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Index TermsHybrid and electric vehicles, batteries and fuel cells, energy management systems.
IntroductionHEV and EV concepts were first introduced at the end of the XIX century. At that time the main efforts were made to improve the internal combustion engine (ICE) features and the autonomy of electric motor (EM) based vehicles. It should be noted that ICE development was in the beginning, while EM technology was in a much higher level: for instance, braking mode was already available, allowing recover the vehicle kinetic energy and storing it in batteries.That was a major contribution for HEV and EV efficiency and autonomy, which is still a fundamental issue for its development, particularly for the last one [1].In the 1920´s there was a huge evolution in the ICE -higher HEV and EV are bringing new engineering challenges, since several different domains (electric motors, power electronics, energy storage devices, control theory, automobile technology) must be integrated, in order to achieve (at least) drivability performances similar to conventional vehicles.