Recent Developments in Power Converter-Based Electric Vehicle Chargers: A Review of Advanced Control Approaches

Abstract

The swift international shift to electric mobility has heightened the studies on effective, dependable, and smart battery charging infrastructures to electric vehicles (EVs). Some of the most important technological enablers that differentiates the performance of the systems, their energy consumption and their compatibility with the grid is the design of the two power converter topologies, and the use of their sophisticated control strategies. The survey reviews the advances in power converter-based EV battery charging technology, and introduces background information about the evolution of the more modern single-stage, bidirectional, and high-frequency converter topologies based on the traditional two-stage AC-DC/DC-DC topologies. Special focus is given to topologies like the Vienna rectifier, Dual Active Bridge (DAB), LLC resonant converters and emerging cycloconverter-based designs which are highly efficient, compact, and have a better harmonic performance. New developments in control methodologies are also discussed in the paper such as Model Predictive Control (MPC), Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) which have empowered adaptive and intelligent control of energy under a variety of grid and load conditions. A comparative analysis of the current literature shows that the combination of advanced control and optimized converter design is one of the most effective to increase power factor, minimize total harmonic distortion (THD), and to extend battery life. Lastly, the survey reveals the current research gaps, including converter reliability, integration of battery aging, and co-optimization of real-time control, and explains possible future directions of smart, grid-interactive, and AI-assisted EV charging infrastructures.