Conventional vehicles, having internal combustion engines, use lead-acid batteries (LABs) for starting, lighting, and ignition purposes. However, because of new additional features (i.e., enhanced electronics and start/stop functionalities) in these vehicles, LABs undergo deep discharges due to frequent engine cranking, which in turn affect their lifespan. Therefore, this research study seeks to improve LABs’ performance in terms of meeting the required vehicle cold cranking current (CCC) and long lifespan. The performance improvement is achieved by hybridizing a lead-acid with a lithium-ion battery at a pack level using a fully active topology approach. This topology approach connects the individual energy storage systems to their bidirectional DC-DC converter for ease of control. Besides, a battery management strategy based on fuzzy logic and a triple-loop proportional-integral (PI) controller is implemented for these conversion systems to ensure effective current sharing between lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries. A fuzzy logic controller provides a percentage reference current needed from the battery and regulates the batteries’ state-of-charge (SoC) within the desired limits. A triple-loop controller monitors and limits the hybridized system’s current sharing and voltage within the required range during cycling. The hybridized system is developed and validated using Matlab/Simulink. The battery packs are developed using the battery manufacturers’ data sheets. The results of the research, compared with a single LAB, show that by controlling the current flow and maintaining the SoC within the desired limits, the hybrid energy storage system can meet the desired vehicle cold cranking current at a reduced weight. Furthermore, the lead-acid battery lifespan based on a fatigue cycle-model is improved from two years to 8.5 years, thus improving its performance in terms of long lifespan.

The huge success of electric vehicles across the world is challenged by a lack of infrastructure and a major increase in battery material prices. This challenge positions internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) to remain a vehicle of choice. The majority of these vehicles use a lead-acid battery (LAB) for starting, lighting, and ignition (SLI) functions. However, these LABs are faced with challenges of short lifespan and low storage capacity because of improved electronic systems in modern ICEVs. In this manuscript, we propose an extension application of a hybrid LAB and lithium-ion energy storage system (ESS) for a vehicle using a single source of 70 Ah and 90 Ah capacity. Whereas previously, a hybrid energy storage system (HESS) for use in a vehicle using a source of 50 Ah battery capacity was proposed. Hence, the unique contribution of the study is using an integrated fuzzy-logic and triple-loop-proportional-integral-based battery management strategy (BMS) to improve LAB performance in a wide range of vehicles with different battery capacities sizes. The results show that the proposed BMS can help increase LAB lifespan and improve the storage capacity of the system, thus ensuring reliability. Additionally, compared to a single use of LAB, the combined energy storage system shows superior performance.