ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATION HOST DEFINABLE PRICING

• US 20110191265A1
• Filed: 01/29/2010
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chargepoint, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Chargepoint, Inc.
• Inventors: Swarnapuri, Srinivas Rao, Mandal, Praveen, Tormey, Milton, Lowenthal, Richard, Solomon, James
• Granted Patent: US 11,183,001 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/412
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/72 Charging station selection relying on external data
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/80 Time limits
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/10 by alarm
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/16 by display
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/52 drive range estimation, e.g. of estimation of available travel distance
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/54 Energy consumption estimation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/58 Departure time prediction
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/12 Recording operating variables ; Monitoring of operating variables
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/64 Optimising energy costs, e.g. responding to electricity rates
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/665 Methods related to measuring, billing or payment
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 55/00 Arrangements for supplying energy stored within a vehicle to a power network, i.e. vehicle-to-grid [V2G] arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 15/005 dispensed for the electrical charging of vehicles electrical charging as such, B60L50/00
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/48 for electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• 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 90/12 : Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 : Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 : Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
• 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 10/126 : the energy generation units being or involving electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV], i.e. power aggregation of EV or HEV, vehicle to grid arrangements [V2G]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/10 : Energy trading, including energy flowing from end-user application to grid

Abstract

An electric vehicle charging station network includes multiple electric vehicle charging stations belonging to multiple charging station hosts. Each host controls one or more charging stations. A charging station network server provides an interface that allows each of the hosts to define one or more pricing specifications for charging electric vehicles on one or more of their electric vehicle charging stations belonging to that host. The pricing specifications are applied to the charging stations such that a cost of charging electric vehicles using those charging stations is calculated according to the pricing specifications.

Claims

1. An electric vehicle charging station network, comprising:

a plurality of electric vehicle charging stations belonging to a plurality of charging station hosts, wherein each host controls one or more of the plurality of electric vehicle charging stations; and

a charging station network server that provides an interface that allows each of the plurality of hosts to define one or more pricing specifications for charging electric vehicles on one or more electric vehicle charging stations belonging to that host.

2. The electric vehicle charging station network of claim 1, wherein the charging station network server further communicates the one or more pricing specifications to appropriate ones of the electric vehicle charging stations, wherein the plurality of electric vehicle charging stations displays the pricing according to received pricing specifications.

3. The electric vehicle charging station network of claim 1, wherein the interface allows each host to define the one or more pricing specifications based on one or more of time of day and date.

4. The electric vehicle charging station network of claim 1, wherein the interface allows each host to define the one or more pricing specifications based on identity of vehicle operators using the electric vehicle charging stations belonging to that host.

5. The electric vehicle charging station network of claim 4, wherein the interface allows each host to specify, for each of the electric vehicle charging stations belonging to that host, restricted access status of that electric vehicle charging station based on one or more of time of day and date.

6. The electric vehicle charging station network of claim 4, wherein the interface allows each host to exclude one or more vehicle operators from paying for charging service.

7. The electric vehicle charging station network of claim 6, wherein the exclusion is based on one or more of time of day and date.

8. A method for electric vehicle charging station host definable pricing, comprising:

providing an interface that includes a set of one or more input controls to allow each of a plurality of charging station hosts to define one or more pricing specifications for charging electric vehicles at one or more charging stations, wherein each host controls one or more charging stations;

receiving input through the set of input controls from one of the plurality of hosts, the input defining a pricing specification for one or more charging stations belonging to that host; and

applying the pricing specification defined by the input such that a cost of charging electric vehicles using the one or more charging stations is calculated according to the pricing specification.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the set of one or more input controls includes one or more input controls to allow each host to define a price for one or more charging stations belonging to that host.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the set of one or more input controls includes one or more input controls to allow each host to define a price for one or more of per charging session, per an amount of time, and per an amount of energy consumed for one or more charging stations belonging to that host.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the set of one or more input controls includes one or more controls to allow each host to define one or more prices for one or more time of days for one or more charging stations belonging to that host.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the set of one or more input controls includes one or more controls to allow each host to define one or more prices for one or more charging stations belonging to that host based on one or more access identifiers.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the interface further includes one or more input controls to allow each host to define one or more of its charging stations as operating in restricted mode.

14. A machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, when executed by a processor, will cause said processor to perform operations, comprising:

providing an interface that includes a set of one or more input controls to allow each of a plurality of charging station hosts to define one or more pricing specifications for charging electric vehicles at one or more charging stations, wherein each host controls one or more charging stations;

receiving input through the set of input controls from one of the plurality of hosts, the input defining a pricing specification for one or more charging stations belonging to that host; and

applying the pricing specification defined by the input such that a cost of charging electric vehicles using the one or more charging stations is calculated according to the pricing specification.

15. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the set of one or more input controls includes one or more input controls to allow each host to define a price for one or more charging stations belonging to that host.

16. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the set of one or more input controls includes one or more input controls to allow each host to define a price for one or more of per charging session, per an amount of time, and per an amount of energy consumed for one or more charging stations belonging to that host.

17. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the set of one or more input controls includes one or more controls to allow each host to define one or more prices for one or more time of days for one or more charging stations belonging to that host.

18. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the set of one or more input controls includes one or more controls to allow each host to define one or more prices for one or more charging stations belonging to that host based on one or more access identifiers.

19. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the interface further includes one or more input controls to allow each host to define one or more of its charging stations as operating in restricted mode.