Preface

Due to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, climate change and air pollution, the world's political instruments, as well as the spread of means of transport, the replacement of polluting means of transport (diesel or gasoline engines) with non-polluting ones (electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) has become a global urgency. This book aims to find possible answers related to the new-coming era of transport. The authors share their research experience regarding the main barriers to electric vehicle implementation, their thoughts on electric vehicle modelling and control, and network communication challenges. The book is structured in four sections.

The introductory chapter discusses specific EU initiatives and regulations to attain climate neutrality by 2050. It highlights the main barriers to purchasing electric vehicles and future electric vehicle development. It examines existing charging modes as well as a revolutionary technology that allows for charging an electric vehicle battery in five minutes. Hydrogen vehicles are mentioned, but the importance of lithium-ion batteries is also marked, the discovery of which was rewarded in 2019 with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, making possible a society without fossil fuels.

Chapter 2, "Strategies for Electric Vehicle Infrastructure of Cities: Benefits and Challenges" presents the future priorities of urban life: the balancing of demand in the electricity distribution network, charging schedules, dynamic prices, and the different types of charging stations. This cannot be done without a strategic city plan that includes transportation infrastructure. The chapter outlines the fundamental components of a strategic plan for both electric vehicles and the infrastructure needed for a smart city, such as a requirement's analysis, business planning, and education of electric vehicle owners, all of which facilitate a smooth transition from gasoline vehicles to electric vehicles. To maximize the total benefits and easily overcome challenges, experiences must be shared.

Chapter 3, "Fast-Charging Infrastructure Planning Model for Urban Electric Vehicles" presents a solution for implementing the strategic plan mentioned in the previous chapter. The optimal location of the charging station plays an important role during the transition to electric vehicles. This chapter develops a model for planning the fast-charging infrastructure of electric vehicles, at the urban level, considering both the vehicle's own influencing factors, such as battery degradation and vehicle heterogeneity in the driving range, but also external conditions like traffic congestion and vehicle traffic flow conditions, user loading costs, daily journeys, and loading behavior against the constraints of the distribution network, to determine the optimal locations for the network of fast-charging stations.

Chapter 4, "A Review of Hybrid Electric Architectures in Construction, Handling and Agriculture Machines" provides architectural solutions for high-power propulsion. It discusses how, for heavy loads, the limitations of the current state of the art of batteries leads to the choice of a hybrid solution for vehicles. It shows how the

requirements of each specific field strongly affect the design of an optimal hybrid electrical architecture. Moreover, the integration of electric vehicles in the automotive field has both advantages and weaknesses of the current level of technology. Battery charging time is the main obstacle in implementing the high-power electric solution. Another reason is the additional cost generated by the cumulative delays, which is not acceptable for companies that will use these new vehicles. Thus, for heavy vehicles, the best solution is to pursue a hybrid solution with a low-power diesel engine supported by an energy storage system-based electrical system. For low-power machines and other special cases (depending on the specific duty cycle), fully electric solutions are perfectly possible.

Chapter 5, "High Power Very Low Voltage Electric Motor for Electric Vehicle" presents a variety of very low-voltage motor solutions with a required power of up to 100 kW. Although, from an energy point of view, it is recommended to use a high voltage level for electric car-based electric propulsion, for low power propulsions (battery voltage up to 700 V, less than 30 kW per motor), sizing the system at very low voltage (less than 60V) may be more beneficial. This approach allows many constraining safety requirements to be overcome and the use of available components (motor controllers, connectors, etc.) that are more readily available on the market for this voltage range. There are also many regulatory provisions that may require you to stay within this voltage limit.

The communications infrastructure of an intelligent transport system has a special role in ensuring stability and controllability. The important role of the communication system is described in Chapter 6, "Improving Communication System for Vehicle-to-Everything Networks by Using 5G Technology". For high-speed transport systems (air or rail) the solution of ubiquitous coverage is given by wireless communication systems (5G infrastructure).

Chapter 7, "Advanced Driving Assistance System for an Electric Vehicle Based on Deep Learning", deals with the design of a new method of speed control using artificial intelligence techniques applied to an autonomous electric vehicle. The deep learning, image processing, and nonlinear autoregressive moving average level-2 model (NARMA-L2) controllers have been successfully developed and simulated using MATLAB to control the speed of a brushless direct current motor by recognizing traffic sign images.

The authors of chapter 8, "Revisiting Olivine Phosphate and Blend Cathodes in Lithium Ion Batteries for Electric Vehicles", propose one solution to improve the safety feature of lithium-Ion batteries for electric vehicles, based on olivine phosphate, which has an excellent safety performance, being favorable for the realization of new cathodic materials. In addition, the authors present a solution to improve energy density and power.

Chapter 9, "Design, Simulation and Analysis of the Propulsion and Control System for an Electric Vehicle", presents the multi-converter/multi-machine (MCMMS) electric propulsion system. The speed and torque of two reluctance synchronous motors (SynRM) that drive the two rear wheels of the reluctance synchronous motors-based electric vehicle are controlled by using three different PID controller strategies. The PSO algorithm was used as an optimization technique to find the optimal PID parameter to improve the performance of the electric drive system.

The linear speed of the vehicle is controlled by an electronic differential controller that provides the reference speed for each drive wheel, which depends on the driver's reference speed and the steering angle.

The last chapter, "Powerful Multilevel Simulation Tool for HiL Analysis of Urban Electric Vehicle's Propulsion Systems", presents the main assemblies of the traction system of an urban electric vehicle, its modelling being based on Macroscopic Energy Representation (EMR). The use of EMR facilitates the transition to hardware-in-theloop (HiL) implementation, replacing the simulated ensemble with the real one by using the communication between two professional software tools through National Instruments VeriStand software for real-time test applications. In this way, the analysis of advanced operation simulations of the propulsion unit of urban electric vehicles can be performed in real-time.

The book is a useful resource for students, researchers, and professionals in electrical engineering.

I wish to thank all the contributing authors as well as the staff at IntechOpen, particularly Author Service Manager Ms. Marina Dusevic, for all their support.

> **Prof.dr.habil. Marian Găiceanu** Department of Automatic Control and Electrical Engineering, "Dunărea de Jos" University of Galati, Galati, Romania

Section 1
