Assembly and method to charge an electrical load in an electric vehicle

A power charging assembly (18) and methods are provided to provide a pre-charge low-current state, a steady-state, high-current charging state, and an unconnect state for an electrical load (16) of an electrical propulsion system in a hybrid electrical vehicle. The power charging assembly (18) includes a positive contactor device (26), a negative contactor device (28), and a non-contactor device (29) means. The rate at which that electrical load (16) is pre-charged may be effectively controlled by using a pulse-width modulated signal received by the non-contactor device means (29). A current-only carrying positive (26) or negative contactor (28) may be configured with the non-contactor (29) device means to further prevent electrical arcing of the contacts of the positive (26) and the negative (28) contactor during power charging assembly (18) operation.