EE320 Introduction to Electric

Vehicles

Dr. Nagendra Kumar Swarnkar

Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering
The Chevrolet Volt
Battery Technologies

The viable EV batteries consist of

the lead-acid battery,
nickel based batteries such as nickel/iron, nickel/cadmium, and
nickel–metal hydride batteries, and
lithium-based batteries such as lithium polymer and lithium-ion
batteries.
The energy or power losses during battery discharging and charging
appear in the form of voltage loss.
Thus, the efficiency of the battery during discharging and charging
can be defined at any operating point as the ratio of the cell
operating voltage to the thermodynamic voltage.
Energy Efficiency of A battery

The efficiency of the battery

during discharging:
V
 bat discharge 
VO
The efficiency of the
battery during charging:
VO
 bat charge 
V
Selection of Storage Technology

Storage technology Energy density

Lead-acid batteries 100 kJ/kg (30 W-h/kg)
Lithium-ion batteries 600 kJ/kg
Compressed air, 10 MPa 80 kJ/kg (not including tank)
Conventional capacitors 0.2 kJ/kg
Ultracapacitors 20 kJ/kg
Flywheels 100 kJ/kg
Gasoline 43000 kJ/kg
Energy and Power Needs

Rate is a problem.
Example: refill a gas tank with 15 gal in 5 min.
The energy rate is roughly that of 20 major campus buildings!
It is costly and problematic to fill batteries quickly.