Review of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations and Battery Management Systems with Solar Integration

Abstract

The shift to electrified road transport has put electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, battery management systems (BMS), and integration of renewable-energy sources in the heart of modern energy and transportation science. This review is an overview of the existing body of knowledge in three closely related areas: (i) EV charging infrastructure, such as charging levels, connector standards, station architectures, and communication protocols; (ii) battery management systems, such as battery chemistries, state-of-charge (SOC) and state-of-health (SOH) estimation, cell balancing, and thermal management; and (iii) combining solar photovoltaic (PV) generation with EV charging stations, such as system topologies, maximum power point tracking (MPPT), power-electronic interfaces, and energy management strategies. The review emphasizes the potential of solar-integrated charging stations, which with intelligent BMS and energy management controllers, can decrease grid reliance, decrease operating expenses, and enhance the sustainability profile of EV charging. The important trade-offs in the technical aspects are summarized in two comparison tables of charging levels and SOC estimation techniques, and two illustrative plots of a typical solar-EV-BMS system structure and power curves of solar and demand per day. The review ends by listing the unresolved issues, such as battery degradation during fast charging, PV intermittency, standardization, and cybersecurity, and providing new research opportunities, such as artificial-intelligence-based energy management, vehicle-to-grid (V2G) operation, second-life battery storage, and predictive maintenance provided by digital twins.