Power Electronics for Renewable Energy Systems, Transportation and Industrial Applications

Chapter 13Electric and Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Arash Shafiei, Giampaolo Carli and Sheldon S. Williamson

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

13.1 Introduction

Conventional vehicles which use petroleum as the only source of energy, represent the majority of existing vehicles. However, the shortage of petroleum is considered one of the most critical worldwide issues, and increasingly costly fuel is becoming a major challenge for CV users. Moreover, CVs emit greenhouse gases (GHGs), which means that it is becoming harder for them to satisfy increasingly stringent environmental regulations.

One of the most attractive alternatives to CVs is electric vehicles (EVs) or zero-emission vehicles that consume electric energy only. However, owing to the limited energy densities of the commercial battery packs currently available, the performance of EVs are constrained to be being neighborhood vehicles with limitations of low speed, short autonomy and heavy battery packs. As a successful example, Canada-based ZENN's commercialized EV has an average speed of 25 mph and 30–40 miles driving range per charge.

Currently, hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are the most promising and practical solution. Their propulsion energy is usually from more than two types of energy storage devices or sources, one of which has to be electric. HEV drivetrains are divided into series and parallel hybrids. Series hybrids are electric-intensive vehicles, ...