Courtesy hand-off visual indicators for public electrified vehicle charging

• US 10,308,131 B1
• Filed: 01/18/2018
• Issued: 06/04/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Bartlett, Alexander, Erb, Dylan, Wiles, Jacob, Singh, Bikram, Sun, Baocheng
• Primary Examiner(s): Flores, Leon
• Application Number:
  US15/873,949
• Time in Patent Office: 502 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/04 Cutting off the power supply under fault conditions protective devices and circuit arrangements in general H01H; H02H
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/66 Arrangements of batteries
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/14 Conductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/16 Connectors, e.g. plugs or sockets, specially adapted for charging electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/371 with remote indication, e.g. on external chargers
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0042 characterised by the mechanical construction
• 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 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles

Abstract

A charging system for an electrified vehicle includes a battery pack, a charging component in charging connection with the battery pack, a visual indicator on the charging component, and a control module configured to illuminate the visual indicator in response to reaching a predefined state of charge (SOC) threshold of the battery pack. The visual indicator can indicate that the SOC of the battery pack has reached a level that is acceptable for unplugging the electrified vehicle from a charging station.

Claims

1. A charging system for an electrified vehicle, comprising:

a battery pack;

a charging component located onboard the electrified vehicle and being in charging connection with the battery pack;

a visual indicator on the charging component; and

a control module configured to illuminate the visual indicator in response to reaching a predefined state of charge (SOC) threshold of the battery pack.

2. The charging system as recited in claim 1, wherein the charging component is a vehicle inlet assembly.

3. The charging system as recited in claim 2, wherein the visual indicator is mounted within a housing of the vehicle inlet assembly.

4. The charging system as recited in claim 1, wherein the visual indicator includes an insert and a light source.

5. The charging system as recited in claim 4, wherein the insert is mounted within a housing of the charging component and the light source is positioned behind the insert.

6. The charging system as recited in claim 4, wherein the light source includes a light emitting diode (LED).

7. The charging system as recited in claim 4, wherein the control module is configured to actuate the light source to illuminate the insert.

8. The charging system as recited in claim 1, wherein the visual indicator includes a pictogram, a word, or both.

9. The charging system as recited in claim 1, wherein the visual indicator indicates that the SOC of the battery pack has reached a level that is acceptable to a user of the electrified vehicle.

10. The charging system as recited in claim 9, wherein the visual indicator indicates that it is acceptable to unplug the electrified vehicle from a charging station.

11. The charging system as recited in claim 1, wherein the predefined SOC threshold of the battery pack is input by a user of the electrified vehicle.

12. The charging system as recited in claim 11, wherein the predefined SOC threshold is input on a human machine interface of the electrified vehicle.

13. The charging system as recited in claim 1, wherein the visual indicator is located near a charging port of the charging component.

21. The charging system as recited in claim 1, wherein the charging component is configured to receive a charge connector of a charge cord.

22. The charging system as recited in claim 1, comprising a high voltage cable connecting between the charging component and the battery pack.

23. The charging system as recited in claim 1, wherein a housing of the charging component is permanently mounted to a vehicle body of the electrified vehicle.

24. The charging system as recited in claim 1, wherein the charging component includes a door movable between a closed position and an open position, wherein the visual indicator is exposed for viewing when the door is in the open position.

14. A method, comprising:

automatically illuminating a visual indicator of a charging component located onboard an electrified vehicle in response to reaching a predefined minimum state of charge (SOC) threshold when charging a battery pack, wherein the visual indicator indicates that the SOC of the battery pack has reached a level that is acceptable for unplugging the electrified vehicle from a charging station.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, comprising determining whether a user has input the predefined minimum SOC threshold.

16. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein automatically illuminating the visual indicator includes illuminating a pictogram.

17. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein automatically illuminating the visual indicator includes illuminating a word.

18. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein automatically illuminating the visual indicator includes illuminating a pictogram and a word.

19. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the predefined minimum SOC threshold is a user defined value that is less than 100% SOC.

20. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the charging station includes a housing and an output display, and the charging component that includes the visual indicator is completely separate from either the housing or the output display.

25. A method, comprising:

automatically illuminating a visual indicator of a charging component of an electrified vehicle in response to reaching a predefined minimum state of charge (SOC) threshold when charging a battery pack, wherein the visual indicator indicates that the SOC of the battery pack has reached a level that is acceptable for unplugging the electrified vehicle from a charging station;

determining whether a user has input the predefined minimum SOC threshold; and

setting a default value of 100% SOC if the user has not input the predefined minimum SOC value.