Design and implementation of an optimal battery management system for hybrid electric vehicles

This paper investigates the design of an optimal battery management system for hybrid electric vehicles to allow performance improvements. Battery management systems are an important subsystem for hybrid electric vehicles, which ensure that the batteries are operating within the specified safe operating conditions. Thus, the design of a battery management system plays an important role on battery life preserving and performance improvement of hybrid electric vehicles. Battery management systems are affected by many factors and the key one being cell unbalancing. This paper presents an overview of different cell balancing topologies and their impact on system performance. Furthermore, the application of cell balancing topologies for Lithium-ion battery pack with the view of improving battery management systems for the hybrid electric vehicles is also investigated. Real-time implementation of an optimal battery management system is discussed with references to the University of South Wales (USW) hybrid electric vehicles.