Electric Vehicles (EV) are slowly spreading throughout the market. However, there are still some challenges regarding EVs. If an EV were to run out of charge and there are no nearby charging stations, one might considering towing the car to the nearby charging station for recharging similar to what would be done for an internal combustion car. Instead, we propose are portable battery EV (BEV) charger that can be carried within the trunk of the battery. This charger referred to as the Portable Buck Converter Battery Electric Vehicle Charger (BCEVC) aims for a quick minor recharging so that the EV driven has enough charge to drive to the nearby charging station. We have created three seperate Simulink models describing the characteristics of the BCEVE in the "Code" section. Please check them out.
A buck converter charging circuit is used to charge the BEV through the external portable charging device. The Buck converter operates with a current control mechanism such that the BEV can be charged safely to prevent damage. The current at which the BEV is charging at is 50A, which is a bit higher than usual. However, this is intentionally designed as the user probably wants the BEV to charge very quickly so that he can get to the closest charging station as soon as possible.
The documentation for the models and our contact information is provided in the "Wiki" section. Furthermore, please check out our YouTube video for further explanation. The next step is to develop a physical prototype of the BCEVC. Please see the "Discussion" section if you have any questions or comments regarding the models.
This project was done for the MathWorks Excellence in Innovation program, specifically for Project 216 (Portable Charging System for Electric Vehicles). We wish to thank MathWorks for motivating this project and we highly recommend that you check their Excellence in Innovation program for new and creative projects that are very applicable to industry. We also wish to thank MathWorks Senior Research Scientist Roberto G. Valenti (GitHub) It was an honor participating in the program and we encourage others to enter as well.