Electrical Architecture for Electric Vehicles

Electronic Power Conditioning Incorporated will design, assemble and demonstrate a new bi-directional converter which can become the heart of the electrical system of the electricially driven vehicle ("EV"). There are four major elements in the generalized EV: (1) prime source (engine generator); (2) storage (batteries or flywheels); (3) propulsion (motor and speed controller); and (4) auxiliary loads (lights, HVAC, wipers). The various alternatives for the four major elements operate in environments of highly disparate electrical power - AC versus DC, different voltages, etc. The proposed electrical system will have the flexibility to utilize any type of advanced components which is being developed or will be developed. These elements can be linked together due to the remarkable flexibility and performance of the unipolar series resonant converter. While reconciloing disparate power, it can resonant converter. While reconciling disparate power, it can function as a variable-speed motor control which is efficient, silent, small and regenerative, and can control any type of motor which is a candidate for EV propulsion. The converter will eliminate any the interfacing hardware and permit the optimization of each of the elements with regard for the others. Finally, the converter will eliminate any need for a battery charger since it can perform that function also. In this project, an operating protoype will be adapted to the EV and will demonstrate all of the typical operating modes. Anticipated Benefits: In addition to the benefits described above, the resulting designs and technologies can be used by industry and the government in the following applications: variable-speed drives and actuators, variable-speed generation systems, inverters for photovoltaic cells, and fuel cells and batteries, frequency changers, uninterruptible power supplies and power conditions.