Accelerated Industrial Application of Electric Vehicle Charging Technology

It is estimated that in 2018, total UK greenhouse gas emissions were 43.5 per cent lower than in 1990 and 2.5 per cent lower than 2017. Electric vehicles (EVs) are an important part of meeting global goals on reducing CO2 emission. In order to achieve the UK's target - to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050, more research and innovation can be done to prominently facilitate the development of EVs.

The PhD research project aims to collaborate with IPFT Fuels Limited to build a prototype of its conductive EV charger at the Power Electronics (PE) Laboratory at Cardiff University (CU) so as to accelerate the industrial application of EV charging devices in the market. The project aims at addressing the dilemma of cost vs. size, weight, efficiency and reliability based on cost and performance models of the EV charges. The project will validate the technology component and/or basic subsystem of IPFT's product in the PE Lab. The project will achieve the Technology Readiness Level 5 (TRL 5) required by the Automotive Council and therefore, enable the technology for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and Mobility as a Service (MaaS).

The project sits with the Energy/ Engineering Portfolio research theme areas


The PhD candidate will have the access to the devices such as the wireless EV charging facilities, DC power source, power system emulator and real-time digital simulator. The PhD candidate will design and integrate technological components of the charger with these supporting elements from IPFT so that all system specifications can be simulated and validated.