Vehicle charging station having degraded energy storage units for charging an incoming vehicle and methods thereof

• US 10,189,362 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2017
• Issued: 01/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Cun, David Wong
• Primary Examiner(s): Diao, M Baye
• Application Number:
  US15/609,437
• Publication Number:
  US 20180345808A1
• Time in Patent Office: 608 Days
• Field of Search: 320109, 701 22
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/31 Charging columns specially adapted for electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/64 Optimising energy costs, e.g. responding to electricity rates
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 1/10 Parallel operation of dc sources
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/48 for electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00034 Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0014 Circuits for equalisation of charge between batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0047 with monitoring or indicating devices or circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0048 Detection of remaining charge capacity or state of charge [SOC]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/02 for charging batteries from ac mains by converters
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/34 Parallel operation in networks using both storage and other dc sources, e.g. providing buffering H02J7/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/167 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

The systems and methods disclosed herein are directed to a vehicle charging station having at least one energy storage unit in a degraded state. The station may provide charge using the energy storage unit to an electric or hybrid vehicle. In an illustrative embodiment, charge from the station is provided to the vehicle from the energy storage unit, power grid or a combination thereof. Logic or processes for charging the energy storage unit for the charging station may depend on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, capacity of the energy storage units, number of units, information about an incoming vehicle to charge, etc. After charging, the energy storage unit in its degraded state may be used for fast charging the vehicle.

Claims

1. A charging station comprising:

at least one energy storage unit; and

a controller determining a time before a vehicle arrives at the charging station and calculating a power to be supplied by the at least one energy storage unit and a power to be supplied by a power grid based on the time before the vehicle arrives at the charging station, wherein the at least one energy storage unit is powered based on a predetermined table having percentage and kilowatt hour fills for each of the at least one energy storage unit.

2. The charging station of claim 1, wherein the controller determines the power to be supplied by the at least one energy storage unit and the power grid by calculating a distance between the vehicle and the charging station.

3. The charging station of claim 1, wherein the predetermined table is developed through a capacity of the at least one energy storage unit.

4. The charging station of claim 3, wherein the predetermined table comprises information about multiple energy storage units and corresponding fill times.

5. The charging station of claim 1, wherein the at least one energy storage unit is a depleted second use battery from an electric or hybrid vehicle.

6. The charging station of claim 5, wherein the second use battery has a capacity level below 75%.

7. A charging station computing system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory operatively coupled to the processor, the memory storing program instructions that when executed by the processor, causes the processor to;

determine a time before a vehicle arrives at the charging station;

provide power to at least one energy storage unit based on the time;

provide power to the vehicle with the at least one energy storage unit and supplemented by a power grid, wherein the at least one energy storage unit is powered based on a predetermined table having percentage and kilowatt hour fills for each of the at least one energy storage unit.

8. The charging station computing system of claim 7, wherein providing power to the at least one energy storage unit comprises providing power to multiple energy storage units uniformly.

9. The charging station computing system of claim 7, wherein providing power to the at least one energy storage unit comprises providing power to the multiple energy storage units based on a priority.

10. The charging station computing system of claim 7, wherein the at least one energy storage unit comprises a capacity of less than 75%.

11. The charging station computing system of claim 7, wherein providing power to the vehicle with the at least one energy storage unit and supplemented by the power grid is simultaneous.