Literature Review: Electric Vehicles - Research Gaps and Questions

This literature review provides a comprehensive overview of electric vehicles (EVs), encompassing their fundamental components such as rechargeable batteries, motor controllers, and electric engines. It details the operational mechanisms of EVs, including the role of regenerative braking and t...Read More

Literature Review 1
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Electric vehicles, also referred to as battery-electric vehicles use batteries for the purposes of
storing the electrical energy used in powering a single or more motor. These types of vehicles
can be powered by an electric generator, solar panels, or batteries. The batteries are charged by
plugging the electric vehicles to external sources of electrical energy. Electric vehicles can also
be charged through regenerative braking which produces electrical energy from some of the
energy lost during braking (Safdar, Raza, and Khan, 2017). The major components of electric
vehicles include electric motors, controllers, batteries, regenerative braking. These components
of electric vehicles are discussed below:
Rechargeable Batteries
The batteries of an electric vehicle provide electrical energy to keep it operating. The batteries
are generally recharged regularly from the electrical power grid using a specialized power
station. The majority of electric vehicles utilize lithium-ion barriers because of their higher
density of power, energy density, and lifespan (Molenda, 2011).
Motor Controller
This is the control system of the electric vehicles and controls the vehicle operations including
the power distribution. The motor controller controls the various performance indicators in all
sections of the electrical systems. The power system of electric vehicles is composed of just
motors and controllers (Karim and Shahid, 2017). The power is provided by the motors and the
application of this power id performed by the controller. An electric motor converts energy into
mechanical energy from electrical energy. The EV uses a DC motor/controller system since they
function off the current from the battery without complicated electronics. The controller of the

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EV is the electronic package that functions between the motor and the batteries to control the
acceleration and speed of the EV just like a carburetor in gasoline-powered vehicles. The
controller converts the direct current from the battery into the alternating current from the motors
and regulates the flow of energy from the battery (Boretti, 2017).
Electric Engines
Electric engine power the electric vehicle and the engineer use either DC or AC. An AC engine
is generally used in electric vehicles because it is less expensive and lighter compared to the
engines that use direct current.
The other components of an electric vehicle include the drive system that transfers the
mechanical energy to the traction wheels in generating motion and regenerative braking which
converts the kinetic energy of the vehicle into chemical energy that is kept in battery and later
used in operating the vehicles (Divakarla, Wirasingha, & Emadi, 2019).
Operation of Electric Vehicles
A conventional electric vehicle is one that is powered by a single of many electric motors that
are propelled by a rechargeable battery. The electric motors can be positioned t every wheel
hence turning each of the four wheels independently for the case of four-wheel drive. There are
also electric vehicles with a single electric motor that can propel both the back wheel and front
wheels (Radhakrishnan, 2019).

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Figure 1: Components of Electric vehicles (Gorbel, 2015)
Types of Electric Vehicles
Electric vehicles include underwater vehicles, road vehicles, surface vessels, electric aircraft, and
spacecraft. The various types of electric vehicles that are currently in the market include:
Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV)
This type of electric vehicle uses petroleum-based fuel or alternative fuel to power an Internal
Combustion Engine and also uses batteries to power electric motors which are charged by
plugging into the electric grid for charging. These PHEVs are any types of motor vehicles that
can be recharged from external sources of electrical energy like wall sockets and the electrical
energy is kept in batteries that can be recharged (Mierlo, 2019).
Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs)
These types of electric vehicles derive part or all of their energy from electrical energy supplied
by the electric grid. They can either be fully electric vehicles of plug-in electric vehicles and they

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derive their energy by plugging into the electric grid to recharge their batteries (Trieu, Tamre, &
Moustafa, 2017).
Hybrid Electric Vehicles
These types of electric vehicles combine an internal combustion engine with an electric motor,
regenerative braking, and batteries to provide high efficiency in fuel consumption. These
vehicles depend on alternative fuel for electrical energy or petroleum, based power source and
are not plugged in to charge from the electrical grid (Mierlo, 2019).
All-Electric Vehicles (EV)
These types of electric vehicles are powered specifically by a single or many electric motors.
They receive electrical energy through plugging into the electrical power grid and store the
energy in rechargeable battery packs. These do not operate on petroleum fuels hence do not
generate emission tailpipe (Wirasingha, Lukic, Rodriguez, & Antoniou, 2011).
RESEARCH GAP
The major research gap from the literature on electric vehicles is that the Lithium-ion batteries
that are currently used for energy storage do not last longer as expected since these vehicles have
a cruising range between 200km and 150km. No researchers have made any proposed regarding
the most effective energy storage methods that would enable the electric vehicles to store the
sufficient energy so as the vehicle can operate for 12 hours straight without recharging as in the
case of gasoline-powered vehicles (Sockeel, Jian, Shahverdi, and Mazzola, 2018)
The second research gap deduced from this literature on electric vehicles is that the currently
used lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries take a lot of time to recharge. No researcher has

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suggested methods of improving the recharge time by reducing the time taken to fully recharge
the batteries. Future research needs to focus on reducing the recharge time by proposing effective
battery technology (Heejung, 2020).
The last research gap in this research is the lack of recharging infrastructure in various countries.
This is one of the major reasons why electric vehicles have not yet completely replaced the
gasoline-powered vehicles despite the high level of pollution caused by the later. The literature
does not provide the specifications of a recharging plug according to the different ratings and
units used by different countries (Soldo, 2019).
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The research question deduced for this literature review on electric vehicles include:
 Which are the technological development that can be implemented to replace
conventional Lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles to increase the cruising ranges?
(Tulpule, Marano, & Rizzoni, 2010)
 How can the recharge duration of Lithium-ion batteries be improved to ensure a shorter
recharge duration?
 How can the recharging infrastructure be developed in most countries for the effective
charging of electric vehicles? (Pyakurel, 2017)

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REFERENCES
Boretti, A. (2017). F1 style MGU-H applied to the turbocharger of a gasoline hybrid electric passenger
car. Nonlinear Engineering, 6.
Divakarla, K., Wirasingha, S., & Emadi, A. (2019). Artificial neural network based adaptive control for
plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. International Journal of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles, 11, 127.
Gorbel, Z. (2015). Modelling Approach of Electric Cars Autonomy. International Journal of Electrical
Components and Energy Conversion, 1, 55.
Heejung, J. (2020). Fuel Economy of Plug-In Hybrid Electric and Hybrid Electric Vehicles: Effects of
Vehicle Weight, Hybridization Ratio and Ambient Temperature. World Electric Vehicle Journal,
11, 31.
Karim, A., and Shahid, Z. (2017). Performance and Cost Analysis of Conventional Petrol Car Converted
Into Solar-Electric Hybrid Car. Journal of Energy Resources Technology, 140.
Mierlo, J. (2019). Special Issue “Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV)”. Applied Sciences, 9, 2829.
Molenda, J. (2011). Li-ion batteries for electric vehicles. Annales UMCS, Chemistry, 66.
Pyakurel, P. (2017). Sustainability of Electric Vehicles that Use Lithium Ion Batteries. Robotics &
Automation Engineering Journal, 2.
Radhakrishnan, G. (2019). Dual Mode Operation of 8/6 SRM with Optimum Angle Operation in Hybrid
Electric Vehicles using FLC based Controller. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and
Engineering, 623, 120.
Safdar, I., Raza, A., and Khan, Z. (2017). Feasibility, emission and fuel requirement analysis of hybrid car
versus solar electric car: a comparative study. International Journal of Environmental Science
and Technology, 14, 1807-1818.
Sockeel, N., Jian, S., Shahverdi, M., and Mazzola, M. (2018). Sensitivity Analysis of the Battery Model for
Model Predictive Control: Implementable to a Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle. World Electric
Vehicle Journal, 9, 45.
Soldo, Š. (2019). Analysis of Optimal Battery State-of-Charge Trajectory for Blended Regime of Plug-in
Hybrid Electric Vehicle. World Electric Vehicle Journal, 10, 75.
Trieu, V., Tamre, M., and Moustafa, A. (2017). Design and simulations of dual clutch transmission for
hybrid electric vehicles. International Journal of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles, 9, 302.
Tulpule, P., Marano, V., and Rizzoni, G. (2010). Energy management for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles
using equivalent consumption minimisation strategy. International Journal of Electric and Hybrid
Vehicles, 2, 329.
Wirasingha, S., Lukic, S., Rodriguez, F., and Antoniou, A. (2011). Adaptive control for hybrid electric
vehicles. International Journal of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles, 3, 99.

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