144
1, JANUARY 2001
Nonconventional On-Board Charger for Electric
Vehicle Propulsion Batteries
Luca Solero, Member, IEEE
Abstract—Electric vehicles (EVs) are needed in densely pop-
ulated urban areas to reduce air pollution. Battery chargers are
needed to supply dc voltage to charge the high-energy battery
packs used in EVs. This paper deals with an on-board battery
charger arrangement that is fully based on the use of the power
components of the EV motor drive. Desired features for EV bat-
tery chargers such as minimum volume, low cost, high efficiency,
and high reliability are fully matched by means of the proposed
solution. The proposed on-board charger arrangement has been
installed on an electric scooter prototype being developed for the
Far East markets. Design analysis and experimental results of the
on-board charger prototype are presented.
Index Terms—Electric vehicle (EV) propulsion system, low-cost
high-efficiency prototype, on-board battery charger.
I. INTRODUCTION
E LECTRIC vehicles (EVs) are expected to drive reduction
of air pollution in densely populated metropolitan areas.
The increasing use of EVs will inevitably prompt the use of a
large number of battery chargers to supply the dc voltage re-
quired to charge battery packs.
To date, battery chargers often are designed to be used as off-
board arrangements because of the large size and high weight re-
sulting from the required inductors, capacitors, cooling system,
and eventual isolating transformer. On the other hand, the use
of battery chargers with an on-board arrangement would allow
battery charging at any time this is needed, given the availability
of the supply grid.
Fig. 1 shows the general architecture of an EV motor drive
arrangement with an off-board battery charging system. Such
an architecture requires the use of two power converters (one
for the vehicle propulsion and the other for charging the vehicle
battery) and thereby results in an additional cost for the propul-
sion system.
The use of on-board chargers would increase acceptance of
EVs, particularly in the case of lightweight EVs devoted to
urban mobility. In fact, in scooters and three-wheel vehicles,
reduced room is available for housing the propulsion battery
pack, and thereby autonomy no greater than 40–60 km can be
achieved with the conventional lead-acid battery arrangements
[1]. As a result, the use of such lightweight vehicles would
require the availability of a large number of “battery recharging
stations” spread out in an urban environment, which to date
is not the case. Charging technology plays the key role for
Manuscript received July 2, 2000; revised September 29, 2000 and October
26, 2000.
The author is with the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering,
University of Roma Tre, Rome 00146 Italy.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9545(01)01930-2.
0018–9545/01$10.00 © 2001 IEEE
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 50, NO.
solving some of these problems. In fact, on-board chargers
can use any household outlet and extend the range of EVs
significantly. Hence, the arrangement of a battery charger
on-board a lightweight EV is a desired feature. It should be
noted that the quite small size of the propulsion system makes
the power requirement for a possible fast charge system not
critical for the power converter design [2].
Fig. 2 shows the proposed on-board battery charger configu-
ration. This is based on suitably reusing the power components
of the EV propulsion drive. Thus, desired features for EV battery
chargers such as minimum volume, low cost, high efficiency,
and high reliability are fully matched by means of the proposed
solution. A minimum number of additional power components
to the motor drive arrangement are required. However, the ad-
ditional power rectifier and the LC filter can be easily placed
close to the propulsion drive.
EV motor-drive power devices turn out to be oversized with
respect to the technical specifications of the charger design, re-
sulting in high efficiency of the battery charge system. High ef-
ficiency is one of the most important requirements for modern
chargers, as it strongly affects the entire energy efficiency of
EVs [3].
The proposed arrangement of the on-board charger has been
installed onboard an electric scooter prototype [4] being devel-
oped for Far East markets. The motor-drive propulsion system
is accomplished by means of a lead-acid battery rated 180 V, 12
Ah, whereas single-phase voltage supply is provided by the grid
at 110 V, 60 Hz.
As an additional feature of the proposed EV arrangement,
during operation of the motor drive a small size dc–dc power
electronic converter is used to provide the maintenance charge
of a 12-V auxiliary battery from the 180-V battery array. Such
an auxiliary battery charger is arranged by means of the cascade
of a buck converter with a full-bridge converter.
II. ANALYSIS OF THE PROPOSED SOLUTION
A. Battery Charging Law
In EV applications, the propulsion battery is required to un-
dergo a continuous sequence of deep discharges followed by
recharge to maximum capacity. The prime requirement is there-
fore a system that provides a rapid and efficient charge, using as
simple equipment as possible and avoiding damage to the bat-
tery.
The constant current charge method requires simple and inex-
pensive control equipment. However, if high currents are used,
problems are encountered with batteries, which have porous
SOLERO: NONCONVENTIONAL ON-BOARD CHARGER FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE PROPULSION BATTERIES
Fig. 1. EV motor drive with off-board battery charger.
electrode structures. In this case, nonuniform current distribu-
tion and severe gassing may occur toward the end of the charge.
At a low current, the total charging time may be unacceptably
long. With the constant-voltage charge method, the current is
high at the beginning of the charge and falls off as the charge
proceeds. As a consequence, toward the end of the process, the
current flow is likely to be very low. If the charging voltage is
too high, Joule heating early in the charge is likely to be exces-
sive, leading to rapid deterioration of the cell [5], [6].
The entire charging process should be arranged in two
phases. The first charging phase is at constant current and
with the battery voltage progressively rises. As soon as the
battery voltage reaches the trickle level, the constant-voltage
charging method should be applied, with the charging current
progressively falling down to the maintenance level. The
constant voltage charge phase requires a decoupled and very
accurate (i.e., close to 1/1000) measure of the battery array
voltage involving an expensive control system.
In the proposed on-board charger, a current control along the
whole charging operation is implemented. The charge of the
propulsion battery is achieved by means of a starting constant-
current (SCC) charge until the battery array voltage reaches
the trickle level; then, the charging current is progressively de-
creased to the maintenance constant current (MCC) charge. The
achieved charging law is shown in Fig. 3, where the starting con-
stant current is 3 A (i.e., 1/4 of the rated battery array ca-
pacity) and the maintenance current ( ) is 1 A.
The adopted current control allows the process of charge
equalization by overcharging; equalization is implemented by
reducing the charge current to small value, as the battery pack
reaches a state of charge where it is probable that some cells in
the pack are at the top of charge.
B. On-Board Battery Charger Configuration
The proposed on-board battery charger arrangement operates
as a stepup dc–dc converter. In fact, the battery voltage spans
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145
Fig. 2. Proposed EV motor drive with on-board battery charger.
Fig. 3. Battery charging law adopted in the proposed on-board charger.
from 150 V at deep discharge to 220 V at full charge, whereas
the rectified and filtered 110-V grid voltage supply has the av-
erage value of 130 V.
Fig. 4 shows how the power devices of the EV propulsion
system are used in case of the battery charging operation. The in-
verter positive-busbar insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs)
are kept steadily in the off state, whereas the negative-busbar
IGBTs are simultaneously switched in order to follow the bat-
tery charging control law.
The switches Ta-, Tb-, and Tc- are to be operated all together
as a simple switch. Due to the IGBT’s positive thermal coef-
ficient, the current flow is equally shared among these power
components. Compared to the case with a single IGBT being
used for the total current, the use of paralleled IGBTs results
in reduction of the conduction loss and thereby increases effi-
ciency.
The output capacitor of the stepup battery charger is
the same used to filter the transient peak currents due to the
motoring mode of operation, whereas the input inductor
is achieved by using the motor three phase windings. The
inductance turns out to be the total inductance of the motor
windings in homopolar configuration. Hall-effect transducer
and driver circuit used in the control system devoted to battery
charging are the same utilized in the motoring mode of oper-
ation, providing few adjustments in the control circuit board.
As shown in Fig. 4, the Hall-effect transducer is positioned in
the dc link between the inverter and the capacitor , allowing
the measure of the dc current peak value during motoring op-
eration. On the other hand, during battery charging operation,
146
Fig. 4. Motor drive arrangement in battery charging mode of operation.
the Hall-effect sensor allows measurement of the filtered dc
current flowing through the stepup output diode and thereby of
the battery-charging dc current level.
The dc–dc converter arrangement used for battery charging
operates in discontinuous conduction mode, allowing more suit-
able control of the battery charging current. Such discontinuous
conduction operations allow better performance compared to
the continuous conduction mode, as can be evinced from the
comparison between Fig. 5(a) and (b). During constant cur-
rent charge, the battery voltage progressively rises. As a con-
sequence, the duty cycle of the switch increases, involving a
transient reduction of the output current in the continuous con-
duction mode, as shown in areas A and B in Fig. 5(a). In fact,
the average value of areas A and B on the switching period cor-
responds to the average value of the output current. The desired
value of the output current is restored after a few switching pe-
riods, as the transient due to the converter inductor is over. In
the discontinuous conduction mode [Fig. 5(b)], the output cur-
rent is regulated at a constant value by means of the adopted
control system without any oscillation. In fact, the increase of
the battery voltage does not cause the transient reduction of the
output current as long as the dc–dc converter stays in the dis-
continuous conduction mode of operation.
The backhand is the need for higher converter current peaks
for the same output power in discontinuous mode with respect to
the continuous conduction mode of operation. In any case, the
converter current peaks are very low with respect to the rated
current of the inverter designed for the motoring mode of oper-
ation. As shown in Fig. 4, the only power devices added to the
original motor drive arrangement are the power rectifier and the
line-frequency LC filter. These components are of general-pur-
pose type and are very reliable. They thus can be easily posi-
tioned onboard or avoided should a suitable dc bus be acces-
sible.
III. AUXILIARY BATTERY CHARGER
In EVs, a 12-V auxiliary battery is needed to supply drive and
control circuits as well as various vehicle electrical equipment.
The auxiliary battery of the proposed prototypal drive is oper-
ated in a buffer mode. In fact, every time the vehicle is switched
on, the 12-V battery provides power to the load, whereas, by
means of a dc–dc converter, it is supplied by the propulsion bat-
tery array. The adopted charging system assures that charging
current is provided to the auxiliary battery during both motoring
and charging mode of operation of the motor drive arrangement.
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 50, NO. 1, JANUARY 2001
Fig. 5. Switch duty cycle rise: (a) transient reduction of charging current in
the continuous conduction mode and (b) regulation at constant value in the
discontinuous conduction mode.
Thus, maximum endurance of the control circuit supplying is
accomplished.
The dc–dc converter current regulation provides two levels
of constant-current charge. Higher current level is applied if the
battery voltage results lower than 11.5 V, whereas a lower cur-
rent charge is provided as soon as the voltage rises to 14 V. The
higher and lower current levels are chosen as a function of, re-
spectively, the maximum and the minimum power that the aux-
iliary battery has to supply; the minimum power is referred to
just to drive and control circuits, whereas the maximum power
is needed to supply the whole vehicle’s electrical equipment.
The two current levels result, respectively, in 3 and 0.8 A for
the electric scooter prototype for which this arrangement was
developed.
As shown in Fig. 6, the dc–dc converter is accomplished by
means of the cascade of a buck converter with a full-bridge con-
verter. The buck converter is operated with a fixed value of duty
cycle, whereas, by means of pulse-width modulation regulation,
the duty cycle of the full-bridge converter is adjusted to keep the
output current at the desired value.
The cascade of two dc–dc converters is required to cover the
large difference between input and output voltage levels, which
is the electrical isolation provided by a high-frequency trans-
former. The full-bridge topology assures bidirectional core exci-
tation, allowing a greater peak swing in the flux den-
sity around its average value during each cycle of the switching
frequency . The duty cycle of the buck converter is set at 0.23,
allowing the use of low-voltage switches for the full-bridge con-
verter (50.6 V at propulsion battery maximum voltage). Selec-
SOLERO: NONCONVENTIONAL ON-BOARD CHARGER FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE PROPULSION BATTERIES 147

Fig. 6. Auxiliary battery charger arrangement—cascade of buck converter

with full-bridge converter.

Fig. 8. IGBT’s duty cycle (trace 3) and converter input current (trace 4, 5
A/div) at MCC charge.

Fig. 7. IGBT’s duty cycle (trace 3) and converter input current (trace 4, 5
A/div) at SCC charge.

tion of a transformer ratio of 1.6 allows full-bridge operation

with duty cycle values close to 0.5 (0.38–0.56) in every condi- Fig. 9. IGBT’s duty cycle (trace 3) and converter output current (trace 4, 1
tion. Both buck and full-bridge converters use MOSFETs and A/div) at SCC charge.
switching frequency of 50 kHz. This frequency value is a good
compromise between switching losses and sizing of inductors,
capacitors, and the transformer.

IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

A. Propulsion Battery Charger
An experimental test campaign on the proposed onboard bat-
tery charger was carried out by using a 6-kW axial flux perma-
nent magnet (AFPM) motor, a 180-V 12-Ah lead-acid battery
array, and a 50 A–600 V intelligent power module (IPM) IGBT
inverter [5]. The IPM inverter was operated in stepup configu-
ration at switching frequency kHz; motor windings in
homopolar configuration were used as the dc–dc converter input
inductor (0.1 mH), and the output electrolytic capacitor was
rated 4700 F-250 V.
For both SCC (3 A) and MCC (1 A), charge current and con-
trol signal waveforms across the power electronic interface were Fig. 10. IGBT’s duty cycle (trace 3) and converter output current (trace 4, 1
sensed by means of an oscilloscope. Figs. 7 and 8 show the A/div) at MCC charge.
inverter bottom IGBT’s duty cycle (trace 3) and the inductor
current (trace 4) in battery charging mode of operation, respec- battery input current (trace 4). The inductor current waveform
tively, during SCC and MCC charge. Figs. 9 and 10 show the relates to discontinuous current conduction mode with 13 A of

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148 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 50, NO. 1, JANUARY 2001
Fig. 11. IGBT’s duty cycle (trace 3) and converter input current (trace 4, 5
A/div) at SCC charge with auxiliary inductor of 1 mH.
Fig. 12. IGBT’s duty cycle (trace 3) and converter output current (trace 4, 2
A/div) at SCC charge with auxiliary inductor of 1 mH.
peak value, whereas the battery charge current is continuous and
suitably follows the control law.
Figs. 11 and 12 show, respectively, the waveforms of the con-
verter input and output current (traces 4) with a 1-mH auxiliary
inductor being used instead of the motor phase windings.
The use of an external inductor results in continuous con-
duction mode of operation but causes low-frequency undamped
oscillations of the battery current. In this case, the control cir-
cuit was not able to regulate the output current, being the duty
cycle hunting between 0 and 1 with the frequency imposed by
the LC power circuit. The achieved experimental results are in
good agreement with the theoretical analysis briefly discussed
above.
B. DC–DC Converter for Auxiliary Battery
The buck converter, full-bridge converter, and control and
drive circuits forming the auxiliary battery charger were all as-
sembled on the same circuit board. Thus, the resulting outline
dimensions (100 160 40 mm) were suitable for the use of
the dc–dc converter on small-size EVs.
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Fig. 13. Switch drain-source voltage (trace 2, 50 V/div) and output current
(trace 4, 500 mA/div) of buck converter.
Fig. 14. Voltage (trace 2, 50 V/div) and current (trace 4, 1 A/div) of high
frequency transformer primary winding.
Experimental results concerning the auxiliary battery charger
were achieved by assuming three different operating conditions:
1) propulsion battery fully charged (220 V) and high load
current (3 A);
2) propulsion battery fully charged (220 V) and low load
current (0.8 A);
3) propulsion battery at minimum charge (150 V) and low
load current (0.8 A).
Voltage and current waveforms sensed in operating condition
1) are shown in Figs. 13 and 14.
At turning off, the drain-source voltage of the buck converter
switch (Fig. 13) exhibits some overvoltages (about 25 V), but
this is not dangerous for the used MOSFET. The output cur-
rent waveform has 200 mA current ripple. The measured switch
conduction and switching losses were 71 mW and confirmed the
prediction that heatsink is not needed for this particular appli-
cation. Transformer primary winding voltage and current wave-
forms (Fig. 14) were achieved by using a 10- F capacitor con-
nected in series with the winding. The series capacitor avoids
SOLERO: NONCONVENTIONAL ON-BOARD CHARGER FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE PROPULSION BATTERIES
the flowing of the current continuous component, due to the im-
perfect symmetry of the primary winding voltage, assuring the
linear mode of operation of the transformer magnetic core.
V. CONCLUSION
Concerning the EV application, battery chargers having an
onboard topology are highly desirable, as they allow battery
charging everywhere given the availability of the supply grid.
In consideration of that, this paper has discussed a novel on-
board battery charger configuration. The peculiar arrangement
of the proposed battery charger is achieved by means of the same
power devices used in the EV propulsion drive. Battery charger
regulation law is achieved by implementing a reliable and not
expensive current control along the whole charging operation.
This includes starting constant current charge until the battery
array voltage reaches the trickle level and then maintenance con-
stant current charge.
A small-size dc–dc power electronic converter is also used to
provide the charge maintenance of a 12-V auxiliary battery from
the propulsion battery array during both motoring and charging
mode of operation of the motor drive. The experimental results
achieved from a prototypal system confirm the validity of the
proposed solution.
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149
REFERENCES
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compact, three-wheel electric vehicle for urban mobility,” in Proc. 1998
Int. Conf. Power Electronics Drives and Energy Systems for Industrial
Growth, Perth, Australia, 1998.
[2] J. Burba and C. Ochocinski, “Issues with fast charging electric vehicle
batteries,” in Proc. 1997 Int. Electric Vehicle Symp., Orlando, FL, Dec.
1997.
[3] F. Schope, A. Nagel, and U. Esser, “High efficiency on-board charger
with sinusoidal line current and fast switching resonant converters,” in
Proc. 1996 Int. Electric Vehicle Symp., Osaka, Japan, Oct. 1996.
[4] F. Caricchi, F. Crescimbini, G. Noia, and E. Santini, “Prototype of an
innovative electrical scooter for application in zero-emission urban mo-
bility,” in Proc. 1994 Int. Electric Vehicle Symp., Anaheim, CA, 1994.
[5] R. Crompton, Battery Reference Book: SAE, 1996.
[6] Handbook of Batteries, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1995.
Luca Solero (M’98) received the electrical engineering degree from the Uni-
versity of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy, in 1994.
Since 1996, he has been with the Department of Mechanical and Industrial
Engineering, University of Roma Tre, Rome, Italy, where he currently is an As-
sistant Professor. His research interests include permanent magnet motor drive,
power converter topologies, and control systems design for unconventional ap-
plications such as electric and hybrid vehicle and renewable energy systems.
Dr. Solero is a member of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, IEEE Industry
Applications Society, IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society, and IEEE
Vehicular Technology Society.