This paper presents a simple and cost-effective stand-alone rapid battery charging system of 30kW for electric vehicles. The proposed system mainly consists of active front-end rectifier of neutral point clamped 3-level type and non-isolated bi-directional dc-dc converter of multi-phase interleaved half-bridge topology. The charging system is designed to operate for both lithium-polymer and lithium-ion batteries. The complete charging sequence is made up of three sub-interval operating modes; pre-charge mode, constant-current mode, and constant-voltage mode. The pre-charge mode employs the stair-case shaped current profile to accomplish shorter charging time while maintaining the reliable operation of the battery. The proposed system is specified to reach the full-charge state within less than 16min for the battery capacity of 8kWh by supplying the charging current of 78A. Owing to the simple and compact power conversion scheme, the proposed solution has superior module-friendly mechanical structure which is absolutely required to realize flexible power expansion capability in a very high-current rapid charging system.