A Novel Simultaneous AC and DC Charging Scheme for Electric Vehicles

Electric vehicles (EVs) are poised to decarbonize the transportation sector. Faster charging speeds, even in residential areas, and easy access to vast charging infrastructures are vital to widespread adoption of electric vehicles. However, most existing EV chargers are AC slow chargers while DC fast chargers are not cost-effective. To minimize the EV charging time, this paper proposes a novel concept of simultaneous AC and DC charging at home/office locations having additional DC source such as solar PV system, battery, fuel cell, or another EV with V2V capability. The proposed approach can enhance the charging speed by simultaneously providing power from both AC and DC ports. The simultaneous use of existing additional DC sources saves charging cost, and reduces electricity demand burden on the grid. Further, it can enhance the charging efficiency by avoiding conversion of external DC source power to AC. The proposed simultaneous charging scheme is simulated using MATLAB and validated experimentally using a 980 W EV charging laboratory-scale prototype using available DC power sources of solar PV and battery. The proposed simultaneous charging scheme can achieve reduction in EV charging time depending on rating of available external DC source.