See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/359878604

Charging Technologies for Electric Vehicles

Conference Paper · April 2022

CITATION READS
1 496

1 author:

Dhruv Gautam
Christ University, Bangalore
6 PUBLICATIONS   1 CITATION   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Charging Technologies for Electric Vehicles View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Dhruv Gautam on 11 April 2022.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Charging Technologies for Electric Vehicles

Dhruv Gautam, Mary Anita E A, Subhiksha M, Neil M Nelson

CHRIST (Deemed to be University)

Abstract

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are currently the main pathway to decarbonize the transportation sector and
significantly reduce CO2 emissions. Electric cars are crucial when trying to cope with the critically negative
effects of climate change and are predicted to be the next disruptive market force for transportation and
technology. They have the potential to revolutionize how energy is used, created, and redirected. The market
for EVs is expanding. However, these EVs charging their batteries from the power grid can positively affect the
environment and society as a whole and may cause severe effects if not managed properly. There is a
significant need to find alternate charging infrastructure. This paper discusses the potential negative impacts
of EV charging on electric power systems and summarizes the various innovative technologies for charging and
the future research topics in this exciting area.

Keywords: EVs (Electric Vehicle), km/h (kilometer per hour), kWh (kilowatt per hour), MW (megawatt)

1. Introduction

Electric Vehicles(EVs) are means of transport that use electric motors for propulsion. Electric
Vehicles use a battery to power the movement of the car, basically converting the electrical energy
into mechanical energy. EVs don’t just consist of vehicles on roads but also consist of rails, buses,
underwater vessels, electric aircraft, and even electric spacecraft. Electric Vehicles are one of the
most innovative inventions of this decade, providing the means of transport along with cutting the
pollutants produced from a normal diesel/petrol car. An Electric Vehicle can save an average of 1.5
million grams of carbon dioxide [1]. Electric vehicles came into existence in the middle of the 19th
century, at that time electricity was used for electric motors, and using those motors would be much
easier for propulsion as compared to the petrol/diesel cars. If we look into existing technologies
that are there to charge electric vehicles, they all have their pros and cons and use conventional
methods to generate electricity for the charging stations, but to produce the same electricity we are
generating pollution which doesn't let the true potential of EV's be harnessed.

Electric vehicles' best potential can be harnessed if the resource through which the electricity is
generated for the charging station is also clean. To overcome this issue this paper discusses the
methods that can be used to produce electricity without polluting the environment. In India, we
produce a major chunk of electricity with the help of coal. 51.7% of the electricity in India is
produced by coal, in coal combustion, we produce harmful gasses like Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) which
contributes to causes like acid rain and much respiratory illness. Nitrogen oxides produced from
coal causes smog and respiratory illness. Coal combustion causes a rise in temperature which leads
to global warming. The coal that is used to produce 51.7% of electricity in India is also used to give
electricity to the charging stations which further charges EVs, so even if we are using EVs still are
producing pollution because of coal combustion, to combat this problem we need new measures
that can produce electricity for charging stations solely to get complete pollution-free Electric
Vehicles in countries that are dependent on non-renewable energy resources to produce electricity.

There are natural resources available to produce electricity without any or less pollution like
hydroelectricity, harnessing the power of wind by windmills, using geothermal energy, using
biomass to produce electricity, or using the power of sunlight to produce electricity by the means of
solar panels. These are methods that are currently being used or are available to produce electricity
without producing pollution but some of the above-mentioned methods uses a large amount of
capital or availability of these resources are an issue for some places, like hydroelectricity cannot be
used in places like desert region or windmills cannot be placed on places where the there the wind
speed is less than 12 km/hr. To overcome this issue we can use methods that are considered to be
small as compared to other resources, but if combined in large quantities can be enough for
producing clean energy for Electric Vehicles, before discussing all the innovations that can be used
we need to understand the existing technologies that are available in the industry of EV’s.

We will first discuss the methods that are currently being used for charging Electric Vehicles.
Vehicle to Grid is one of such technologies that can be used to charge EVs or even use the charge
from EVs to utilize the same for household purposes. On average, a car is parked around 95% of the
time, and the charge in it remains unused, to solve this problem V2G can be used to use the charge
from Ev’s to supply the same house so that if there is a peak in demand it can be used there without
wasting the charge in the battery of EV’s. V2G also provides the opportunity for the grid to store its
excess charge in millions of EVs without spending any capital or operating costs. If the electricity in
a household is produced by solar panels then the same energy can be used to charge the EV,
reducing the pollution and gaining the full potential of Electric Vehicles.

The second technology to charge an electric vehicle is to use wireless charging. This technology
consists of multiple charging plates that are placed under the ground. The electricity is then applied
and the electric vehicle charges without contact with any electric item. This technology is used in
places like malls, universities, etc. This technology is placed under the parking spots for electric
vehicles where the car is parked and then pressing certain will start the charging without any
contact with the car. The third technology that is being used for charging electric vehicles is mobile
charging, the major fear that a customer has before buying an electric vehicle is that what if the
charge of the car is less on any highway and there are no nearby charging stations for charging the
car, to solve this issue mobile charging is used. In mobile charging, there is one car with a stored
charge that can be called in places where no charging station is available and then can be used to
charge the electric vehicle. The mobile charging includes a battery of lithium and manganese which
is used to store charge and then provide it to an electric vehicle in need of the charge.

The fourth technology is Ultra-fast charging which uses graphene-based batteries, which can charge
in a period of a minimum of 15 seconds and 12 minutes at a maximum which is far less than the
time taken by a normal lithium-ion battery, which takes around 2-3 hours to charge. Major
companies are trying to eliminate cobalt which is the most expensive material used in the existing
batteries and a high concentration of cobalt is even harmful to human health. So many companies
are trying to reduce the charging time of electric vehicles because the time is reduced by one major
issue that stops a major chunk of people from buying an electric vehicle. If the charging time is
reduced then one major issue faced by electric vehicles is solved. The big question that everyone
faces while buying an electric vehicle is what if the car stops in the middle of the road and if they
cannot find a station nearby to charge, another issue that is faced by most people is the issue of
waiting for the charging to complete, by this technology both the issues can be solved as charging
time will be reduced and the user doesn't have to wait long for the electric vehicle to charge.
Above mentioned technologies are summarized below in form of a flowchart:

Figure 1: Charging technologies

Even with all the above-mentioned technologies, there is a need for alternate solutions to generate
electricity. To tackle this problem, here are some derived solutions to produce electricity in a
manner that does not cause pollution, and thus an electric vehicle can help in achieving net-zero
carbon emission and can help in reducing pollution from the environment.
2. Charging Methods
Generating clean energy is one of the concerns faced by the Indian electric vehicle system because
the source of generating electricity in India is majorly contributed by non-renewable energy and the
sources that cause pollution, to solve this problem a new subsystem should be derived to generate
clean and green energy for the charging stations. To tackle this problem various methods are used.

a. Traffic Turbines

Wind energy is the fastest-growing renewable energy source and is expected to increase more every
year. Global wind power is increasing rapidly which can be inferred from the graph given below:

Figure 2: Global Wind Power Cumulative Capacity

Global wind power increase also brings in employment and various types of jobs. The jobs can help
a country improve both the net carbon ratio as well as the employment which thus will lead to the
growth of GDP. In India, the states with the maximum production of wind energy are Gujarat,
Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu. These states produce wind energy with the help of wind
turbines that are placed in places having wind speeds of more than 12-15 km/hr in the area where
the wind turbine is placed. Gujarat, to reduce its carbon emissions commissioned 200.9 MW wind
turbines in Kutch and many different areas of Gujarat, it is expected to increase more in the
upcoming years as the demand for clean energy increases. Wind turbines are a crucial way to
produce electricity and can be used to generate energy on an average of 843,000 kWh per month.
Wind turbines require a huge investment and are restricted to certain places only whereas the
proposed method wind turbine can be placed in a much more compact way as compared to that of a
conventional wind turbine.
A traffic turbine is one such method to generate electricity in the middle of the road with the help of
the force generated by passing vehicles on the highway. A traffic turbine can be placed in the divider
of the highway so that once a vehicle passes by it, the traffic turbine rotates converting the
mechanical energy to electrical energy with the help of a dynamo that is one of the components of
the traffic turbine. Traffic turbines are made up of various components like blades which are made
of lightweight materials like carbon fiber, and a pipe to hold the entire component of the machine
which is made of PVC pipe to hold the weight of all the other components of the machine. A traffic
turbine consists of a generator to convert the mechanical energy generated from the force of the
bypassing vehicles to convert the energy to electrical energy which then can be converted into DC
and stored in the batteries as storing AC is not possible. A traffic turbine also has a battery to store
the generated charge into a battery so that it can be used for future purposes, for battery
lithium-ion batteries can be used. On average, a traffic turbine can produce 9,600 kilowatts of
energy per year on a highway with vehicles moving at a speed of 70 mph/ 112.6 km/h.

Table 1: Cost of building a traffic turbine

S.No Element Quantity Unit Price (₹)

1 Alternator 1 6,881

2 Blades 3 6,000

3 Battery 1 26,000

4 PVC pipe 1 3000

5 Additional Cost 1 4000

Total Cost 45,881

Traffic turbine can also be combined with solar panel at the top so that some energy is generated
from that as well and both the sources then generate ample amount of electricity which thus can be
stored in a lithium-ion battery or directly be transferred the charging station from where all the
electric vehicles can be charged from the same station. Traffic turbines utilize the energy that is
wasted and can be used to generate electricity for the charging stations in a much cleaner way.
The traffic turbine concept can be explained in a much easier way in the form of the flowchart given
below:

Figure 3: Traffic turbine structure

b. Piezoelectric crystals

The piezoelectric crystal is another method to generate electricity, which is underutilized and can be
used in many places and can contribute electricity to electric charging stations without causing
pollution. Piezoelectric crystals are crystalline quartz, the hard mineral that is composed of silica
also known as silicon dioxide. The atoms of quartz crystals are linked together in a continuous
framework of SiO4 which is silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen atom being shared
between two tetrahedra, making it an overall formula as SiO2. piezoelectric crystals convert the
pressure on the crystal to generate an electric charge, converting pressure into electrical energy.
This technique can be used in many places where the underutilized pressure goes into waste like a
pathway where a lot of people walk over the pathway but still that energy is not being utilized to
convert it into electricity and use the electricity to charge the lithium-ion batteries which can be
further transferred to the charging stations and can be used by electric vehicles. This will generate
electricity without causing any kind of pollution and will help in attaining net carbon emission by
using electric vehicles. Piezoelectric crystals cannot generate electricity just by placing it somewhere
it needs to be first mixed with asphalt (material used to construct roads and highways),
piezoelectric crystals need to be placed below 5 cm of the asphalt to generate electricity from the
bypassing vehicles. If piezoelectric crystals are spread over a 1-kilometer road then it has the
potential to generate an average of 400kW of power, which is enough to power 150 households in
India. One piezoelectric transducer has the capability of producing 0.137W from a vehicle moving at
the speed of 100 km/h on the highway. Piezoelectric crystal output can yield an average of 250
kWh/km per lane if the number of moving vehicles on it is around 20 vehicles per min.
 Figure 4: Piezoelectric crystals production of electricity through compression

Piezoelectric crystals can not only be used in highways but can also be used in places where a lot of
walking crowds are available, places like footpaths, universities, malls, etc. People walking over the
surface will provide the pressure which then can be converted into electricity and can be utilized to
run many things like lights, and small appliances that don't require that much power to function.

Piezoelectric crystals used in highways can be used to power electric charging stations and can
provide energy in a much cleaner way as compared to conventional energy sources. Piezoelectric
crystals mixed with asphalts have a good resistance against the wear and tear that will be caused by
all the moving vehicles, thus it is safe to use and even has a good return on investment. Piezoelectric
crystals mixed with asphalt will be profitable in 12 years considering the price of petrol and diesel as
it will take around 13,333 devices on a two-way road with a length of 1 km to generate the
mentioned amount of electricity so considering all the calculations done to calculate the return on
investment, the construction will be profitable in the long run taking 12 years in account.

c. Vehicle Hauler

Vehicle hauler is a new concept that carries 8-10 vehicles on a single-vehicle like a truck and
reduces the usage of energy by 10 cars and using one vehicle to transport vehicles across a
destination. This concept can be used on highways because all the vehicles on a highway are going
to one common destination so to reduce the energy consumption of 10 cars, one vehicle can be used
to carry all the cars to that common destination. Commute time and traffic will all be reduced by
this considering the fact that all cars are moving in the same direction. The vehicle hauler can be
placed at the start of the road or highway and accordingly all the vehicles will board the vehicle
hauler, and so the vehicle hauler will commute to the destination carrying all the vehicles and
deboard all the vehicles at the source destination. The vehicle hauler must have a good horsepower,
enough to carry all the 10 vehicles together. Using a vehicle hauler will reduce the energy
consumption of all the vehicles thus reducing the pollution indirectly and saving the environment.
A vehicle hauler is basically a metro for all the vehicles which can run at a frequency of every 5
minutes to carry all the vehicles timely and deboard all the vehicles to a common destination.

A similar concept like this exist but for it, the investment cost is more, hyperloop is one such
example that wants to dig an underground tunnel to commute all the vehicle together, but the risk
of damaging the underground environment as well as the cost of building it is more as compared to
the normal vehicle hauler. Toying vehicles are available for carrying many vehicles together. It just
needs a little modification to make it more efficient and safe for every vehicle onboard. The vehicle
hauler also solves the long commute time problem that many drivers face, because of driving for a
long time they face tiredness and are tired after a long journey, the vehicle hauler will solve that
problem as well. Few modifications are required in a vehicle hauler like if a health emergency
arrives in the commuting passenger car then it is very hard to communicate to the vehicle hauler so
there needs to be an emergency alert system that can alert the vehicle hauler to stop and assess the
situation.

Figure 5: An example of a vehicle hauler with all the passengers on board

d. Wave Power

Wave energy is one of the most crucial renewable energy sources to generate electricity on a large
scale for households and businesses, and can even be used for electric charging stations to power
the station with clean energy. In wave energy, the force of natural resources like water is used which
uses its kinetic energy to move the rotor to convert the kinetic energy into electrical energy without
causing any kind of pollution. India theoretically has the potential of generating 180,000 MW of
power using tidal energy. However, the construction cost and the capital cost required for
constructing one dam is very high and it even depends upon the location just like wind energy as in
some places like desert there is no availability of water so no method to generate electricity in those
regions with the help of tidal energy. In different places, different methods can be used depending
upon the location, places within the coastal region can use wave power. Wave power is different
from the conventional dam, it doesn't need that much construction cost as it has a flap connected to
a rotor which moves when the wave hits the coastal region and thus mechanical energy from the
rotor can then be converted into electric energy and can be stored in lithium-ion batteries and can
be used in electric charging stations that are present near to the wave power as when the distance
between the energy source and the charging stations increases the transmission cost also increases
considerably. Regions like Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, etc are in the coastal regions
and can utilize the power generated from the waves of the sea to power the electric charging station
with a source that is a renewable energy source and will save the environment as well.

Figure 6: Structure of the wave power system

Waves near the shore are underutilized as it just hits the coast and the energy is wasted, through
the wave power system that energy can be utilized in many ways to generate electricity for the
electric cars without producing any kind of pollution. The cost of the wave power system is less as
compared to that of a conventional dam but the generation of power differs from the conventional
energy sources. As compared to conventional energy sources, wave power generates less amount of
energy. Not only on the coast of the sea but the wave power system can also even be used in the
middle of the sea as the intensity of the waves in that region is more as compared to the wave
intensity on the coast. To construct the wave power system in the middle of the sea we require a lot
more construction compared to that of the coast, underground pipes need to be dug in a manner so
that the whole wave power system can withstand the weight. Long wires are required under the sea
to transfer the electricity from the wave power system to the charging stations.
3. Review of charging technologies
All the above-mentioned methods can contribute to the production of clean energy which thus can
be used by the electric charging stations to charge the electric vehicle. Above mentioned methods
may not contribute as big as conventional energy does but if contributed together it can work out
great for the charging stations. The main goal is to reduce carbon emission and for the frequency of
electric cars to increase with the increase in the frequency, conventional sources that are
non-renewable have to be replaced with sources that are renewable and can be used again and
again without damaging the environment. Sustainable development is only possible if all renewable
energy resources are used. By calculating the total power generated by all the methods discussed
above, the result is somewhere close to what a conventional source generates considering the return
on investment is also the factor.

4. Conclusion
To attain sustainable development change needs to be the only constant, without any kind of
innovation in the field of energy development. Constant innovation, as well as research and
development, is required to achieve the desired goal of zero carbon emission and to get the average
carbon value to 350 ppm to achieve sustainable development. The above-mentioned methods are
some ways in which we can reform the energy development sector but it is not the final destination.
New better methods will be required to achieve the solution when a new problem arises. To conquer
that, constant research and development are required. Post electric vehicles, the new technology
that can even go further than electric vehicles are using hydrogen as fuel. It has many problems
with it, but with constant development, it can come up as a better alternative for an electric car as
well and can be more environmentally friendly as compared to a normal electric vehicle.

References

[1] Zhe Wei, Yue Li, and Lin Cai, “Electric Vehicle Charging Scheme for a Park-and-Charge System
Considering Battery Degradation Costs”

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8370675/references#references

[2] João C. Ferreira, Vítor Monteiro, João L. Afonso, and Albert Silva, “Smart electric vehicle charging system”

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5940579

[3] Chirag Panchal, Sascha Stegen and Junwei Lu, “Review of static and dynamic wireless electric vehicle
charging system”

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221509861830154X

[4] “Benefits of electric cars on the environment”

https://www.edfenergy.com/for-home/energywise/electric-cars-and-environment
View publication stats