“The Future of Electric Cars: How Do We Charge Them Up? Do They Really Bring Benefits?”

Philip Krein

Grainger Endowed Chair Emeritus in Electric Machinery and Electromechanics Research Professor, Grainger Center for Electric Machinery and Electromechanics, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Abstract
The shift to more electric cars and transportation brings opportunities for control, extreme performance, energy reduction and flexibility, cheaper operation, and lower emissions. Customers see limited range, battery performance limits, slow refueling, and lack of charging facilities as big drawbacks. This presentation shows how the energy needs of most electric and plug-in hybrid cars can be met with the conventional electrical outlets most of us have. Safety protection, metering, billing, and other functions can be supported by a car to turn a “dumb” electrical outlet into a smart vehicle charge point. Actual driver needs are discussed, showing how more advanced chargers fit in. Survey results on the University of Illinois campus help to support the ideas. The talk explores how to think differently about electric cars and energy. Flexibility can make electric vehicles important partners for the future of electricity.

Bio
Philip Krein has been working on electric and hybrid cars for almost 30 years. He works on high-performance motors, circuits and systems for chargers, and interconnections to the power grid. He is the Grainger Endowed Chair Professor Emeritus in Electric Machinery and Electromechanics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was the founding Executive Dean of the Zhejiang University / University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute in China. His startup company, SolarBridge Technologies, Inc., developed long-life integrated inverters for solar energy. He holds 42 U.S. patents and is a past President of the IEEE Power Electronics Society and a past Chair of the IEEE Transportation Electrification Community. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Inventors, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.