Hybrid car

• US 20030078707A1
• Filed: 09/26/2002
• Published: 04/24/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
• Original Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
• Inventors: Shioda, Takehiko, Saito, Yukitaka
• Granted Patent: US 6,697,717 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/22
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 6/48 Parallel type
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 6/54 Transmission for changing ratio
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 15/2045 for optimising the use of energy
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/421 Speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/441 Speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/622 by satellite navigation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/64 Road conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/16 by display
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/30 by voice
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2270/12 of exhaust
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/16 with provision for separate direct mechanical propulsion
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/04 including control of propulsion units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/06 including control of combustion engines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/08 including control of electric propulsion units, e.g. motors or generators
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/00 Control systems specially adapted for hybrid vehicles hybrid vehicle design, B60K6/00; electric vehicles B60L
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/12 using control strategies taking into account route information estimation or calculation of non-directly measurable driving parameters B60W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2510/244 Charge state
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/21 Voice
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/05 Type of road, e.g. motorways, local streets, paved or unpaved roads
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/60 Traffic rules, e.g. speed limits or right of way
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 : of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/02 : related to ambient conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0097 : Predicting future conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3461 : Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types, segments such as motorways, toll roads, ferries
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3469 : Fuel consumption; Energy use; Emission aspects
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/40 : Engine management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/62 : Hybrid vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/64 : Electric machine technologies in electromobility
• 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 10/72 : Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 : Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 903/917 : with transmission for changing gear ratio

Abstract

A navigation system of a hybrid car retrieves a route to detect whether any restricted area forbidden for automobiles that emit exhaust gases is on the route or not. Before the hybrid car arrives at the restricted area, an electric motor is driven by a gasoline engine portion to charge a battery portion. After the hybrid car arrives at the restricted area, only the electric motor is operated by electric power of the battery portion so that the hybrid car can pass through the restricted area. As a result, the hybrid car can arrive at a destination by the shortest distance without bypassing the restricted area, and the environment of the restricted area can be protected because the gasoline engine portion is not operated in the restricted area.

Claims

1. A hybrid car using both an electric motor driven by electric power stored in a battery and an internal combustion engine driven by combustion energy of internally burned fuel as sources for driving travel wheels, said battery being rechargeable when said internal combustion engine is driven, said hybrid car comprising:

a restricted area detecting unit for detecting whether a restricted area forbidden for automobiles driven by internal combustion engines is forward in a direction of movement of said hybrid car or not, and detecting arrival of said hybrid car at said restricted area;

a required electric energy calculating unit for calculating electric energy required for making said hybrid car pass through said restricted area so that only said electric motor can be operated to make said hybrid car pass through said restricted area;

a battery-charge operating time calculating unit for calculating battery-charge operating time required for storing said required electric energy in said battery;

a start point calculating unit for calculating a start point for starting a battery-charge operation on the basis of said battery-charge operating time calculated by said battery-charge operating time calculating unit; and

a travel mode switching unit for selecting one mode from a battery-charge travel mode for charging said battery during traveling of said hybrid car, a motor travel mode using only said electric motor to run said hybrid car and an ordinary travel mode using said electric motor and said internal combustion engine suitably to run said hybrid car, on the basis of a detection result detected by said restricted area detecting unit and said start point calculated by said start point calculating unit.

2. The hybrid car according to claim 1, further comprising a navigation system for receiving current position information to measure a current position of a mobile body and indicating said current position on a screen displayed on a display device on the basis of map information stored in said navigation system, wherein said restricted area detecting unit permits said navigation system to search said map information to thereby detect whether said restricted area is forward in the direction of movement of said hybrid car or not.

3. The hybrid car according to claim 2, wherein:

said navigation system has a route retrieval function for retrieving a route to a destination; and

said restricted area detecting unit detects said restricted area on the basis of whether said route retrieved by said navigation system passes through said restricted area or not.

4. A hybrid car using both an electric motor driven by electric power stored in a battery and an internal combustion engine driven by combustion energy of internally burned fuel as sources for driving travel wheels, said battery being rechargeable when said internal combustion engine is driven, said hybrid car comprising:

a restricted area detecting unit for detecting whether a restricted area forbidden for automobiles driven by internal combustion engines is forward in a direction of movement of said hybrid car or not, and detecting arrival of said hybrid car at said restricted area;

a required electric energy calculating unit for calculating electric energy required for making said hybrid car pass through said restricted area so that only said electric motor can be operated to make said hybrid car pass through said restricted area;

a residual electric energy predicting unit for predicting residual electric energy which will remain in said battery at a point of time when said hybrid arrives at said restricted area; and

a bypass instruction unit for comparing said residual electric energy and said required electric energy with each other and outputting a bypass instruction signal when said required electric energy is higher than said residual electric energy.

5. The hybrid car according to claim 4, further comprising a navigation system for receiving current position information to measure a current position of a mobile body and indicating said current position on a screen displayed on a display device on the basis of map information stored in said navigation system, wherein said restricted area detecting unit permits said navigation system to search said map information to thereby detect whether said restricted area is forward in the direction of movement of said hybrid car or not.

6. The hybrid car according to claim 5, wherein said navigation system has a route retrieval function for retrieving a route to a destination;

and said restricted area detecting unit detects said restricted area on the basis of whether said route retrieved by said navigation system passes through said restricted area or not.

7. A hybrid car using both an electric motor driven by electric power stored in a battery and an internal combustion engine driven by combustion energy of internally burned fuel as sources for driving travel wheels, said hybrid car comprising:

a restricted area detecting unit for detecting whether a restricted area forbidden for automobiles driven by internal combustion engines is forward in a direction of movement of said hybrid car or not, and detecting arrival of said hybrid car at said restricted area;

a required electric energy calculating unit for calculating electric energy required for making said hybrid car pass through said restricted area so that only said electric motor can be operated to make said hybrid car pass through said restricted area; and

a control unit for controlling electric charge/discharge in accordance with said required electric energy on the basis of a detection result detected by said restricted area detecting unit before said hybrid car arrives at said restricted area.

8. The hybrid car according to claim 7, further comprising a residual electric energy predicting unit for predicting residual electric energy which will remain in said battery at a point of time when said hybrid arrives at said restricted area, wherein said control unit controls electric charge/discharge in the case where said residual electric energy predicted by said residual electric energy predicting unit is higher than said required electric energy so that said residual electric energy will be higher than said required electric energy at a point of time when said hybrid car arrives at said restricted area.