Extreme Fast Charging of Electric Vehicles: A Technology Overview

TLDR

The growing number of electric vehicles demands a robust charging infrastructure, and extreme fast‑charging (XFC) technology promises a refueling experience comparable to gasoline vehicles. This review examines current EV charging infrastructure and concentrates on XFC technology as essential for meeting present and future refueling demands. The authors discuss XFC station design, suitable power‑electronics converter topologies, and the advantages of solid‑state transformers (SSTs) over conventional transformers, including a review of medium‑voltage SST designs. They conclude that SSTs provide significant benefits for XFC stations and present comprehensive medium‑voltage SST design options.

Abstract

With the number of electric vehicles (EVs) on the rise, there is a need for an adequate charging infrastructure to serve these vehicles. The emerging extreme fast-charging (XFC) technology has the potential to provide a refueling experience similar to that of gasoline vehicles. In this article, we review the state-of-the-art EV charging infrastructure and focus on the XFC technology, which will be necessary to support the current and future EV refueling needs. We present the design considerations of the XFC stations and review the typical power electronics converter topologies suitable to deliver XFC. We consider the benefits of using the solid-state transformers (SSTs) in the XFC stations to replace the conventional line-frequency transformers and further provide a comprehensive review of the medium-voltage SST designs for the XFC application.