SOLAR CELL BASED ALTERNATE PARALLEL CHARGING METHOD OF LITHIUM ION BATTERIES FOR RANGE IMPROVEMENT IN ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Electric vehicle range is very important while designing an electric vehicle energy storage system. So an energy storage system must be designed according to the vehicle power, torque required and speed of the vehicle. So the capacity and energy must be according to vehicle parameters. But there will be range anxiety i.e. the discharge time of the battery is a problem. Due to load variations and speed variations battery will drain fully before the expected time which is calculated theoretically. So to avoid this problem a new method is introduced in this paper. In this method the total energy requirement is calculated including the efficiency factor. Then an extra percentage is added to that and the total energy storage system capacity is fixed. Then the total energy storage system is split in to two as main battery pack and auxiliary pack. Then the first part is allowed to charge fully and the next part is charged through solar panel pasted on the car body. After the charging of first part the car is started and allowed to move. When the SoC has discharged fully, main pack is cut off and the auxiliary pack is ON, simultaneously the main pack is charged. This strategy will help to improve the range of electric vehicle when compared to a vehicle without solar panel and only single set of battery pack