Battery Management and Ultrafast Charging Systems for Electric Vehicles

Dear Colleagues,

The growing interest in the commercialization of electric vehicles (EV) by the main “car-makers”, together with the technical development of battery storage system and the incentive policies by states for the use of electric mobility, is causing a change in the perception of the use and convenience of electric vehicles by drivers. It implies an expected increase in the penetration EV that has never been seen in the last twenty years. However, the actual extent of EVs is still limited. This is, on the one hand, due to a lack of charging infrastructures capable of reducing the EV charge time below five minutes when frequent long-range travel is involved, and, on the other hand, , of battery storage devices with high C-rates/energy density, ensuring a high-expected lifetime at a system level. Actually, for the most part, battery manufacturers declare a high performance in terms of C-rates (up to 10 C) and life cycles (up to 10,000) at a cell level.

Innovative solutions need to be evaluated and developed to allow EV drivers to have a similar or even better mobility experience than with conventional fossil fuel vehicles in terms of the availability, convenience, performance, and cost of the necessary charging infrastructures.

The authors are invited to address scientific papers on following topics:

• Design criteria and management of ultrafast charging systems taking into account all technical possibilities for optimization, both on the vehicle (like temperature preconditioning), and for energy demand rationalization (e.g., local renewable power support for solar panels; battery storage for peak shaving and other grid services; demand control by interconnected route management systems for incoming vehicles, while taking into account the electricity grid availability; and voltage and frequency control constraints in real-time).
• Scalable charging infrastructure for the ramp-up of expected electric mobility needs in terms of power levels and the number of charging posts at one site, adequately managing the impact on the grid.
• Integration of energy storage systems into the current charging infrastructure.
• Battery management and prediction lifetimes at system level.
• Assessment of aggregate daily power demand curve based on daily/hourly distribution for long-range travel.
• Attractive and convenient charging infrastructure access with connected vehicle systems, avoiding waiting times (through, for instance, charging facility reservation and scheduling and integration with the route planning of multiple vehicles). User preferences like the use of renewable energy and the avoidance of the frequent handling of heavy cables have to be considered. Automated conductive or wireless solutions are expected with highly reliable and interoperable devices. Optionally, a further extension of the developed stationary wireless charging technology towards urban and peri-urban "electric road" applications, with the aim of creating an installed base of wireless-ready vehicles, to provide the critical mass needed for the deployment of electrified roads at a later stage.

Prof. Dr. Diego Lannuzzi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• ultrafast charging
• battery
• management
• control
• design