CHARACTERISTICS OF BATTERIES

 Nominal battery capacity

• It is the total electrical energy stored in the battery or It is the maximum amount of
electrical energy that can be extracted from a fully charged battery state to empty
state.
• It is expressed in Wh or kWh.
• EV batteries have a battery capacity between 5 to 100 kWh depending up on the type
of battery.
• The battery capacity is often referred to as energy content or energy capacity of the
battery.
 Motor power

• It is the power delivered by the motor to the wheels for propulsion.

• The motor power is positive or negative based on whether the car is driving under driving
mode or regenerative braking mode.

• The motor power can be expressed as the product of motor torque and the motor
rotational speed.

• The units normally used are watt, kilowatt and horsepower.

 State of charge

• It is defined as the ratio between the amount of energy currently stored in the battery and
the total battery capacity.

• It is expressed in percentage.

 Range

• It is defined as the maximum distance that can be driven by an electric car when the battery
is full.

• It can be expressed in kilometer, miles, etc. depending on the region.

 Energy consumption per km (kWh/km)

• When an electric car is tested using a standardized driving cycle, the EV efficiency is the
energy consumed from the batteries per unit distance drive.

 Battery management system (BMS)

• A battery management system (BMS) is used to monitor, control and balance the pack
 • The BMS has the possibility to monitor and control (directly or indirectly) several
different parameters of the battery such as
o Voltage
o Current
o State of charge
o Temperature
o State of health

Battery types
1. Lead acid: Its use is limited because of low energy density, sensitivity to temp and
life cycle
2. Nickel based: NiMH, NiCd- extensively used for propulsion and high energy content
3. Lithium based: most popular
i) Lithium ion(Li-ion)
ii) Lithium polymer(Li-poly)

 Energy content of battery is expressed in kWh

Weight of 20 kWh battery

Lead acid 550kg

Nickel- Cadmium 500kg

Nickel- Metal hydride 350kg

Lithium ion 180kg

 TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE BATTERY LIFE

• The BMS, through balancing, thermal management and control of voltage and current
helps in improving the battery life.
• Reduce the number of charge-discharge cycles and the maximum depth of discharge.
The battery should not be completely charged and discharged, because this is
detrimental to battery life.
• Some EV manufacturers let their customers set the maximum percentage until which
the battery should be filled for every-day use, and they recommend a rather low
setting of around 80%, which can be increased for longer trips.
• Another setting in EVs which is sometimes available is the option to limit the power
output of the car. This has the downside of having lower acceleration, but it limits the
discharge rate of the battery, and therefore is less detrimental to the battery.