FY14 Milestone: Simulated Impacts of Life-Like Fast Charging on BEV Batteries (Management Publication): NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

Fast charging is attractive to battery electric vehicle (BEV) drivers for its ability to enable long-distance travel and quickly recharge depleted batteries on short notice. However, such aggressive charging and the sustained vehicle operation that results could lead to excessive battery temperatures and degradation. Properly assessing the consequences of fast charging requires accounting fordisparate cycling, heating, and aging of individual cells in large BEV packs when subjected to realistic travel patterns, usage of fast chargers, and climates over long durations (i.e., years). The U.S. Department of Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office has supported NREL's development of BLAST-V 'the Battery Lifetime Analysis and Simulation Tool for Vehicles' to create a tool capable ofaccounting for all of these factors. The authors present on the findings of applying this tool to realistic fast charge scenarios. The effects of different travel patterns, climates, battery sizes, battery thermal management systems, and other factors on battery performance and degradation are presented. The primary challenge for BEV batteries operated in the presence of fast charging iscontrolling maximum battery temperature, which can be achieved with active battery cooling systems.