current flows.
In contrast to the advantages of HESSs, there are also cer-
tain disadvantages: The hybridization leads to a higher system
complexity. Furthermore, the energy density of an HESS is
always lower than the energy density of a battery system that
consists solely of high-energy lithium-ion cells. This means that
the driving range at regular operating temperatures is generally
lower. Consequently, a compromise between driving range,
low-temperature performance, and cost has to be found.
As the lithium-ion battery technology has advanced over the
last years, the performance of high-energy cells at low tem-
perature has increased, and further improvements are expected.
This will narrow the benefits of HESS, as future high-energy
lithium-ion batteries will be less reliant on the support of an
additional high-power device. Moreover, a simple preheating of
the battery system before driving can become sufficient: In our
study, the battery only had to be warmed up to about −10 ◦ C to
provide the requested driving power without hybridization.
For operating conditions where an insulating and preheating
of the high-energy lithium-ion battery system is not sufficient
to obtain the required driving power, HESSs remain an effective
solution and provide a good compromise between driving range
and low-temperature performance.
HESS have to be considered as a valuable option for next-
generation lithium batteries. As improvements in energy den-
sity are expected to be rather limited for lithium-ion batteries,
next-generation lithium batteries, such as lithium-sulfur [29] or
lithium-air batteries [30], are in the focus of research. Since
these battery technologies exhibit severe limitations in rate
capability [31], HESSs that combine these new high-energy
storage technologies and lithium-ion batteries are promising en-
ergy storage systems for future electric vehicles. Using lithium-
ion batteries for the high-power part helps to maintain the
system’s energy density at a high level. This enables higher
driving ranges, which is a prerequisite for the long-term success
of electric vehicles.
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Peter Keil received the Diploma degree in mechani-
cal engineering in 2010 from Technische Universität
München, Munich, Germany, where he is currently
working toward the Ph.D. degree in electrical engi-
neering.
Since 2010, he has been a Research Associate
with the Institute for Electrical Energy Storage Tech-
nology, Technische Universität München. His main
research activities are in the fields of electrical and
thermal characterization of lithium-ion cells for in-
vestigating battery aging. Furthermore, he is working
on hybrid energy storage systems.
Matthias Englberger received the B.S. and M.S.
degrees in electrical engineering from Technische
Universität München, Munich, Germany, in 2012
and 2015, respectively. His master’s thesis was on
power distribution strategies for hybrid energy stor-
age systems.
From 2011 to 2014, he was a Student Assistant
with the Institute for Electrical Energy Storage Tech-
nology, Technische Universität München.
Andreas Jossen received the Diploma and Doctoral
degrees in electrical engineering from the University
of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany, in 1989 and 1994,
respectively.
From 1994 to 2010, he was with the Centre
for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research, Ulm,
Germany, where he was a Leader of the battery sys-
tem technology group. Since 2010, he has been a Full
Professor with Technische Universität München,
Munich, Germany, where he is the Founder and Head
of the Institute for Electrical Energy Storage Tech-
nology. His research activities are modeling, simulation, and characterization
of rechargeable batteries, as well as fundamental and applied topics in battery
systems, such as battery topologies, state determination, and control of battery
systems.