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This paper proposes a solar energy harvesting based modular battery balance system for electric vehicles. The proposed system is designed to charge the battery module with minimum SOC/voltage by solar power during charging and discharging. With the solar power input, the useful energy of the battery can be improved while vehicle driving. For vehicle charging, the charging energy from grid and total charging time can be reduced as well. Simulation analysis shows that for a 50Ah rated battery pack, the overall pure electric drive mileage can be improved by 22.9%, while consumed grid energy and total charging time can be reduced by 9.6% and 9.3% respectively. In addition, the battery life can be improved around 10%~11%. The prototype design and test of a 48V battery pack vehicle consisting of four 12V battery modules are carried out. The experimental results validate that the system has good modular balance performance for the 100Ah battery modules with 5~7A charging current from solar power, and the overall usable battery energy has been increased.