Role of Supercapacitor for Increasing Driving Range of Electric Vehicles Under Indian Climatic Conditions

In this paper, a hybrid combination of lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery and a supercapacitor (SC) has been studied for different realistic temperature conditions in India to estimate the driving range of lightweight electric vehicles (EVs) using standard worldwide harmonized light vehicles test cycle (WLTC) driving profile. The total power required at the wheels of the EV is estimated under ambient temperature conditions by a theoretical approach using the MATLAB/Simulink model. Addressing the demand peaks during the use of EV is an important problem towards thermal stability of electrical energy storage system (EESS). To address this problem, an additional electrical energy storage component along with Li-ion battery, namely SC has been explored. Simulation results indicate that there is no significant effect of temperature on the output of the SC as compared to Li-ion battery. A decrease of nearly 20% in the driving range has been registered due to the decrease in temperature from 45 to −15 °C within a driving time of 3600 s. The addition of an SC with Li-ion battery improves the driving range of EV significantly and helps in the additional storage of energy during regenerative braking.