Prepper's Web

If President Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen has been prepping for what will likely be several years behind bars, he’s not spilling the beans.

Two days after pleading guilty to a slew of federal crimes and accusing Trump of being complicit in his misdeeds, a casually clad Cohen — decked in shades, a black polo shirt and faded jeans — ducked questions from The Post about how he was preparing for his time in the slammer, refusing to comment.

Strolling from his residence at 502 Park Ave. about 10:30 a.m., he politely warned a reporter to be careful in traffic as he headed a couple blocks away to the Four Seasons on East 57th Street, surrounded by the media as he walked through the revolving door.

At one point, a passing trucker shouted out “Baba Booey!” — a nickname bestowed on Gary Dell’Abate of the Howard Stern Show after he misstated the name of cartoon character Quick Draw McGraw’s sidekick Baba Looey as Baba Booey in 1990.

The cry, for some reason, is now a common shout-out from Stern fans when they see TV cameras rolling.

At another point, a woman told Cohen to “Keep up the good work!” and he responded by slapping palms with a young girl who was with her.

Cohen also didn’t respond to The Post’s questions about why he deleted an old tweet on Wednesday mocking Hillary Clinton and predicting she’d be locked up in prison — a riff on Trump supporters’ chants of “Lock her up!” at his MAGA rallies.

“@HillaryClinton when you go to prison for defrauding America and perjury, your room and board will be free!” Cohen tweeted in December 2015.

Asked if he was struck by the irony of his situation now that he’s facing time himself, Cohen simply kept walking.

The commander-in-chief has been on the hot seat since Tuesday, when Cohen pleaded guilty to eight federal crimes and Trump’s one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of another eight.

Both prosecutions resulted from special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe of Russian election meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

The president since has accused Cohen of lying to get a better deal from the feds, and praised Manafort for not cooperating with federal prosecutors.

And he continued attacking Mueller’s probe on Twitter.

“NO COLLUSION – RIGGED WITCH HUNT!” he wrote in a post late Wednesday.

Additional reporting by Bob Fredericks

FRISCO (105.3 THE FAN) – Randy Gregory’s preseason performance in Saturday’s loss to the Bengals was impressive to the untrained eye, yet defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli graded the defensive end’s debut after almost two years on the NFL suspension list as “a C-minus.”

But, joked, Gregory, “a D-minus is passing, technically.

And the truth is, from the slow and deliberate work on the training camp field in Oxnard to AT&T Stadium for 10 pregame snaps to today inside the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, what the 2015 second-round pick is really grading out to be is …

A part-time starter. The “12th starter,” if you will.

“I don’t know,” Gregory said when I asked him if he would characterize himself that way. “That’s something up to the coaches. All I can do is go out there and give my best effort, control what I can control, which is go hard, running hard, go after the ball. And I think I’m doing that. I think if I continue to do that, I have faith I’ll be out there when I need to be.”

The “when” is the Sept. 9 season-opener at the Carolina Panthers. Officially, DeMarcus Lawrence will be listed as the first-team right end, and Tyrone Crawford as the first-team left end. But in today’s NFL, offenses come at you 60 or 70 percent of the time with pass-first personnel groups, which nudge defenses into playing their Nickel alignments.

In the secondary, that means a third corner (right now, Anthony Brown holding off Jourdan Lewis) lining up in the slot. At linebacker, that means Sean Lee and Jaylon Smith are the only two, max, who stay on the field.

And upfront? In recent practices, it’s meant Crawford sliding inside to play defensive tackle (the “under-tackle” or 3-Tech) with Gregory taking his spot at right end.

The veteran Crawford, the leader of the D-line room, has been open about enjoying his time outside, and this offseason he re-make his body, looking leaner to play outside. You see, this is the latest craze among the rich and famous to get Beautiful Skin and a chunky discharge. cialis price midwayfire.com Right lifestyle and food habit will expedite the effect of the pill remains for four cipla cialis india hours. You must not do such things or else you achat viagra pfizer will suffer from the side effects of anti-impotency medicines are congestion, infection in urinary tract, headache, upset stomach and diarrhea. One can make use of this pill to get enough prescription cialis on line blood to make the tissues stiff. But he’s got plenty of experience as an every-down under-tackle and as an interior pass-rusher, can be the beneficiary of mismatches.

Meanwhile, Lawrence looks primed to follow up nicely on his 14.5-sacks season from a year ago. Dallas can and will use an assortment of other guys at the nose/1-Tech spot. And young ends Taco Charlton and Dorance Armstrong also fiigure in the pass-rush rotation.

But it’s the rapid ascension of Gregory that qualifies as the biggest surprise … and maybe the most impactful one. He hadn’t played football since the 2016 season finale because of the NFL suspension due to repeated violations of the league’s substance abuse policy.

Marinelli admitted to me that he issued Gregory a relatively poor grade for his game-day work in part to serve as a carrot on a stick. He doesn’t want Gregory to think he’s “arrived” yet.

But the practice snaps with the first-team defense again this week do not lie.

“It’s nice,” Gregory said of his elevated status. “I think I’ve prepared the right way as far as going out there. A lot of it is pass-rush situations and nickel packages and most of that is getting off the ball and getting after the quarterback, which I feel comfortable with. I think I’m doing pretty decent at that in practice and showing that on the field.”

The next step? Show the same thing in Carolina … as the Cowboys defense’s “12th starter.”

The Minnesota State Fairgrounds were buzzing with people getting ready to open the Great Minnesota Get-Together. 

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The sidewalks of West Campus were mostly empty as the late-summer, midday heat began to settle in on a recent Thursday. Breaking the relative quiet was the trio of Duke Facilities Management staff members Kenny Blanding, Rodolph Rojas and Julian Sidberry, who moved from oak tree to oak tree, spreading mulch beneath the tree’s thick trunks.

“For us, it’s crunch time,” Sidberry said

It was roughly a week before students returned to campus to start the academic year, so Sidberry and his colleagues had plenty of work to do. And they weren’t alone. Across Duke University, staff members in several areas have spent the past few weeks prepping campus for students who arrive this week.

For Bryan Hooks, director of landscape services for Duke Facilities Management, this week represents the deadline that shapes most of his unit’s summer. Making sure the grass and plantings across campus are beautiful for this week – while also accounting for several outdoor events and the unpredictability of summer weather – meant Hooks and his crew have to be extremely organized.

“We make our plan of attack based on when we can get in places, when things have to get done and the schedule of events” Hooks said. “There’s a lot of coordination. Everything’s got to be ready for move-in.”

Here are some scenes of the work that’s gone into getting Duke ready for this week.

Planting sod at Crowell Quad

For roughly a year, Crowell Quad on West Campus was closed while undergoing a significant renovation. The complex reopens for students this fall. But one of the final tasks involved in getting it ready for move-in was to install 12 pallets of sod in the Crowell Quad courtyard.

“Getting to this point, where you’re putting the finishing touches on a project is extremely satisfying,” said Dudley Willis, assistant director of project management for Duke Facilities Management. “We’re very happy to get this done.”

Replacing carpet in Perkins Library

Perkins Library has been remodeling its lowest level since a water main break forced the floor to close in April. Brighter lighting has been installed, the carpet was replaced and the walls were repainted on Lower Level 2 this summer.

David Burroughs, senior material control supervisor for Duke Libraries, said when the break happened, the floor was covered in one to two inches of water in minutes.

“The water was just rushing out,” he said. “We were lucky someone caught it quickly.”

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Lighting in the stacks

For the Duke Facilities Management’s general maintenance mechanics, the weeks before students arrive is when they tend to repairs that may be trickier to address once students arrive.

Among the tasks for Chip Meade and Rickie Baker on a recent day was fixing a few malfunctioning lights above the stacks in the Goodson Law Library.

“Once the students get back, it’ll be harder to get in here without disturbing anyone,” Meade said.

Prepping for a picnic with 6,500 guests

Dining Services is preparing to feed about 6,500 people on Tuesday’s picnic for first-year students and their families. The menu, which features food exclusively from North Carolina, includes: barbecue, hamburgers, fried catfish, watermelon, blueberry shortcake and more.

“We’re itchy to get started,” said Mark Turner, executive chef for Dining Services. “We’re ready to go and welcome back the students.”

Handing out keys to a new home

For the past six years, Sherry Reynolds, a staff assistant with Residential Life, has handed out keys to students arriving on East Campus. Late last week, the rush began with international student arrivals.

After checking students’ names, retrieving keys and forms in need of signing, Reynolds went over some move-in protocol and then sent each student on their way toward their new home.

“You’re excited for them,” Reynolds said. “They worked very hard to get here. I love this part.”

Welcoming the new class

On Monday morning, some final touches were put on Duke’s campus as 20 banners welcoming the Class of 2022 were hung from the light poles that line Campus and Chapel drives. Christian Solis, left, and Steve Sanford, right, members of Duke Facilities Management’s High Voltage team, handled the work.

There are two types of people in this world: Jennifer Lopez fans and liars. There are a lot of J. Lo fanatics out there, but Alex Rodriguez may be Lopez’s number-one fan. Sure, there’s probably some boyfriend bias in there, but aside from that, it’s undeniable that this woman is an icon.

Lopez is even being honored with the Video Vanguard Award at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards on Monday night. Of course, this is a big feat for the superstar, but A-Rod may be the person who’s most excited about it, aside from Lopez herself, obviously. He even got involved in the rehearsal himself by helping the crew push the stage around. So, he’s the boyfriend, behind-the-scenes photographer, and the stagehand? This man is really bringing a lot to the table.

Rodriguez posted an Instagram video from his time backstage on Aug. 19 with a sweet caption about Lopez and the crew that helps put on her performances. He wrote,

“Somehow, I went from performing on baseball’s greatest stage, Yankee Stadium, to … working on the backstage crew? Mad respect for what these guys do behind the scenes, but I’m secretly hoping someone notices my dancing skills back here because so I can somehow be closer to see @jlo kill it Monday at the @mtv #VMA Awards.”

Clearly J.Lo is the dancer in this relationship, but A-Rod does have one of the best teachers on the planet if he wants to step up his skills.

His caption continued,

“The amount of sweat, focus, drive and determination she puts in everything she does is truly inspiring. She’s the embodiment of what the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award represents. A lifetime of achievement, and she still reaches for the sky every single day.”

Not only that, but he added the hashtags “#icon #legend #superstar.” These are all very much accurate. Just imagine dating someone who is an icon, legend, and superstar. Unsurprisingly, he’s her biggest fan. Who wouldn’t be?

On Aug. 17, the former New York Yankee shared a mirror selfie of himself taking a photo of his girlfriend at her VMA rehearsal with the caption, “Practicing my fan boy selfies for when @jlo accepts her Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award on Monday night. @mtv #VMA #RadioCityMusicHall.”

This isn’t the first time that the sportscaster fanned out over her rehearsals. In April, Rodriguez posted behind-the-scenes video of Lopez working on her dance moves. He praised her for rehearsing and even used some hashtags to promote her performance: “Never stop practicing. Ready for the @LatinBillboards tonight on @Telemundo. #ElAnillo @jlo.”

Recently, Rodriguez shared a video of Lopez singing her iconic song “Let’s Get Loud” at a restaurant in Capri, Italy, just like most of the other fans in attendance probably did.

Then back in June, A-Rod used that preferential boyfriend seating to record an up-close video of JLo performing in Las Vegas with the Chain Smokers. He couldn’t help fawning over her in the caption, writing, “My girl killing it with the @thechainsmokers #dinero.”

At this point Rodriguez’s Instagram account is turning into a Jennifer Lopez fan account with some sports mixed in, but that’s not a bad thing. He really does have the most supportive sentiments for his superstar girlfriend and all of her accomplishments.

In May, he shared a photo of her all decked out in costume and wrote, “Congratulations to this gorgeous woman, who once again killed it with her performance @billboard Music Awards tonight in @Vegas.”

A-Rod doesn’t just fan out over the music. He’s also supportive of Lopez’s acting roles as well. He shared a video of the actor (on a private plane) looking like her Shades of Blue character Harlee Santos and wrote, ” I miss #Harlee already.”

Lopez isn’t the only performer that A-Rod stans over. He was just as supportive of Lopez’s daughter Emme and his two daughters, Ella and Natasha, at their dance recital. He even took a group photo with Lopez’s ex-husband Marc Anthony.

So many people love Lopez. She’s a pop culture icon. Of course, Rodriguez is her biggest fan, especially since he spends so much time with her getting a glimpse at all the effort that goes into her performances. There’s no doubt that he’ll be there to cheer her on when she takes the stage at the VMAs.

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For a game that is called “football,” the players who actually use their feet to kick the ball often don’t get a lot of love.

Sometimes they even hear boos from their own fans as they trot out onto the field, since a punt means the offense got stopped and a field goal isn’t as good as a touchdown.

But those who know the game best recognize that having consistent kicking and punting can change the fortunes of a team.

Just like with other positions, the BYU football team is focused on having a competition at the kicking and punting positions during fall camp to find the best guys for the job.

“It’s been fun,” Cougar senior kicker Andrew Mikkelsen said. “Having the new guys come in is fun because it gives us older guys a challenge and pushes us a little more. You can see that taking place in every position group throughout the team and it’s no different with us as kickers. It elevates our level of play.”

Ed Lamb, assistant head coach, linebacker coach and special teams coordinator, said he sees one kicking spot as being virtually locked down already, thanks to both previous and current performance.

“At the kickoff position, Andrew (Mikkelsen) is one of the best in America and our kickoff coverage has benefited from that,” Lamb said. “He’s done that for a long time and we anticipate he will continue to be the main guy on that.”

Things are a little different in the kickoff game because of the new rule change that allows receiving teams to fair catch a kickoff and take the ball at the 25-yard line.

“It terms of what we do now, it can’t change very much,” Lamb said. “We may face an aggressive kickoff return team that brings it out of the end zone. No matter how high we hang it in the air, they’re going to set up a return. We have to prepare to cover that way.”

Lamb said the Cougars are looking at how aggressive to be with their own kickoff return game.

“We don’t want to sell our guys short,” he said. “If we are a dynamic kickoff return team, we don’t want to settle for the 25-yard line. At the same time, we need to train our return team to recognize the risk-reward of kicks that are hung up high in the air.”

From a kicker’s perspective, Mikkelsen said he doesn’t feel like the new rules will change his approach.

“A lot of teams are fine with giving the other team the ball at the 25-yard line and just letting the offensive series take place from there,” Mikkelsen said. “But if you look at the athletes we have and the mentality we have in terms of our kickoff coverage and we were pretty productive last year.”

BYU is hoping to improve the placekicking game after the Cougars went 14-for-20 in 2017 with a long of 46 yards.

“At the field goal kicking spot, Andrew Mikkelsen significantly improved from last year and Skyler Southam came in ready to go,” Lamb said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see either one of those guys take the placekicking duties.”

Mikkelsen said Southam, a freshman from Wasatch who recently returned from a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has shown well since he got to Provo.

“I think the transition has been pretty natural for him,” Mikkelsen said. “He’s come in off his mission and been able to compete for the starting spot right away. An online drug store is also known as internet based vendors of prescribed cialis online http://valsonindia.com/portfolio-items/staple-fiber-yarn/?lang=it medicines. In case, you suspect a medication, which could be a further sexual aid with partner willing and happy to administer it directly. buy cialis without prescription Almost all NBA players are cialis sales having tattoos on their body parts. Driver education plays a key role in the life of intimacy bought this cialis generico in india of the people in an adverse way & this is caused due to a number of reasons. I can’t think of too many misses he’s had in fall camp.”

Lamb has been pleased with the progress the kickers have made to this point in camp.

“We are making kicks right now with shorter snap-to-kick operation time at a level of consistency at a level where we weren’t even able to attempt it last year,” Lamb said. “We are much improved in that area.”

BYU also has a pair of punters vying to replace Jonny Linehan, each with their own strengths.

“Rhett Almond has significantly upped his punting game,” Lamb said. “He has been fantastic, kicking some booming, high-hanging spiral punts. We brought in Danny Jones for his rugby-style of kicking, Aussie-rule kicking. He’s got a big powerful leg and so we as developing him with his comfort level and what we do. We’ve got a real competition going on there at punter.”

Almond, a senior, said he’s enjoying working with Jones, who comes in from Australia as a sophomore.

“He’s a really good guy and really fun to be around,” Almond said. “Jonny left and we got another accent now, but we love it. It gives character to our unit. We feel like we are already pretty close.”

With a couple of weeks until the season opener at Arizona, the punters and kickers said the next step is to find the right balance. They want to hone their technique but they also want to make sure their bodies aren’t worn out.

“The secret for me is that as we get closer, I need to be taking fewer reps,” Mikkelsen said. “I’m the type of guy who likes to be working on something, but in terms of kicking that can be not the best because you get fatigued. I have to make sure I’m staying loose and limber and not doing too much.”

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Gov. Jeff Colyer went into Tuesday preparing for a recount and potential court fight as he searched for enough votes to catch Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

He was bracing for Kobach to pad his lead in Sedgwick County. But Colyer hoped to keep it close.

And he was convinced he could claw back into the race when Johnson County’s provisional ballots came in at 4 p.m..

Instead, all the breaks Tuesday went Kobach’s way.

By early evening, Colyer was ready to concede, his hopes of winning the GOP nomination for Kansas governor dead. At 7:30 p.m., he quit the race before all the votes had been counted.

Despite the narrow margin, Colyer’s team determined that it had become mathematically impossible for him to pull ahead, according to six Colyer associates who spoke on condition of anonymity.

An official close to Colyer said “the plan (earlier on Tuesday) had been to announce a recount given that the margin was so close” but that “after the Johnson County numbers came in it was clear that the numbers just were not in our favor.”

Wyandotte, Shawnee and Douglas Counties won’t process their votes until Thursday, and a handful of counties won’t report their final totals until next week.

Colyer, who was sworn in as governor in January, faced a Friday deadline to file for a recount, a financially precarious decision because Kansas does not have automatic recounts in close races.

“I guess the governor changed his mind at the last moment there after a conversation between him and the LG (Lt. Gov. Tracey Mann) and it became clear that the votes were just not there and it’s best to just go ahead and get out for the sake of the party,” the official said. “Those congressional seats are going to be under siege and we’ve got to get united right away.”

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have automatic recounts depending on the margin in a race, but in Kansas Colyer would have had to file a bond with the secretary of state’s office to pay for the cost of a recount. If he still trailed after a recount, he would have had to forfeit that money.

Sedgwick County struck first.

Colyer’s team had anticipated that Sedgwick County’s provisional ballots would favor Kobach, who won the county by 9 percentage points on Election Day. But Kobach won the county’s provisional ballots at double that rate, gaining an extra 94 votes, more than Colyer’s team expected.

The Sedgwick County numbers put additional pressure on Colyer’s campaign to obtain votes in Johnson County, where the governor resides.

That didn’t happen.

Kobach extended his statewide lead to 345 votes after the state’s most populous county gave him 24 more provisional votes than Colyer.

An hour before the Johnson County Board of Canvassers met to certify the county’s election results, Colyer’s legal team sent a strongly worded letter demanding that the county count an additional 153 ballots that had been disqualified because of mismatching signatures.

The letter coincided with a federal ruling Tuesday striking down a similar policy in New Hampshire.

But after the governor failed to pick up votes in his home county, the math just didn’t pencil out, even with the whisker-thin margin. Even if Colyer’s lawyers’ legal argument had carried the day, the 153 disqualified ballots would not have been enough.

Colyer likely would have pursued a recount if the margin had remained close to 100 or, better yet, dropped to double digits. But a recount was unlikely to close a 345-vote gap. And Colyer’s campaign would have had to pay poll workers for an expensive manual recount process.

One Colyer associate called Johnson County “the nail in the coffin.”

Kobach made similar conclusions about the impact of Johnson County when he celebrated his presumptive victory Tuesday afternoon on the steps of the Capitol in Topeka.

“I think that was a decisive turning point because if Colyer’s team were looking at it, my assumption would be they would be hoping for a big gain in Johnson County. So if you want to pin the turning point in that process as far as the game goes between the two campaigns, it probably was the Johnson County returns and probably also the Sedgwick County returns,” Kobach said.

Colyer’s decision to concede before all the votes across the state had been counted caught some onlookers by surprise, including Sen. John Skubal, a moderate Republican from Overland Park.

“I would have never guess that they would have given up that easy,” Skubal said.

Dragging out the primary carried risks that GOP activists would lose patience with Colyer, or that President Donald Trump would weigh in.

Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican, warned on Twitter Tuesday afternoon that “drawn-out litigation” would benefit Democrats.

Colyer’s associates said the decision to withdraw from the fight was an internal decision, and party leaders in Kansas also said that Colyer was not pressured to concede.

“I know both campaigns were looking at the numbers in two of the largest counties. … I think the campaigns were both looking at those numbers and if Colyer was not able to pull ahead, it made for a tougher uphill battle,” said Kelly Arnold, the Kansas Republican state chair. The term ‘erection-helping’ clarifies these medicine work to enhance the quality of life by people suffering from lupus. levitra 40 mg So viagra online generic when such an event occurs, the collapsed airway can minimize the oxygen levels in the subjects was not due to increased frequency of sex during the trial. Tongkat is one of those magical herbal extracts that have served customers well will have customers providing product reviews http://www.midwayfire.com/contact-us/ levitra without prescription on their site. Tufan capsules and cialis online no prescription King Cobra oil: Have you tried all herbal remedies to get stronger erections and enhanced sexual execution. “But Gov. Colyer understands the importance of the Republican Party coming together.”

Kobach’s strong performance on provisional ballots compared to his performance in Johnson County as a whole likely reflected the difference between voters who cast ballots in advance and voters who cast ballots on Election Day.

“Gov. Colyer won the advance balloting in Johnson County by a significant margin, but it was much closer on Election Day,” Kobach said.

Kobach’s Election Day totals likely show the significance of Trump’s decision to endorse Kobach on Twitter the day before the primary and record a robocall on his behalf.

Kobach called Trump’s support crucial to his victory Tuesday night, and on Wednesday he said Trump would come to Kansas to campaign for him ahead of the general election.

One source close to Colyer said the president’s tweet cost the governor the race.

“It was all Trump. We agree with Kris Kobach that absent the Trump tweet, Jeff Colyer wins this race,” the source said.

Mark Kahrs, Kansas’ Republican national committeeman, said Wednesday that Trump’s support played a key role in powering Kobach over Colyer.

“I think it’s clear that Kobach was helped immensely by the Trump endorsement at the end of the primary campaign and that Trump will be there to help Kobach and other Republicans in November,” said Kahrs, a former GOP lawmaker from Wichita. “… Trump is very popular in the state and I think that will help Republicans down ballot.”

Just before 9 a.m. Wednesday, Trump tweeted to celebrate Kobach’s victory: “Kris will win in November and be a great Governor.”

Around that time, the Cook Political Report, a prominent nonpartisan publication, said the race had gone from being a likely Republican race to a toss-up, despite it being a race likely to have three major candidates.

Kobach will face Sen. Laura Kelly, a Topeka Democrat, in the general election. Johnson County businessman Greg Orman has filed signatures to appear on the ballot as an independent.

“Three-way races are complicated equations. In a state as Republican as Kansas, the GOP nominee would normally be at least a slight favorite, but Kobach is controversial enough to put this race in the Toss Up column,” Jennifer Duffy, a political analyst for the Cook Political Report, wrote Wednesday.

He will run with his GOP rival’s endorsement.

Colyer’s voice cracked Tuesday night as he delivered his concession speech a mere seven months after taking his oath as governor. He said his father had told him to always put others ahead of himself.

“As governor, I try to serve you every day and do the right thing when nobody’s looking,” Colyer said.

The Star’s Steve Vockrodt and the Wichita Eagle’s Jonathan Shorman contributed to this article.

Download this article in PDF format.

Almost everyone likes the idea of an electrical vehicle (EV). They’re silent, non-polluting, and have good performance. And there’s no such thing as “gas mileage” to worry about. What’s not to like?

But with sales of just over 1% of the total automotive market, something must be wrong—seriously wrong. And it is. Besides their much higher prices, today’s EVs suffer from limited range and a dearth of charging stations. While our future is probably more EVs and fewer internal-combustion-engine (ICE) vehicles, that future won’t happen until these issues are resolved. Here’s how electronics is making that happen.

 Sponsored Resources: 

Clearing the Path to Ubiquitous EVs

It’s clearly evident that EVs are growing in acceptance throughout the world, but massive adoption has yet to occur. As a percentage of overall vehicle sales, as mentioned, EVs represent slightly more than 1% of sales in the U.S. Thanks to recent efforts by Nissan with its new Leaf, GM’s excellent Bolt, Tesla’s Model 3, plus BMW’s and VW’s models, sales are growing. EVs have significant acceptance problems, but massive efforts are underway to correct that. It just takes time.

These critical factors are being addressed to spur EV growth:

• High prices: This is a major obstacle. But prices will come down over time as sales volume increases and critical components—especially the battery—become less costly.
• Battery costs: The lithium-ion battery has won the EV battery technology battle. But its high price is one of the main reasons why EVs are so expensive. However, considerable battery development continues, and new manufacturing methods are being adopted to solve this problem. Tesla’s forthcoming battery factory in Nevada should soon push Li-Ion prices down to a more affordable level. Developments in China will further improve this solution.
• Vehicle range limitations: Early EVs could not even reach a distance of 100 miles before the battery needed a recharge. While some urban owners can live with minimum range, those who live in the lesser populated rural areas, can’t accommodate such a limitation. The typical ICE vehicle today gets at least 300 to 400 miles per tank. Owners expect that. Newer EV models now boast a range of over 200 miles, finally making these vehicles more attractive. Yet the dearth of charging stations continues to be off-putting to most potential buyers.
• Lack of charging stations: EV owners have their own home chargers, but more public charging stations are needed. The handful that are available are usually busy, but who can wait? Few care to venture out without some knowledge of a nearby charging station. Consumers don’t want that anxiety or the potential inconvenience of “running out of gas.” Today, vehicle owners can readily rely on the tens of thousands of gas stations available. There’s always one nearby. When that number of public chargers comes into being, consumers can venture out on short or long trips and have the confidence that a charging station isn’t far off. Therefore, building out the charging infrastructure becomes a top priority.
• Charging times: It probably takes less than 10 minutes to fill the gas tank of an ICE vehicle. Maybe even less in some cases. Consumers are accustomed to that. On the other hand, charge times for EVs are significant. Home chargers take from 4 to 17 hours for a full recharge, which is acceptable to most. But at a public charging station, consumers don’t want to wait. At best, the time for a full charge is probably a half hour or more, which is unacceptable. In today’s world of instant gratification, impatience, and shortened attention span, long charging times may be the hardest obstacle to overcome.
• Implications for the electric grid: A highly expanded EV charging system will add a significant burden on the existing electrical grid. The good news is that the expansion of new charging stations will be gradual and be spread across the country, giving utilities time to accommodate the extra load. In addition, the increasing adoption of alternative-energy sources like wind and solar will provide additional capacity as needed.

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The bottom line is that there’s a clear need for more and faster battery-charging stations. The effectiveness of an extended charging infrastructure depends on the electronics solutions put forth to meet these demands.

Charger Technology

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) currently defines three classes or levels of vehicle charging (see table).

Level 1 and 2 chargers are built into the vehicle itself. Standard single- or two-phase home ac provides the power. Charging times are lengthy but livable, with overnight charging scenarios being the most common.

Level 3 chargers are defined primarily for public charging stations. With three-phase power input, significantly faster charging times are possible. Level 3 chargers output dc to charge the batteries directly. With an output in the 200- to 800-V range and current levels up to 400 A or so, charging time is drastically reduced.

Intelligent Battery Management and Charging

Successful EVs must have fast, efficient, and safe battery charging. Level 1 and 2 chargers reside inside the vehicle. That implies a proper battery-management and charging system. Lithium-ion batteries are fussy and needy. If they’re not properly designed, handled, and charged, they can fail, even catch fire or explode. Successful charging occurs when good battery monitoring and control is deployed.

EV batteries typically are built with modules that are then connected in series and parallel to achieve the voltage and current rating needed to drive the vehicle. These modules and the final battery unit use battery-monitoring ICs (BMICs) to continuously observe the voltage on each cell in every module. Even small variations in cell voltage could signal oncoming danger in the form of an explosion or fire. Temperature measurement provides additional data to assess the charging status.

The information from each module BMIC is transmitted serially, consolidated, and delivered to a battery cell-management controller (CMC). The CMCs then send data to a battery-management controller (BMC) and its microcontroller (MCU). The BMC uses all of this data to make decisions about charging rate or power usage to prevent damage or to shorten battery life. Powerful MCUs are needed to manage these functions.

Charging Station Electronics

An example of a public Level 3 charging station is illustrated in Figure 1. The three-phase 240 V ac is applied to an ac-dc power supply that includes power factor correction (PFC). The output is a high dc voltage in the 400 V range. This is applied to a dc-dc converter that translates the dc into the correct value of dc required of the battery, usually in the 300- to 800-V range. This voltage is connected to the vehicle with a standardized plug.

1. Shown is a general block diagram of an SAE Level 3 charger.

Besides the dc connection, the plug also establishes a data path with the vehicle via a controller area network (CAN) port. The data includes battery type and other specifications to ensure the correct charging profile for the specific battery used.

Other system components are a human-machine interface (HMI), protection circuits, and a battery-management system (BMS). The HMI is usually an LCD display with touchscreen capability that provides communications with the customer who is charging. Payment capability is included, not unlike that now on gas pumps.

The power supplies, which are of the switch-mode type, develop high voltage. As a result, they’re usually made with silicon MOSFETs or IGBTs. Some newer systems may use wide-bandgap devices like SiC MOSFETs.

The Power Stages

There are multiple options for implementing the ac-dc supply, PFC, and dc-dc converter. The goal is maximum efficiency. One of the best combinations is a Vienna rectifier PFC-corrected supply followed by a full-bridge dc-dc converter using MOSFETs (Fig. 2).

2. In a typical Level 3 charger, there’s a Vienna rectifier with PFC (left) and a pair of DC-DC converters that generate the charging voltage (right). MOSFETs are driven by PWM outputs from the MCUs.

The Vienna rectifier is a circuit that performs the three-phase ac-dc conversion, but also implements PFC and regulation. It uses diode half-bridges and MOSFETs driven by PWM signals to charge the output capacitors. The input inductors, diodes, and capacitors act as a boost converter. Subsequently, a high dc voltage is developed. MOSFET switching rate is in the 20-kHz range. PWM signals are created in the accompanying microcontroller (not shown).

Following the Vienna rectifier are two parallel resonant dc-dc converters that develop the output voltage charging the battery. The related MOSFETs are driven by a microcontroller. Overall system efficiency is in the range of 98%.

Computing Power

Like all electronic systems today, the Level 3 charger is managed by one or more MCUs. Given the complexity of the Vienna rectifier and dc-dc converter, the MCUs controlling them must be unusually powerful. Fast multicore devices with DSP are common. The HMI also needs good computing power to handle payment transactions.

Communications

The essential communications link is the CAN connection on the charger plug-in connector. It’s absolutely necessary that the battery profile details are communicated to the charger so that it can properly deliver and control the charge, without damage, in the least amount of time. One possible future revision to the Level 3 standard may be to replace the CAN interface with a wireless link. Multiple possibilities exist, such as Bluetooth LE, Zigbee, and sub-1 GHz ISM radios. Even the short-range near-field communications (NFC) could be used. Then there’s the HMI communications with external services for payment transactions.

Summarizing

Although EVs have been available for some time now, their limitations and the absence of a full-blown support infrastructure have discouraged many potential users. The main requirement for mass adoption of electric vehicles is a huge expansion of the charging infrastructure. The technology that goes into a charging station must be efficient and cost-effective, as well as provide an overall positive customer experience.

As the popularity of electric vehicles grows, power designers will be challenged to provide systems that can adapt to a wide variety of batteries and vehicles with vastly diverse performance requirements. Partnering with a semiconductor company that can provide parts and design assistance is recommended. In the meantime, the following links provide details and examine the key considerations that are best suited to meeting the challenges of including battery performance, lifespan and, of course, safety while designing intelligent battery management and charging systems.

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