Magnetically Coupled Interleaved Buck Integrated On-Board Charger for Light Electric Vehicles

This paper presents a novel onboard charger that integrates the electric vehicle’s motor into its charging system. One of the novelties of this invention is the use of a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) as a coupled inductor in place of a conventional inductor. Additionally, the inverter used to drive the vehicle’s motor is used in conjunction with the PMSM to establish an interleaved buck converter configuration for battery charging. This is made possible because the special built-in features of the PMSM allow the motor to remain still without any torque generation and decrease the current ripples in the charging mode of operation. The minimal current ripple content and the zero-torque generation have been proven mathematically, and the different charging operational modes of the model have been studied. The proposed charger’s efficiency has also been analyzed, tested and evaluated experimentally on a 960W charger to confirm the robustness of this novel system in this paper. The research findings prove that the system performs very well, with an efficiency of 94%, providing a reliable charging solution for light electric vehicles.