Design a DC-DC Converter for a High Performance Electric Vehicle

Abstract

Ultracapacitors are an alternative storage element to deal with the power requirements of autonomous electric vehicles. This is possible because ultracapacitors can deliver large amount of power in short periods of time and their shelf life is longer than other conventional storage elements. For designing a high performance electric vehicle capable to run a quarter of a mile in 10 seconds, it was decided to use several modular ultracapacitors that have lower voltage levels than motors requirements. In these conditions, it is needed an efficient DC-DC converter which can manage the required power and energy to be delivered to electric motors, assuring the needed voltage and current levels. This work shows a design of a DC-DC converter that interface ultracapacitors and motors in a high performance electric vehicle. This design was possible by performing a power loss analysis, a component calculation and a simulation validation.