The award will help fund a US$5m research project focused on improving the efficiency of, and reducing the cost of, extreme fast charging (XFC) for EVs.
The XFC charger this project seeks to develop and demonstrate will be an ultra-low cost, all-silicon carbide modular power converter for direct current charging equipment which can connect directly to a medium voltage distribution system. With power capabilities of 300kWh, the chargers target reducing the time to fully charge a standard 70kWh EV battery to as little as 15 minutes.
“The goal of this new project is to bring extreme fast charging much closer to market realisation and support the continued adoption of electric vehicles by reducing consumers’ charge anxiety,” said Srdjan Lukic, NC State professor, deputy director of Freedm and principal investigator for the project. “We could not achieve that without collaboration from project partners like ComEd.”
The project will be broken into two phases focused on cost analysis and system development followed by demonstration.
