IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON TRANSPORTATION ELECTRIFICATION, VOL. 9, NO.

1, MARCH 2023 1263

Electric Vehicle-to-Vehicle Energy Transfer

Using On-Board Converters
Azizulrahman Shafiqurrahman , Student Member, IEEE, B. S. Umesh , Member, IEEE,
Naji Al Sayari , Member, IEEE, and Vinod Khadkikar , Fellow, IEEE

Abstract— Electric vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) charging is a recent EVs, in the case of nonavailability of both the ac grid and
approach for sharing energy among electric vehicles (EVs). Exist- the dc fast-charging stations. The V2V charging allows EV
ing V2V approaches with an off-board power-sharing interface users to cooperatively share energy with each other with
add extra space and cost for EV users. Furthermore, V2V power
transfer using on-board type-2 chargers reported in the literature minimum infrastructure and cost and reduce range anxiety.
is not efficient due to redundant conversion stages. This article Mainly there are two aspects to V2V energy sharing: first,
proposes a new method for V2V power transfer by directly the communication aspects of V2V, which provides a plat-
connecting the two EV batteries together for sharing energy form for EV users to interact with each other to find the
through the type-2 ac charger input ports and switches. The energy sharing match, to decide provider and receiver pref-
active rectifiers of on-board type-2 chargers are not used for
rectification during V2V charging, instead only a few switches erences, and tariff. In [7]–[10] game theory-based algorithms
are used as interfaces to connect the two EV batteries together, to match the receiver EV, provider EV, the nearest meet-
to avoid redundant power conversion and associated losses which ing point, and the communication aspects of the V2V are
effectively improve the overall V2V efficiency. The possible V2V presented.
charging scenarios of the proposed V2V approach are vali- The second important aspect of V2V is the power interface
dated using a MATLAB/Simulink simulation study. Furthermore,
a scaled experimental prototype is developed to validate the for the actual power transfer, that is, controlling the direction
proposed V2V method practically. of power flow based on the receiver and provider preference,
and a buck or boost conversion based on the EV battery’s
Index Terms— Electric vehicle (EV), on-board type-2 ac
charger, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) charging. voltage level. Using the ac power grid as a common energy
aggregator with off-board bidirectional power converters for
accomplishing an indirect V2V energy transfer is one of the
I. I NTRODUCTION basic V2V approaches presented in [11] and [12] where the

T HE electric vehicle (EV) charging is conventionally done

through type-1 and -2 (single/three-phase) ac on-board
slow chargers with the power range of 3.3–19.4 kW. A com-
conversion efficiency is low due to multiple redundant con-
version stages. An off-board V2V charger using an off-board
bidirectional interleaved dc–dc converter with a possibility
prehensive review of bidirectional topologies with single/two- of integration to the grid is presented in [13]. Similar V2V
stage rectification with power factor correction for on-board charging approaches with an off-board power interface are
chargers in the commercial EVs is discussed in [1] and [2]. presented in [14] and [15].
Detailed comparison of type-1, -2, and the dc fast-charging Similarly, a commercial 50 kW off-board V2V charger from
stations with respect to charging time, power density, power Andromeda Power is available in the market to share energy
level, cost, and review of recent typologies for conventional between two EVs [16], [17]. But this off-board V2V approach
and future charging methods is discussed in [3] and [4]. requires an external V2V interface which may result in extra
Furthermore, high power (>50 kW) external off-board dc fast- cost and car space for the EV users.
charging stations are established to charge EV batteries, with On the other hand, V2V approaches by re-utilizing
a charging time of less than an hour [5]. In spite of these con- the on-board type-1 and -2 chargers as power interfaces
ventional EV charging methods, the EV users are experiencing are presented in [18] and [19]. Basically, the on-board
range anxiety due to limited charging infrastructure [6]. type-1 and -2 chargers consist of an ac to dc converter (active
In recent days, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) charging is emerg- rectifier) stage followed by a dc–dc converter [for constant
ing as an alternate method to share energy between two current and constant voltage (CCCV) charge control]. In [18],
a V2V charging approach by connecting the type-1 charger
Manuscript received 8 January 2022; revised 1 April 2022; accepted
15 April 2022. Date of publication 2 May 2022; date of current version input ports of the two EVs is presented as shown in Fig. 1(a),
21 February 2023. This work was supported by the Advanced Power and wherein the provider EV battery dc output is first converted
Energy Centre (APEC), Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. into single-phase ac using the bidirectional two-stage on-board
(Corresponding author: Vinod Khadkikar.)
The authors are with the Advanced Power and Energy Centre type-1 ac charger. This ac power output of the provider EV
(APEC), Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sci- is fed as input to the two-stage on-board type-1 converter
ence, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (e-mail: to charge the receiver EV battery. Cascaded converter losses
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]). due to redundant conversion stages lead to lower V2V charg-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TTE.2022.3172029 ing efficiency in [18]. In [19], V2V charging by directly
2332-7782 © 2022 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

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 1264 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON TRANSPORTATION ELECTRIFICATION, VOL. 9, NO. 1, MARCH 2023

II. P ROPOSED V2V A PPROACH

The proposed V2V configuration is realized by connecting
the existing type-2 charging ports of the provider-EV and the
receiver-EV. The two EVs are connected by utilizing the three-
phase active rectifier switches. Turning ON the top switch of
one of the phases (phase-a, S1 here) and bottom switch of the
other phase (phase-c, S6 here) of the active rectifier-1 and the
respective phase switches S1 and S6 of the active rectifier-2
directly connects the two EV batteries through the intermediate
dc-link of provider and receiver EVs as shown in Fig. 2. The
four switches S1 , S6 , S1 , and S6 are kept ON throughout the
V2V power transfer duration. The proposed way of connecting
the two EVs realizes a dual bidirectional buck-boost converter
that can be controlled to transfer energy between two EVs in
either direction regardless of their battery voltage levels.
Fig. 1. V2V operations: (a) ac V2V operation and (b) dc V2V operation.
As the active rectifiers of both the type-2 chargers are used
as an interface to connect two dc-links instead of their actual
connecting the dc-link of the two EVs using mechanical purpose of rectification, other switches of both the active
switches is presented as shown in Fig. 1(b). However, prac- rectifiers are kept OFF throughout the V2V operation. Based on
tically, there is no direct access to the dc-link of battery the battery voltage of two EVs, the configuration may operate
side dc–dc converters for establishing the presented direct in one of the possible energy transfer modes as discussed
connection. Thus, the V2V approach presented in [19] is below.
not a practically feasible solution without customized design
modifications and additional charging ports for bringing out
A. V2V Scenario-1: Vbat1 < Vbat2
the dc-link terminals of the two EVs.
This article proposes a V2V charging approach for EVs With the EV-1 battery voltage less than the EV-2 battery
through the on-board type-2 chargers by directly connecting voltage and provider–receiver role, there are two possible
the on-board type-2 power inlet ports, which eliminates the scenarios of boost and buck operation with power flow in
need for external hardware or additional power inlet ports forward or reverse direction, respectively, as explained below.
for V2V operation. Furthermore, the proposed V2V approach 1) Forward Boost Mode (EV1 as Provider and EV2 as
utilizes the active rectifier stages as a connection interface Receiver): In this mode, EV1 is charge provider and EV2
to connect two EV batteries which in turn reduces the total is charge receiver with battery-1 having lower voltage than
conversion stages in the V2V energy transfer path. Reduced battery-2. Once the direct connection of two EV batteries
conversion stages reduce the overall active switches contribut- through the proposed approach (by turning on the switches
ing to switching and conduction losses which significantly S1 , S6 , S1 , and S6 ), EV-1 battery voltage is stepped up to the
increases the efficiency. In the proposed V2V approach, mode EV-2 battery voltage by operating the dc–dc converter-1 in
selection logic is presented to decide buck/boost operating the boost mode. During the turn ON period of the switch Sb1 ,
modes, based on the battery voltage levels and the power flow inductor L 1 stores energy from EV-1 battery, and the switch
direction, based on the EV user’s preference. Control of power Sa1 is complimentary switched to Sb1 as shown in Fig. 3(a).
flow in either direction provides greater flexibility for the EV When Sb1 is turned OFF, Sa 1 gets turned ON to transfer energy
users to be a provider or receiver irrespective of the difference of EV-1 battery and inductor L 1 to EV-2 battery through S1 ,
in both EV battery voltage ratings. The proposed approach S1 , Sa2 , and inductor L 2 . To receive power from the dc-links,
of connecting the two EV batteries through on-board active switch Sa2 is kept on throughout this V2V mode which makes
rectifier switches eliminates the need for an off-board V2V Vdc1 = Vdc2 = Vbat2 and switch Sb2 is complimentary switched
interface unlike [16], additional contactor switches in contrast to Sa2 as shown in Fig. 3(b).
to [19], redundant power transfer stages compared to [18], and 2) Reverse Buck Mode (EV1 as Receiver and EV2 as
associated losses that improve the overall V2V efficiency. Provider): Similar to the forward boost mode in this reverse
The rest of the article is structured as follows. In Section II, buck mode, the EV batteries are connected by turning on the
the power converter configuration and its operating modes switches S1 , S6 , S1 , and S6 of the active rectifier-1 and 2.
for possible V2V modes of the proposed approach are dis- The dc–dc converter-1 is operated in buck mode to transfer
cussed. The control scheme for the proposed V2V approach power from EV-2 battery to EV-1 battery. The diode Da2 gets
is described in Section III. Performance improvement of the forward biased as Vbat1 < Vbat2 leading to Vbat2 = Vdc1 = Vdc2
proposed V2V with respect to efficiency and other aspects and thus making EV-2 battery available for delivering power
are discussed in detail in Section IV in addition to simulation to EV-1 battery through the dc-link. During turn ON period of
results. The experimental validation of the proposed V2V switch Sa1 , the energy from the EV-2 battery is transferred to
approach with a scaled lab prototype is discussed in Section V. EV-1 battery through inductor L 1 , Da2 , S1 , and inductor L 2 as
Finally, the article is concluded in Section VI. shown in Fig. 4(a). During the turn OFF period of Sa1 , the

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 SHAFIQURRAHMAN et al.: ELECTRIC V2V ENERGY TRANSFER USING ON-BOARD CONVERTERS 1265

Fig. 2. Proposed topology for V2V operation.

energy in the inductor L 1 freewheel through switch Sb1 which the dc–dc converter-2 of EV-2 in the boost mode, and keeping
is complementary switched to Sa1 as shown in Fig. 4(b). the Sa1 of the dc–dc converter-1 of EV-1 always ON.
2) Forward Buck Mode (EV1 as Provider and EV2 as
B. V2V Scenario-2: Vbat1 = Vbat2 Receiver): This mode is similar to the reverse buck mode
with Vbat1 < Vbat2 but the power flow is reversed by operating
In this scenario as both EV battery voltages are equal,
the dc–dc converter-2 of EV-2 in the buck mode, and keeping
the dc–dc converters need to be controlled, one in current-
the Sa1 of the dc–dc converter-1 of EV-1 always ON.
controlled boost mode and the other in current-controlled buck
mode.
1) Forward Boost Mode (EV1 as Provider and EV2 as III. C ONTROL S CHEME FOR THE P ROPOSED V2V
Receiver): In this mode with Vbat1 = Vbat2 , power transfer A PPROACH
from EV-1 to EV-2 battery is achieved by operating the dc–dc The charging rate and the amount of energy transferred dur-
converter-1 in the boost mode and the dc–dc converter-2 is ing the proposed V2V approach are controlled by controlling
operated in the buck mode with closed-loop current control. the on-board converters. The mode selector flow shown in
During turn ON period of the switch Sb1 , inductor L 1 stores Fig. 6 decides the V2V mode based on the EV-1 and EV-2 bat-
energy from EV-1 battery and switch Sa1 is complimentary tery values and the provider receiver information. Furthermore,
switched to Sb1 . At the same instant, the switch Sb2 of dc–dc depending on the mode of operation, the on-board charger
converter-2 is also ON to freewheel the energy in inductor converters are controlled for achieving the proposed V2V as
L 2 , and the switch Sa2 is complimentary switched to Sb2 as discussed next in this section.
shown in Fig. 5(a). During the turn OFF period of Sb1 and
Sb2 , the switches Sa1 and Sa2 gets turned on to transfer energy A. Control of the Active Rectifiers as V2V Interface
from EV-1 battery to EV-2 battery through L 1 , S1 , S1 , and
Typically, during the normal three-phase ac charging
L 2 as shown in Fig. 5(b). This mode can also be achieved
through a type-2 charger, the active rectifier is controlled in
by operating provider EV side dc–dc converter in the voltage
d-q control mode to convert the three-phase ac to dc with
control mode to regulate the dc-link voltage at a higher voltage
unity power factor operation at the grid terminals. During the
than the EV battery voltage and receiver-side dc–dc converter
proposed V2V charging, the active rectifier is re-utilized as
in the current control mode.
an interface to access and connect the batteries of the two
2) Reverse Boost Mode (EV1 as Receiver and EV2 as
EVs. After the type-2 charger ports are connected for V2V
Provider): This mode is similar to the forward boost mode
charging, the gating pulse for the switches S1 and S6 of the
with Vbat1 = Vbat2 but the power flow is reversed by operating
active rectifier-1 of the EV-1 and the switches S1 and S6 of
the dc–dc converter-2 in boost mode and the dc–dc converter-1
the active rectifier-2 are kept active high throughout the V2V
is operated in buck mode with closed-loop current control.
charging for all the modes.
Voltage control mode could be used to control the power flow
in this mode as well.
B. Control of DC–DC Converters
C. V2V Scenario-3: Vbat1 > Vbat2 For the proposed V2V charging approach using the on-
The converter operation in this scenario is similar to the board chargers, the dc–dc converters of the type-2 chargers
Scenario-1 with the power flow direction reversed. are closed-loop current-controlled.
1) Reverse Boost Mode (EV1 as Receiver and EV2 as For forward boost and reverse buck mode control
Provider): This mode is similar to the forward boost mode (Vbat1 < Vbat2 ): In these modes, the dc–dc converter-1’s induc-
with Vbat1 < Vbat2 but the power flow is reversed by operating tor current I L1 in forward or reverse direction is controlled in

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 1266 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON TRANSPORTATION ELECTRIFICATION, VOL. 9, NO. 1, MARCH 2023

Fig. 4. Reverse buck V2V mode with Vbat1 < Vbat2 . (a) L1 stores energy
from EV-2 battery through dc-link. (b) Energy is stored from L1 to EV-1
battery through freewheeling.
Fig. 3. Forward boost V2V mode with Vbat1 < Vbat2 . (a) L1 stores energy
from EV-1 battery. (b) Energy is transferred through dc-link to EV2.

voltage levels are selected to calculate the reference current

closed-loop by feeding the error between the reference current min(E bat1 , E bat2 )
I L∗ and the actual inductor current I L1 to a PI controller to I L∗ = . (2)
min(Vbat1 , Vbat2 ) ∗ Tc
generate duty ratio for switch Sa1 , and Sb1 is complimentarily
The maximum value of I L∗ depends on current rating Is1r
switched to Sa1 as shown in Fig. 7. Gating signal to the switch
of the on-board active rectifier IGBTs (S1 , S6 , S1 , and S6 ),
Sa2 is kept active high throughout this mode. The current to
if I L∗ computed from (2) exceeds Is1r , the current reference
control transfer function to the dc–dc converter-1 used to tune
will be caped to Is1r . Similarly, for the forward buck and
the PI controller is given in the following equation, where D
reverse boost mode with (Vbat1 > Vbat2 ), the same control
is the duty ratio and R2 is the load resistance equivalent to
structure is used to control the I L2 in the forward or reverse
charging current of the EV-2 battery [20]
direction by generating the duty ratio for the switch Sb2
I
L 1 (s) (C1 Vb1 )s + 2(1 − D)L 1 and switch Sa2 is complimentarily switched to Sb2 . The
= . (1)

d(s) (L 1 C1 )s 2 + LR12 s + (1 − D)2 gating signal to switch Sa1 is made active high throughout
this mode.
Reference current I L∗ is calculated based on the following Furthermore, in the forward boost mode with (Vbat1 = Vbat2 ),
equation, where E bat1 and E bat2 are kWh ratings of the EV-1 both the dc–dc converters are operated in current control mode
and EV-2 batteries, respectively, and Tc is the desired charging to control I L1 and I L2 in the forward direction. As both the
time. The minimum values among the two battery ratings and battery voltages are equal in this case, the current reference

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 SHAFIQURRAHMAN et al.: ELECTRIC V2V ENERGY TRANSFER USING ON-BOARD CONVERTERS 1267

Fig. 6. Proposed V2V power transfer control flow.

Fig. 7. Current control structure in forward boost and reverse buck modes
(Vbat1 < Vbat2 ).

Fig. 5. Forward boost V2V mode with Vbat1 = Vbat2 . (a) L 1 and L 2 store bidirectional power converter interface for V2V is available.
energy from the batteries. (b) Energy is transferred through dc-link to EV2. Practical implementation of the proposed V2V approach for
commercial EVs assumes that communication between EVs
and access to controllers and instrumentation sensors is readily
I L∗ should be equal for both the dc–dc converters to maintain available as detailed in [10]–[12] and proposes to provide a
power balance at the two EV batteries. This mode can be powerful interface for the actual V2V power transfer through
controlled alternatively by regulating the dc-link at a higher the on-board type-2 charger’s hardware components. The
voltage by operating one of the dc–dc converter-1 in voltage- provider EV and the receiver EV are connected directly
controlled boost mode and the dc–dc converter-2 in current- through the existing on-board type-2 charging ports for V2V
controlled buck mode. energy sharing. Depending on the battery voltage levels,
The higher efficiency, lower losses, and convenience of provider, and receiver preferences, fetched using the on-board
connecting two EVs through the existing on-board type-2 instrumentation sensors and EV user inputs, the V2V mode is
charger ports make the proposed V2V approach more prac- decided, as shown in Fig. 6. Based on the mode of operation
tically adaptable among EV users. In general, for the practical selected (e.g., forward boost), the power flow direction and the
implementation of any V2V approach, access to the on-board required amount of energy transfer are commanded through
instrumentation sensors and BMS controllers of the provider the on-board DSP controllers. Active rectifiers of both the on-
and receiver EVs are required to establish a communication board chargers are controlled to act as an interface by turning
between two EVs and to fetch the required parameters for on the top and bottom switches of any two legs. Once the
V2V. These aspects of V2V are already discussed in [10]–[12], dc-links of both the on-board chargers are connected, depend-
with details of game theory-based algorithms to match the ing on the selected V2V mode the battery side dc–dc converter
receiver and the provider EVs with an assumption that the of the on-board chargers is current-controlled, to deliver the

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 1268 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON TRANSPORTATION ELECTRIFICATION, VOL. 9, NO. 1, MARCH 2023

TABLE I
S IMULATION PARAMETERS OF THE P ROPOSED V2V A PPROACH

required charge to the receiver EV as discussed in the initial

parts of this section.

IV. S IMULATION R ESULTS

The proposed V2V approach is validated through
MATLAB/Simulink simulation study for the forward boost Fig. 8. Simulation results of the proposed V2V operation in forward boost
and reverse buck mode with Vbat1 < Vbat2 and Vbat1 = Vbat2 . mode with Vbat1 < Vbat2 . (a) SOC, voltage, current, and power waveforms
The motivation behind the development of the simulation of EV-1 battery. (b) SOC, voltage, current, and power waveforms of EV-2
battery.
model is to implement and verify the performance of the
proposed V2V approach by considering the commercial EV’s
on-board charger configuration, battery ratings, and on-board current rating of the active rectifier switches Is1r which is 45 A
charger power levels. The tool used for simulation is the for the on-board type-2 charger.
Simscape Electrical toolbox available in MATLAB/Simulink
with a ready circuit simulation model of IGBTs to analyze the B. Reverse Buck Mode (Vbat1 < Vbat2 )
bidirectional dc–dc converter and the ready lithium-ion battery In this mode, for the same EV-1 and EV-2 battery volt-
model. The powerful block allows to setup transient simulation age levels as the forward boost mode but the power flow
setup with the required step time and allows to select the best is reversed. The receiver EV-1 battery is charged with the
solver like ODE 45. The simulation parameters considered for charging current Ib1 and the corresponding rise in SOC and
designing the EV-1 and EV-2 on-board chargers are given in voltage with the charging power level is shown in Fig. 9(a).
Table I. The simulation results for reverse boost and forward The discharging current of the EV-2 battery Ib2 and the cor-
buck mode Vbat1 > Vbat2 and Vbat1 = Vbat2 are similar to the responding SOC and voltage with the EV-2 battery discharge
forward boost and reverse buck mode with Vbat1 < Vbat2 and power are shown in Fig. 9(b).
Vbat1 = Vbat2 , respectively.
C. Forward Boost Mode (Vbat1 = Vbat2 )
A. Forward Boost Mode (Vbat1 < Vbat2 ) This mode represents the energy transfer between two same
In this mode, the energy is transferred from EV-1 battery model EVs with equal voltage cases. The currents I L1 and I L2
to EV-2 battery by controlling the inductor current I L1 . The are controlled with the same current reference in the forward
reference inductor current I L∗ for the forward boost mode is direction. Fig. 10(a) shows the discharging current of the EV-1
initially kept as 30 A and gradually increased in steps of 10 A battery and the corresponding changes in SOC, voltage, and
up to 50 A to control the EV-1 battery discharge current Ib1 . power. The charging current and respective changes in EV-2
The control of Ib1 and the corresponding drop in state of battery SOC and voltage with variations in the dc-link voltages
charge (SOC) of EV-1 SoCb1 , voltage Vb1 , and the discharged are shown in Fig. 10(b). Depending on the current reference
power out of EV-1 battery Pb1 is shown in Fig. 8(a). EV-2 value of the dc–dc converter-2, the dc-link voltage will be
battery charging current Ib2 and the corresponding rise in slightly higher than the EV-2 battery voltage.
SoCb2 , Vb2 , and charged power of EV-2 battery Pb2 are shown
in Fig. 8(b). A positive value of battery current represents D. Performance Analysis
discharging and a negative value represents the charging of In this section, the efficiency of the proposed V2V approach
the battery. Discharging and charging currents are within the and loss calculations at different output power levels are

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 SHAFIQURRAHMAN et al.: ELECTRIC V2V ENERGY TRANSFER USING ON-BOARD CONVERTERS 1269

Fig. 9. Simulation results of the proposed V2V operation in the reverse buck Fig. 10. Simulation results of the proposed V2V operation in the forward
mode with Vbat1 < Vbat2 . (a) SOC, voltage, current, and power waveforms boost mode with Vbat1 = Vbat2 . (a) SOC, voltage, current, and power
of the EV-1 battery. (b) SOC, voltage, current, and power waveforms of the waveforms of EV-1 battery. (b) SOC, voltage, current of EV-2 battery, and
EV-2 battery. dc-link voltage.

TABLE II
presented. The main losses incurred during V2V power trans- P OWER L OSSES FOR THE P ROPOSED V2V O PERATION IN
fer operation are switching and conduction losses of the THE F ORWARD B OOST M ODE

on-board charger’s switches and the ohmic losses in filter

inductors. The switching and conduction losses calculations
of the diode and the IGBTs are calculated based on the basic
equations given in [21].
The power losses and power conversion efficiency in the
forward boost mode for the reference inductor current I L∗
of 30 A are presented in Table II. There is no switching
loss in dc–dc converter-2 since Sa2 is kept ON and Sb2
is kept OFF throughout this mode. The power conversion
efficiency and power losses due to switching and conduction
with respect to the output power are shown in Fig. 11. The
V2V efficiency and losses are computed for three different
output power levels Poutput which are ≈11, ≈14, and ≈18 kW
according to the change in reference inductor current I L∗ as
shown in Fig. 8(b). As I L∗ increases, the corresponding power
losses also increase due to higher energy transfer between two
EVs and thus, the power conversion efficiency (η) decreases
with higher output power. The conduction losses in inductors
L 1 and L 2 are relatively low due to low value of internal
resistances R1 and R2 . single-phase on-board chargers with maximum power limited
Furthermore, to show the improved performance of the to 3.3 kW. In [18], V2V power transfer is carried out using
proposed V2V approach, it is quantitatively compared with a four stages (dc to dc, dc to ac, ac to dc, and then back dc–dc).
similar V2V approach presented in [18] as shown in Table III. For an adequate comparison, the approach presented in [18] is
The proposed V2V approach connects the two EVs through carried out for 19.4 kW three-phase system and quantitatively
the type-2 three-phase on-board chargers of 19.4 kW rated compared with the proposed V2V approach. The proposed
power. The V2V approach presented in [18] utilizes type-1 approach with fewer conversion stages and less number of

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 1270 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON TRANSPORTATION ELECTRIFICATION, VOL. 9, NO. 1, MARCH 2023

Fig. 11. Efficiency and power losses versus output power.

Fig. 12. Experimental setup for energy transfer between two sets of battery
TABLE III banks.
C OMPARISON B ETWEEN THE P ROPOSED AND P RESENTED
V2V A PPROACH IN [18]
TABLE IV
E XPERIMENTAL PARAMETERS OF THE P ROPOSED V2V A PPROACH

Reducing this V2V charging time as short as possible is critical

for the widespread utilization of the V2V charging concept.

V. E XPERIMENTAL V ERIFICATION
active switches have lower total switching loss (0.2 kW)
and conduction loss (0.203 kW). The V2V approach in [18] The proposed V2V approach using the on-board type-2
having four conversion stages results in higher switching loss chargers is practically validated through the scaled 1.2 kW lab-
(2.28 kW) and conduction loss (0.56 kW). Lower losses in oratory prototype. The complete experimental setup to transfer
the case of the proposed V2V approach result in the improved energy between two lithium-ion battery banks is shown in
efficiency of 97.92% compared to the 85.34% efficiency of the Fig. 12. The EV-1 and EV-2 on-board type-2 chargers are
multistage conversion-based V2V approach presented in [18]. realized through two Semikron converter stacks each with
With respect to the charging time, the proposed approach and four half-bridge IGBT legs. One of the half-bridge legs in
the three-phase equivalent of the V2V approach presented each stack is configured as dc–dc converter and the other
in [18] are equal and take nearly 1 h to rise the SOC of the EV three half-bridge legs of each stack are configured as the
battery by 20% with a nominal voltage of 450 V and 100 kWh active rectifier legs. The values of the battery parameters,
capacity. switching frequency, and the passive components are tabulated
Due to the limited power rating of the on-board chargers, in Table IV.
the type-2 on-board charger power ranges around 19.4 kW The experimental results for the proposed V2V approach
limiting the overall charging time to 4–6 h for fully charging are presented in Figs. 13–15. In the forward boost mode with
the battery. As the proposed V2V approach utilizes type-2 Vbat1 (129 V) < Vbat2 (272 V), the current through inductor
on-board chargers, the same charging time limitation applies L 1 is controlled in steps by varying the current reference
to the proposed approach also. However, the main idea of in steps of 1.85 A to show the different operating power
the V2V approach is to charge the receiver EV battery as an of the V2V charging. The EV-1 and EV-2 battery voltages
emergency option (e.g., charging in the range of 10%–20% of and respective battery currents variation as per the reference
the full charge SOC) which should take less than an hour such current command are shown in Fig. 13. To maintain the same
that the receiver EV reaches the nearest charging point. Thus, convention as simulation, Ib2 is shown as negative to indicate
the higher charging time limitation of the type-2 on-board the charging of the EV-2 battery and Ib1 as positive to show
charger is not a concern for the proposed V2V approach. discharging of the EV-1 battery.

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 SHAFIQURRAHMAN et al.: ELECTRIC V2V ENERGY TRANSFER USING ON-BOARD CONVERTERS 1271

are similar to the forward boost mode with the power flow
reversed. In the reverse buck mode, the EV-1 battery is charged
with a negative value of Ib1 and the EV-2 battery is discharging
with a positive value of Ib2 . The EV-1 and EV-2 battery
voltages and variation of the battery currents for different V2V
operating power in reverse buck mode are shown in Fig. 14.
For the V2V energy transfer in the forward boost mode
with the EV-1 and EV-2 battery voltages nearly equal voltage
Vbat1 (261 V) ≈ Vbat2 (265 V), both the inductor currents
I L1 and I L2 are controlled with the same reference with
equal magnitude. The EV-1 and EV-2 battery voltages and
discharging current Ib1 and charging currents Ib2 with equal
magnitude are shown in Fig. 15. Thus, the experimental results
clearly demonstrate the practical feasibility and effective V2V
energy sharing through the on-board EV chargers without the
Fig. 13. Experimental results: battery voltages and currents for EV-1 and need for additional hardware.
EV-2 in forward boost mode (Vbat1 < Vbat2 ).
VI. C ONCLUSION
This article proposes a direct V2V charging approach for
power transfer between two EVs without the need for external
hardware or additional charging ports. It is an emergency
rescue charging solution in the case of non-availability of
ac grid and dc fast-charging stations. Connecting two EV
batteries directly through the on-board charger ports leads
to significant hardware infrastructure savings. The redundant
power conversion stages were avoided, which improved the
overall efficiency of the proposed V2V approach which is
evident in the performance analysis. The proposed V2V
approach mitigates range anxiety and cooperatively shares
energy between EV users with minimum infrastructure and
cost. The proposed V2V method is validated through simu-
lation in MATLAB/Simulink and experimental results which
prove the practical effectiveness without modifying the EV
power architecture.
Fig. 14. Experimental results: battery voltages and currents for EV-1 and
EV-2 in the reverse buck mode (Vbat1 < Vbat2 ). R EFERENCES
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[9] D. M. Mughal, J. S. Kim, H. Lee, and M. Y. Chung, “Performance B. S. Umesh (Member, IEEE) received the B.E.
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data transmission scheme,” IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., vol. 68, no. 7, the University B. D. T. College of Engineering,
pp. 7045–7056, Jul. 2019. Davanagere, India, in 2007, the M.Tech. degree
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to-vehicle social charging system,” in Proc. IEEE 85th Veh. Technol. Institute of Technology Warangal, Warangal, India,
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“Towards an optimal EV charging scheduling scheme with V2G and Engineer at GE Aviation, Bengaluru, in 2019. He is currently a Post-Doctoral
V2V energy transfer,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Smart Grid Commun. Fellow with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,
(SmartGridComm), Nov. 2016, pp. 302–307. Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. His research interests
[13] E. Ucer et al., “A flexible V2V charger as a new layer of vehicle-grid include power converter design and development for electric vehicle charging,
integration framework,” in Proc. IEEE Transp. Electrific. Conf. Expo more electric aircraft, multi-phase induction motor drives, and pole-phase
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vehicle-to-home, vehicle-to-vehicle, and vehicle-to-grid technologies,”
Proc. IEEE, vol. 101, no. 11, pp. 2409–2427, Nov. 2013. Naji Al Sayari (Member, IEEE) received the
[15] P. Mahure, R. K. Keshri, R. Abhyankar, and G. Buja, “Bidirectional B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the
conductive charging of electric vehicles for V2V energy exchange,” in Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL,
Proc. 46th Annu. Conf. IEEE Ind. Electron. Soc. (IECON), Oct. 2020, USA, in 2001, the M.Sc. degree in electrical engi-
pp. 2011–2016. neering from Washington University in St. Louis,
[16] Andromeda Power. Accessed: Nov. 2021. [Online]. Available: https:// St. Louis, MO, USA, in 2005, and the Ph.D. degree
www.andromedapower.com from The University of Manchester, Manchester,
[17] Dec. 2019. Hyundai introduces vehicle to vehicle charging facility. U.K., in 2011.
Accessed: Nov. 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.autocarindia. He is currently an Associate Professor with the
com/car-news/hyundai-introduces-vehicle-to-vehicle-charging-facility- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer
415144 Science, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United
[18] S. Taghizadeh, M. J. Hossain, N. Poursafar, J. Lu, and G. Kon- Arab Emirates. He is also the Co-Founder of the Power Electronics and
stantinou, “A multifunctional single-phase EV on-board charger with Advanced Sustainable Energy (PEACE) Laboratory, Khalifa University. His
a new V2V charging assistance capability,” IEEE Access, vol. 8, current research interests include electric machine analysis, power electronics
pp. 116812–116823, 2020. applications, power quality issues, distributed generation, smart grid, micro-
[19] T. J. C. Sousa, V. Monteiro, J. C. A. Fernandes, C. Couto, grid, and renewable energy systems.
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to-vehicle (V2V) power transfer,” in Proc. 44th Annu. Conf. IEEE Ind.
Vinod Khadkikar (Fellow, IEEE) received the
Electron. Soc., Oct. 2018, pp. 5183–5188.
M.Tech. degree in power electronics, electrical
[20] R. W. Erickson and D. Maksimovic, Fundamentals of Power Electronics,
machines, and drives from the Indian Institute of
2nd ed. Norwell, MA, USA: Springer, 2007.
Technology Delhi (IITD), New Delhi, India, in 2002,
[21] D. Graovac and M. Purschel, “IGBT power losses calculation using
and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from
the data-sheet parameters-application note,” Infineon Technol. AG,
the École de Technologie Supérieure, Montreal, QC,
Neubiberg, Germany, Appl. Note V 1.1, Jan. 2009.
Canada, in 2008.
From December 2008 to March 2010, he was a
Post-Doctoral Fellow with the University of Western
Ontario, London, ON, Canada. In 2010, he was a
Azizulrahman Shafiqurrahman (Student Member, Visiting Professor with the Massachusetts Institute
IEEE) received the B.Sc. degree in electrical and of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA. He is currently a Professor
electronics engineering from the University of Shar- with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Khalifa
jah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, in 2020. He is University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. His research interests include
currently pursuing the M.Sc. degree in electrical and the applications of power electronics in distribution systems and renewable
computer engineering with the Department of Elec- energy resources, grid interconnection issues, power quality enhancement,
trical Engineering and Computer Science, Khalifa active power filters, and electric vehicles.
University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Dr. Khadkikar is currently an Associate Editor for the IEEE T RANSAC -
His current research interests include power elec- TIONS ON I NDUSTRIAL E LECTRONICS , IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON I NDUS -
tronics applications, energy conversion in electrified TRY A PPLICATIONS, and IET Power Electronics. He is a Distinguished
transportation, and vehicle-to-vehicle charging. Lecturer of the IEEE Industry Applications Society.

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