EV Fast Charging & Infrastructure

Reliable, near-ubiquitous charging infrastructure is necessary to support wide-scale EV deployment. The NEVI (National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure) program, which was enacted by the DoT in November 2021, is now in full swing. NEVI provides funding to states to strategically deploy electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and to establish an interconnected network to facilitate data collection, access, and reliability. In addition, the EV charging technology continues to evolve—the largest development in this space is the agreement of all OEMs to design to one standard (J3400 or NACS) in the future. There is also ongoing evolution on the site host side as business models start to take shape throughout the value chain (EV charging, hardware, maintenance, etc.). What is the current state and how are all these pieces fitting together to create a viable experience for customers and a viable business proposition for industry participants? What do the next 1-2 years look like, and what are the key developments in technology and policy that will help get us to where we want to go?

As the Electric Vehicle (EV) ecosystem expands, robust cybersecurity is essential to protect users and infrastructure. This presentation highlights current efforts and research by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) to secure the EV charging ecosystem. Key priorities for the EV industry include cybersecurity risk management, vehicle penetration testing, EVSE security, PKI implementations, and secure architecture design. By fostering collaboration and advancing research, the industry can enhance the EV ecosystem's cybersecurity.

The Biden administration pushed through a surprising number of climate friendly policies through a closely divided congress, including funding for EVs and charging infrastructure. President-Elect Trump’s rhetoric has increasingly politicized electric vehicles, bringing them into the culture wars. A Trump administration, on its own or supported by friendly congress, could pull back much of the funding passed by congress either through full repeal or through executive action—a death by a thousand cuts. Blue states could respond with more state support, leading to an even more bifurcated market between blue and red states.

Metallized polymer current collectors (MPCC) for the cathode have been demonstrated to consistently isolate internal short circuits caused by nail penetration in 18650 and 21700 cells that achieve up to 250 Wh/kg. High speed radiography and post test tomography indicate a fusible mechanism for the collector at the interface of the short that cause an electrical isolation or high impedance path for the active cathode material involved in the short from the rest of the jellyroll. Numerous design trials by Coulometrics indicate that an all-ceramic separator is required for the safety function of the MPCC to work in cells designs > 265 Wh/kg. Nail penetration tests of these cell designs with all-ceramic and ceramic coated separators with high speed radiography indicate the benefits of the all-ceramic boehmite separator. However, more design and testing improvements are needed to demonstrate similar internal short consistency as with the < 250 Wh/kg cell designs.

Charging reliability is crucial for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. A reliable charging infrastructure ensures that EV owners can charge their vehicles without encountering major issues, which is essential for building consumer confidence and reducing range anxiety. Consistent and dependable charging experiences enable former internal combustion vehicle owners to seamlessly transition to electric vehicles. This is a key challenge for the EV market as a whole and will require collaborative efforts to enhance current levels of charging infrastructure reliability. The presentation will provide an overview of the ChargeX multi-lab industry consortium and its efforts to address public EV charging reliability. 

The EV Revolution is here along with a growing demand for EV charging infrastructure across the nation. To meet this demand, it is essential to understand the key elements and challenges of developing an EV charging destination. This presentation will explore infrastructure development, including: power constraints, layout considerations, equipment selection, installation challenges, and activation protocol. The importance of training as well as maintenance and customer support will also be discussed.

As EV uptake increases, how can we ensure that the grid can cope? Replacing hydrocarbons with electricity as fuel requires unprecedented expansion of the utility grid, and delays to these upgrades risk becoming a bottleneck to EV adoption. Bypassing the grid entirely is an exciting alternative, and in this talk, IDTechEx explores some of the key enabling technologies and strategies that allow EV charging in grid-constrained scenarios.

The rapid rise of electric vehicles (EVs) has intensified global demand for charging infrastructure, presenting both challenges and opportunities for electricity grids. This speech examines EV charging's impact on grid stability, load management, and efficiency across technical, economic, and regulatory realms. It addresses distribution network strains from heightened peak demand and potential grid congestion during peak periods. The integration of smart grid technologies and renewable energy sources, including advanced metering, demand response initiatives, and battery storage, is explored as essential strategies to alleviate these pressures and optimize grid performance amid evolving energy landscapes.

Electric vehicles (EV) will encompass many of the vehicles in the upcoming days, and the inability to charge them sufficiently can accelerate the damages during catastrophic scenarios. This session will analyze the emerging challenges of the integration of electrified transport into power systems during emergencies, considering both grid and mobility challenges, and present solutions to mitigate these impacts. The presenter will cover a range of challenges and solutions for different stakeholders, such as the power grid, transportation networks, and EV owners.

Across the temperature range that lithium-ion batteries must operate, their power output and charge acceptance changes by 1000-fold. This has traditionally been viewed as a drawback. We have flipped the script and begun using this paradigm as a tool to deliver arctic fast charging and low-cost, high-power output batteries. In this talk, we will present how we have accomplished this and how you can implement the same.

Despite a clear energy density advantage, lithium-metal batteries have been delayed from the market due to numerous challenges, including safety, cycle life, power, cost, and difficulty in vehicle-level management.  Many of the approaches used to suppress potentially dangerous dendrites—namely, solid-state electrolytes—often limit fast charging, which is critical to further EV adoption. These challenges are exacerbated by typical test profiles that focus on constant-current cycling and full-depth cycling. By failing to incorporate dynamics, defect reversibility, and seed-layer protection that would naturally be present in actual vehicle usage, simplistic test profiles may unfairly show degradation in lithium-metal batteries that does not occur to the same extent in practice. In this presentation, we present approaches to the improvement of fast-charging via management of lithium inventory in lithium-metal batteries, including material-level improvements, BMS-level strategies, and vehicle-relevant solutions.

Range anxiety in EV owners can be mitigated by increasing driving range or reducing lithium-ion battery (LIB) charging time. Our research developed an optimal fast-charging method that utilizes full energy density in 15 minutes by mitigating lithium plating and transition metal dissolution at 100% SOC. This approach doubled the cycle life compared to conventional protocols. Our study introduces an LIB charging protocol offering longer driving ranges, quicker charging times, and the potential for safer EV battery packs.

Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) are critical in ensuring the next generation of electric transportation is dependable and safe. Recent developments and guidelines from organizations such as ANSI, the DOE, NREL, and the ChargeX Consortium are continuing to shape the evolution of ZEV infrastructure. This presentation will discuss the key SDOs in electric transportation, recent changes in electric transportation standards, effects on the supply chain, and current challenges and future trends.

CARB has zero-emission regulations in place for heavy-duty trucks and buses and is exploring zero-emission regulations for off-road vehicles and equipment. While OEMs can produce and deliver zero-emission trucks and buses, establishing charging infrastructure for large fleets has been challenging. This talk will focus on factors causing infrastructure project delays and what the public and private entities are doing to improve the pace and timing of charging infrastructure installations.