Electric vehicles under low temperatures : a review on battery performance, charging needs, and power grid impacts

Senol, Murat and Bayram, I. Safak and Naderi, Yahya and Galloway, Stuart (2023) Electric vehicles under low temperatures : a review on battery performance, charging needs, and power grid impacts. IEEE Access, 11. pp. 39879-39912. ISSN 2169-3536 (https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3268615)

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Abstract

Electric vehicles (EVs) are gaining mainstream adoption as more countries introduce net-zero carbon targets for the near future. Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, the most commonly used energy storage technology in EVs, are temperature sensitive, and their performance decreases at low operating temperatures. The existing literature on EV-power grid studies assume that EVs are used under "perfect temperatures" (e.g. 21 Celsius) and temperature-related issues are ignored. In addition, most of the countries/regions with high EV penetration (e.g. Norway, Canada, northern parts of US and China, etc.) experience harsh cold months, making it extremely critical to understand EV performance and consequently their impacts on the electrical power networks. In this paper, we present a systematic review of the literature that considers the combined investigation of Li-ion battery technology and power networks, with a focus on their operation under suboptimal weather conditions. More specifically, we review: (i) the impact of low temperatures on the electrochemical performance of EV batteries in parking, charging and driving modes, (ii) the challenges experienced by EVs during charging and associated performance degradation, and (iii) the additional impacts of EV charging on the power networks. Our analysis show that there are serious research gaps in literature and industry applications, which may hinder mass EV adoption and cause delays in charging station roll out.