A new integrated motor drive and battery charger for electric vehicles has been developed by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. The new charger will reduce charging times from eight to two hours and reduce costs by around $2,000. The charger uses a new power transfer technique that involves a rotating transformer. Instead of having a separate isolated battery charger, as with normal electric vehicle chargers, a rotating transformer ? a new concept for power transfer ? has been used to transfer electric power while rotating. The battery is charged through the transformer and a split-phase electric motor that was especially designed for this purpose. The new charger has a Swedish and an international patent, but it is still at laboratory level, and requires further investigations and trials to be ready for commercial production.
