Advancements in Fast and Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging: Performance Trade-Offs, System Challenges, and Future Directions

Inductive charging and DC charging are increasingly becoming the preferred methods of charging an electric vehicle, with the latter being significantly quicker than the former. The type of charging impacts the degradation of batteries, battery efficiency, power grid carbon emissions, and overall environmental sustainability as part of the battery life. This study is based on several recent research papers from the year 2021 to 2026 on lithium ion, lead acid, lithium polymer and silicon-carbon batteries. Rapid charging causes aging of the battery due to lithium plating, solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) growth, and higher internal resistance especially when the SoC is above 80% or at temperatures below 15℃. When the coils are misaligned, the efficiency loss can range from 5-15% and there can be localized thermal hotspots. However, the constant low power charging can help mitigate cycle aging. The charging conditions also impact on grid emissions. Fast charging can account for as much as triple the CO₂ emitted per kWh as off-peak or solar-coordinated charging in coal-heavy power systems. The charging process can have an impact on the life of the battery and lead to the need for battery replacement, which can add to the impacts of the battery manufacturing process, typically overlooked in a conventional LCA. A causal relationship between charging methods and thermal and electrochemical stresses, battery degradation, efficiency losses, grid level effects, and battery life. Solutions are described as being: – temperature responsive fast charging, – misalignment tolerant wireless charging, – demand responsive charging scheduling. To enable sustainable electric mobility, further research based on real-world charging data, long-term wireless-aging research, and resulting lifecycle assessments is needed.