2018 Third International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, Communication, Computer Technologies and Optimization Techniques (ICEECCOT) 14-15,

December 2018

A Review on Electric Vehicles with perspective of

Battery Management System
Daisy Ranawat, M P R Prasad
School of VLSI and Embedded Systems Design, National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra
ranawatparag@gmail.com, mprp823@gmail.com

Abstract— The present paper discusses the diffusion of range greater than 200 miles by Tesla Motors further
electric vehicles. Unlike hybrid electric vehicles, which are increased the interest in electric vehicles.
partially powered by electricity, battery electric vehicle has the The Chevy Volt by General Motors is a Plug-in Hybrid
potential to reduce fossil fuel use even more than before. Many electric vehicle has the same architecture as HEV but with
technologies like regenerative braking, autopilot system, auto-
rechargeable battery technology, released in 2010 [4, 23]. And
start and shut off, and even more advanced technology are used
to make them as good as the conventional vehicle or even better. at the same time, Nissan LEAF by Nissan was released is fully
Drive system and converters used in the Electric Vehicle have powered by the electricity. As interest in the electric vehicle is
also been discussed in this paper. growing, new battery technologies are developing, helping to
improve EV’s range. Our main focus in this paper is BEV
Keywords— Hybrid electric vehicle; Plug-in hybrid electric (Battery Electric Vehicle).
vehicle; Battery electric vehicle; Battery management system; DC-
DC converter; Drive system; Battery thermal management; On-
board and wireless charger.
II. ELECTRIFICATION

I. INTRODUCTION HEV, designed as a combination of both conventional

internal combustion engine (IC engine), and an electric
Emission of Greenhouse gases from automobile exhaust is propulsion system (electric power). But as much as electricity
the biggest trouble for the increasing rate of Global warming. is generated using renewable sources, why don’t convert it
United Nations already gave the deadline to every country to into fully electric. Powertrain architecture of the battery
cut their carbon emission. As the increasing clean and green electric vehicle consists of a battery of high voltage, an
energy, electrification of the automobiles is the best-known electric motor, and a single speed gearbox [8]. Depending on
solution for the environment [1, 24]. Electric vehicle the characteristics of the electric vehicle such as range, speed,
technology was a very old technology. The first on-road acceleration performance, BEV can be classified as;
electric vehicle was in 1800, and the first successful electric • Neighbourhood electric vehicles: These are small
car was made around 1890 with a speed of 14 miles per hour,
vehicles with a very low range typically less than 25
increases the interest in the electric vehicle. But after the
invention of motor vehicles run on gas and steam which gives km.
more speed that electric car, was the main reason for the fall of • City electric vehicles: These are also the small
the interest in the electric car [29]. vehicle with the low range of fewer than 50 km.
The California Air Resources Board issued new • Full performance BEV: These are equivalent to the
transportation emission regulations and the passage of the classic car with the range between 150 and 600 km.
1990 clean air ACT Amendment [2, 23], and the 1992 energy
policy Act, helped to gain interest in electric vehicles again.
Electric car by General motor EV1 is one of the well-known III. CLASSIFICATION
electric cars with a range of 80 miles and accelerate from 0 to
There are four types of Electric vehicles [22]:
50 miles per hour in a few seconds but due to high cost, it is
never commercially viable. In 1997, with the introduction of A. Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) [26]:
the Toyota Prius, a Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) was the HEV is the combination of the IC engine technology, and
first mass-produced vehicles in the world. This event helped to an electric power technology. It can drive the car electrically
reshape the electric vehicle and after this, in 2006, another with a load of up to 80 kW due to which a high voltage battery
event, announcement of the luxury electric sports car with

978-1-5386-5130-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 1539

is required. The fuel efficiency of the HEV depends on how
long the car drives electrically versus by the combustion.

Fig. 4. Battery Electric Vehicle [22]

Fig. 1. Hybrid Electric Vehicle [22]
IV. DRIVE SYSTEM
B. Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) [15]: Most of the BEVs are equipped with a centrally arranged
an electric machine, power the front or rear wheels through
In HEV, the battery is charged by regenerative braking or
differential gear but it hardly provides any space for
generates electricity by internal combustion whenever
installation due to this arrangement of gears, differential, axles,
required. In PHEV, the battery can be charged by outer
and drive shafts [1].
sources like a wired connection or inductive pad which further
reduces the consumption of fuel. PHEV increases the Regenerative braking is offered only by drive axle;
efficiency of fuel to the extent that the battery can be therefore, electric vehicles are implemented with four
recharged regularly. PHEV is the second fastest growing individual electric machines, one for each wheel. ICE (internal
configuration after HEV. combustion engine) can generate that much torque and power
which are usable in a narrow band of engine speed. For
accelerating the vehicle, multispeed transmission is required
which step down the speed by changing gear ratios to keep the
engine in its power band.
If the engine is in first gear then the vehicle can easily
accelerate a car to 30 mph but if anyone attempts to accelerate
to highway speed, it starts shaking and in the same way, if the
same engine is in 6th gear then it is hard to stop while in 6th
Fig. 2. Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle [22]
gear. But in the electric vehicle, motor generate 100% of their
torque at very low speed. As rpm increases, torque falls
C. Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV) [17]: linearly and power increases. This does not mean that the
FCEV have the same propulsion system as EV. It uses fuel electric vehicles could not have gears, but they are not
cell instead of the battery to power the onboard electric motor. necessary. The characteristics like Motor generators, torque,
The fuel cell generates electricity by using oxygen and power, and rpm of the electric vehicles are good enough for
compressed hydrogen [30]. But it is not pollutant free because transportation. Torque which is necessary for acceleration is
transportation and storing of hydrogen is a pollutant. almost generated near the stall, and power which is necessary
for cruising is already developed at high speed [12]. If vehicle
use multispeed electric vehicle transmission, it just adds extra
weight, complexity, and reduces its efficiency, power, and
torque. Nearly every electric vehicle has a single speed
transmission.

V. ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM

Fig. 3. Fuel cell Electric Vehicle [22]
The high Voltage battery is the heaviest electric component
of the vehicle which should be positioned such that it provides
D. Battery electric vehicles (BEV): very low centre of gravity and improves stability of the
BEV is a fully powered by the battery. Using the battery vehicles. Mostly battery electric vehicle architecture has the
reduces gas consumption to zero as compared to others but powertrain on the front axle and the battery on the floor to
affects the range of the vehicle. At present, HEV is widely achieve good stability of the vehicle as shown in Fig. 5. Today,
available but the day is near when battery electric vehicles are electrochemical batteries are the most important energy
in more demand. storage systems for EVs [3].

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 A. FUNCTIONS OF THE BMS:
1) Charging control: In EV, charging of the battery
consists of two stages: constant current, constant voltage.
During the first stage, constant current is produced by charger
due to which the voltage of battery increases and when the
battery becomes nearly full, battery voltage reaches a constant
value and enters into a constant voltage stage. Until the
charging finishes, constant voltage is maintained as the battery
current decays exponentially [18].
Fig. 5. Tesla model S chassis and motor
2) Discharging control: During discharging, it is the
function of BMS to protect cell from any event so that cell
The list of some deployed batteries and the batteries under
does not cross its limitations and damage.
experimental stages are [6, 25]: Lead acid, Ni-NH, Li ion, Na-
NiCl and Zn- Mechanical energy storage technology 3) State-Of Charge deternimation: SOC generally
consists of storage with flywheels, electrostatic, storage with controls the charging and discharging process of the cells and
ultra-capacitors and hydrogen storage using the efficient fuel provide signal to the user. SOC can be determined by direct
cell systems [4, 30]. The amount of electrical energy available measurement, columb counting, and combination of the two
is dependent on the mass chemical reactant stored during techniques [18].
charge. The most well-known technologies used for 4) State-Of Health determination: SOH is the
automotive applications [14] are lithium-nickel-cobalt- measurement of the long-term capability of the battery and
aluminum (NCA), lithium-nickel manganese cobalt (NMC), reflects the general condition of a battery. It also gives an
lithium-manganese spinel (LMO), lithium titanate (LTO), and indication of particular parameter performance after
lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) [33]. Comparison of these comparing with a fresh battery as a reference. Any parameters
technologies according to different parameters is given in Fig. like cell impedance or cell conductance that changes
6 [14]. significantly with age could be used to determine the SOH of
the cell. It could be measured from a single cell parameter that
is from the cell impedance or the cell conductance.
5) Cell balancing: No two cells are identical even
manufactured from same material or from same manufacturer.
There are always present a slight difference in the cell’s
parameters such as SOC, discharging rate, impedance,
temperature characteristics, and capacity. Variations in an
individual cell’s parameters can lead to voltage variations over
time. Mostly charger detects whether the battery is full or not
by checking the voltage of the entire string of the cells
whether they have reached the voltage regulation point or not
until do not exceed the limits for overvoltage protection [6].
Fig. 6. Tradeoffs among five principal lithium-ion technologies
Weaker cells whose capacity is lower and internal impedance
is higher, exhibit higher voltage that rest of the series cells at
There are so many parameters which affects the battery’s the full charge termination and becomes weaker because of
life, performance, efficiency. To keep check on all these overcharging cycles but they also tend to have lower voltage
parameters required a management system which monitors the than others, crosses the cell under-voltage protection limit
battery, hence known as Battery Management System (BMS). while the pack voltage is still have sufficient amount of
BMS keeps the battery ready to delivers full power whenever voltage to power the system then it is unable to use the full
required and helps to extend the life of a battery [28]. During capacity of the voltage. Cell balancing affects the run-time
charging if parameters go beyond the values set by safety zone performance and battery life [3]. This can be solved by
than system give inputs to the protection devices so that they equalizing the voltage and SOC parameters of the cells when
blow alarm and disconnect the load or charger from the they are at full charge.
battery. The key operational parameters monitored by BMS Cell balancing is categorised into two types: passive
[9] are current, voltage, internal temperature along with the method and active method. Passive cell balancing also known
ambient temperature during charging and discharging. The as “resistor bleeding balancing,” discharging the cells that
main objectives of BMS are protection of the battery cells needs balancing through a dissipative bypass route using
from damage, helps to extends the life of the battery, and resisters [31]. The bypass route can be either integrated or
make sure that the battery is always ready to be used whenever external to the circuit, favourable for low-cost system
required. applications. Active cell-balancing, instead of using resistive
method utilizes capacitive or inductive charge alternating to

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transfer charge between battery cells. Active cell balancing
method is more efficient because energy is transferred to
where it is needed instead of being bleed off, but the cost is
increases.

6) Communication: For proper operation of the vehicles,

communication with the motor controller and the upper
vehicle controller should be done properly. Communication Fig. 9. Centralized topology of Battery management system [16]
function of a BMS is provided through a data link which is
used to monitor performance, log data, provide diagnostics or C. Battery Thermal Management:
set system parameters. Communication technique used in the Due to change in the temperature, performance of the
BMS should be decided by the application of the battery, not lithium-ion battery is greatly affected. It can be permanently
by the battery. RS232 and RS485 connection through the data damaged if working in too cold and too hot temperature [32].
bus and CAN (standard communication) are two mostly used So in addition, heating is also required at lower temperature
protocols used by BMS to communicate within the vehicle. because internal resistance of the cell increases when they are
B. BMS Topology: too cold. Fast charging of most of the lithium-ion batteries is
The three basic topologies used for designing of BMS limited to below 5°C (no charging below 0°C) and degrades
quickly when their temperature is above 45°C [20, 27].
hardware [16]:
Cooling plays an important role in the performance of the cells
over their lifetime. Most battery thermal management methods
1) Distributed Topology: Each cell is installed with BMS used are [21]:
board, with just a single digital communication signal that can
• Transferring of heat with the help of air either
cut-off or separate the charger and reports the status, placed on
passively or forced
each cell in this topology. Simple and highly reliable but
requires many PCB (printed circuit board). • Cooling the battery by immersing it with a dielectric
oil which is then pumped out to heat exchange
systems
• Cooling the battery by circulation of water-based
coolants through cooling passages

VI. INVERTER AND CONVERTER

Fig. 7. Distributed topology of Battery management system [16]

2) Modular Topology: It follows the slave and master

method. No PCBs for each cell required, however, isolated
master-slave communication is difficult to achieve in EV.

Fig. 10. The architecture of Electric Vehicle

Fig. 10 has showed the architecture of electric vehicle

where inverters and converters plays an important role [12].
Fig. 8. Modular topology of Battery management system [16] The output of the battery is bucked or boosted according to the
requirements and converted into AC as battery is a DC source
3) Centralized Topology: Master control unit, a single and motor requires AC input. DC power is given as input to
controller is directly connected to each cell of the battery pack. transformer’s primary winding within the inverter housing and
This topology has a simple inter-vehicle communication through an electronic switch and the direction of the current
through a multitude of wires, but generated excess amount of flow is continuously and regularly flopped. Due to this, AC
heat as controller is the only source for a cell balancing and current is generated in the transformer’s secondary winding
requires wiring to a central location (cells are distributed at circuit.
various locations) in EVs. Almost all the EVs and HEVs use solid-state inverters [19].
The inverter uses diodes, Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors
(IGBT), and DC bus capacitors which can handle critical
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power. During acceleration of the vehicle, the inverter DC, adjust DC voltage according to the battery need,
becomes hot and dissipates around 250 W of heat per power providing galvanic isolation, power factor correction and
devices at a flux up to 300 W/cm2 while keeping the chips motor control. The most common onboard charger is 6.6 kW
below 125°C. The typical inverter used for vehicles drives the on the BEV and 3.3 kW on PHEV [5]. Electric vehicles
main motors and helps to recharge the car battery during service equipment (EVSE) is mediator between the charging
regenerative braking. But due to work in a harsh environment, port of the vehicle and the power source which simply transfer
heat removal technologies are critical but necessary in this the AC power to the vehicle safely. There are different
kind of environment. Cooling is more important because charging levels according to their speed of charging the
inverters are in the “cannot fail, zero-tolerance” part of the EV. battery [4]:
Currently, electric power inverter uses water-ethylene glycol
coolant which sinks 70°C but is complicated, heavy, bulky 1) Level 1 charging: The Level 1 charging is the slowest
and expensive. Due to these factors, more research is going on form of charging which uses a plug to connect to the onboard
inverters using advanced components and semiconductors charger and a standard household (120 V) outlet. This setup
technology, have high thermal conductance and thus, can provides 2 to 5 miles per hour and beneficial for low range
reduce size and cost. vehicles up to 40 miles.
The high power components such as traction motor, air 2) Level 2 charging [7]: Level 2 charger are faster than
conditioning, and starter requires higher voltage, whereas Level 1 charger, provides power at 220 V or 240 V and
lower power components such as infotainment and safety provides 10-25 miles per hour of charging at the house or at
systems will remain on 12V supplies. DC-DC converters use the public station.
switching technology. [8] DC-DC converter takes input as 3) DC Fast charging: DC fast charging which is also
voltage from the battery and converters the voltage to another known as level 3 charging uses its own off-board charger
DC voltage level, transfer of between the higher voltage which provides a high power DC current generally up to 120
battery and the lower voltage (typically 12V). DC-DC kW and current is directly connected to the battery. More and
converts stores input energy in temporary basis and then more ultra-fast charging stations are set-up for providing high
releases. Inductors or transformer (magnetic field), or power up to 350 kW for supporting long-range EV. Some of
capacitors (electric field) components can be used as storage. the DC fast chargers are: CHAdeMO, Combined charging
Using power FETs than power BJTs can further increases the system (CCS) and Tesla supercharger.
efficiency as FETs can switch more efficiently at higher
frequency with lower switching losses [2]. Replacing with the B. WIRELESS CHARGER:
flywheel diode with synchronous rectification using a power
FET further improves efficiency because on resistance is
much lower and it also reduces switching losses. By replacing
all the diodes with independently controlled active
rectification, DC-DC converter can be designed to move in bi-
direction as shown in Fig. 11 [10].
Fig. 12. Wireless power transmission circuit

Wireless power transmission is not a new technology.

Many companies introduce his wireless work in 19s. Wireless
chargers are gaining significant traction in the automation
industry [13]. Transmission and receiver coils alignment play
a significant role in improving the charger efficiency and
performance. Fig. 12 describes the circuit of wireless power
Fig. 11. 48/12-V bidirectional DC/DC converter
transmission [11]. The main problem is the availability of
charging stations at short distances.
A 1.5kW DC-DC converter is an auxiliary power converter
that interfaces with a 12V bus system. There are two types of
the DC-DC converter: isolated and non- isolated. Isolated use VIII. CONCLUSION
transformer, like flyback converter, forward converter and
non-isolated uses an inductor, capacitors like Buck converter, As world is moving towards the reduction of the carbon
Boost converter, Buck-Boost converter, Cuk converter and pollutants and oil dependency that are dangerous to climate
charge pump [17]. and increases green house gases, electrification of vehicle
gained an importance as it would also reduce other harmful
pollutions like ozone and particulate matter. Widespread using
VII. ON BOARD AND WIRELESS CHARGER of electric vehicle could cut carbon pollution by 550 million
A. ONBOARD CHARGER: metric tons annually in 2050, found by a research institutes
[29]. The future of EV is bright as battery costs are dropping
The onboard charger is used in an electric vehicle to charge
fast. Long range and affordable EVs are coming that operate
from 48 V to 800 V, includes converting the grid 50/60 Hz to
fully on electricity and are capable of travelling 300 miles.

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