Improvement of available battery capacity in electric vehicles

Abstract

This paper proposes a new method to improve the available battery capacity in electric vehicles by connecting lead-acid batteries with lithium-ion battery in parallel to supply power. In addition, this method combines the discharge characteristics of batteries to improve their efficiency and lower their cost for electric vehicles. A lithium-ion battery set is used to connect with N sets of lead-acid batteries in parallel. The lead-acid battery supplies the initial power. When the lead-acid battery is discharged by the load current until its output voltage drops to the cut-off voltage, the power management unit controls the lead-acid battery and changes it to discharge continuously with a small current. This discharge can be achieved by connecting the lead-acid battery to a lithium-ion battery in parallel to supply the load power or to discharge its current to another lead-acid or lithium-ion battery. Experimental results demonstrates that the available capacity can be improved by up to 30% of the rated capacity of the lead-acid batteries.