To overcome the air pollution and ill effects of IC engine-based transportation (ICEVs), demand of electric vehicles (EVs) has risen which reduce *gasoline consumption, environment degradation and energy wastage, but barriers-short driving range, higher battery cost and longer charging time-slow down its wide adoptions and commercialization. Although to overcome such issues, EV variants -HEVs and PHEVs-were also brought into the market but not that successful either. The use of ICE in HEVs and PHEVs increases fossil fuel dependency. Thus, the research focus shifted towards fuel cell-powered electric vehicles (FCEVs) which offer negligible emission and higher efficiency than EV variants. Though a moderate research work has been done on FCEVs, still its wide expansion is limited, facing severe challenges commonly related to fuel cost, selection of energy units, power electronic interfacing, component sizing and energy management. This paper presents an extensive exploration on EV variants, their issues, an in-depth comparison of latest topologies for FCEVs and optimum arrangement of HESS, designed by energy unit's integration, i.e. FC, battery and UCs, to encounter the dynamic power demand and develop a performant model for transportation. In last, progress and possible future research areas are discussed. In short, this paper reveals all contemporary information of FCHEV technology to the scientists and scholars who are working in this particular arena.
Keywords: BEV; DC/DC converter; FCHEV; Fuel cell; HESS; HEV; Li-ion battery; UC.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.