Flash, Fast Charging and Energy Transfer Technologies for Sustainable Transportation

Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue “Flash, Fast Charging and Energy Transfer Technologies for Sustainable Transportation” aims at providing a complete overview of this very topic, offering readers the opportunity to find answers in a unique, multidisciplinary volume.

Surface transport and, in particular, road transport, causes a significant impact worldwide in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, due to the utilized energy being of fossil fuel origin. Electric vehicles (EVs) play a key role in the transition towards sustainable transportation due not only to the absence of direct air emissions in urban areas but also to the fact that they offer the opportunity for a complete transformation of the energy vector.

Making transportation sustainable, therefore, means promoting efficient energy conversion and management from both a vehicle and infrastructure point of view, guaranteeing, at the same time, the availability of public and private transport solutions at an affordable cost for a large panel of users.

However, the electrical shift of powertrains is being slowed down by technoeconomic challenges. Among these is the possibility of efficient onboard energy storage with intensive charging in as little time as possible. This dichotomy challenges the energy infrastructure for EV charging, increasing the number of charging points and, even more so, peak power up to levels able to restore significant vehicle range within fractions of hours, minutes, or even seconds; such practices are known as “high power” or “fast” and “flash” charging solutions. The achievement of such targets is key to avoiding bottlenecks in the future large-scale adoption of EVs for light duty as well as for heavy duty vehicles. On the vehicle side, the impact of these high-rate charging strategies affects the charging strategy and the vehicle components, which heavily affects the reliability or performance expectations of the onboard energy storage systems.

Every actor in the supply chain is facing challenging tasks in implementing high-power charging technologies: Will the impact on the energy distribution grid be acceptable? What are the consequences for vehicle battery durability? Will different technologies and standards (from wired to contactless energy transfer) be able to coexist or are they facing evolution toward a “winning” small set of solutions?

Contributions to the issue are expected to cover one or more of the following topics:

• Charging infrastructure
  • Hardware and software—power converters, energy management, and power transfer technologies (plugged, pantograph, wireless systems etc.)
  • System analysis—grid impact, optimal charging infrastructure location, fleet management, impact of high rate charging in the integration of renewable energy sources, charging station design, and sustainability of highest rate power-charging infrastructure
  • Alternative energy storage including flywheels and EDLC, but not limited regarding being suitable for the highest rate power-charging system
• Vehicle batteries and energy storage
  • Impact of flash/high power charging on battery durability
  • Monitoring solutions and technologies for state assessment
• System safety during high power charging
  • Battery safety monitoring during highest rate power charging
• Environmental impact assessment and primary energy consumption due to charging
• Vehicle technologies
  • Plug, devices, standardization opportunities
  • Relationship between flash charge implementation, vehicle size, and ultimate usage (light or heavy vehicles, passenger or freight transport, etc.)
  • Integration of energy storage and charging components in vehicle body-in-white—influence on structure design
  • Onboard energy conversion and management
  • Business cases and fleet use scenario for flash and high-power charging
• Railway vehicles
  • Charging needs for unplugged railway vehicles (e.g., battery-equipped vehicles for urban tramways)

Dr. Lorenzo Berzi
Prof. Dr. Fiorentino Valerio Conte
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• fast charging
• flash charging
• battery ageing
• charging infrastructure
• charging stations
• grid impact
• electric vehicle
• charging standardization
• safety during charging