Method And System For Charging An Auxilary Battery In A Plug-In Electric Vehicle

• US 20120049792A1
• Filed: 08/26/2010
• Published: 03/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Crombez, Dale Scott
• Granted Patent: US 8,482,255 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/109
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/13 Maintaining the SoC within a determined range
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/44 Methods for charging or discharging circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/92 Energy efficient charging or discharging systems for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors specially adapted for vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles

Abstract

A system and method is provided for charging an auxiliary battery in a plug-in electric vehicle with an onboard charging system. The auxiliary battery has a predetermined operating range of charge levels. The auxiliary battery is charged to an upper charge level using an external power source thereby reducing energy used from the onboard charging system to charge the auxiliary battery during a drive mode of the vehicle. The upper charge level may be substantially similar to an upper level of the predetermined operating range of charge levels or greater than the predetermined operating range of charge levels. The auxiliary battery may be allowed to discharge to a lower charge level, which may be substantially similar to a lower level of the predetermined operating range of charge levels or less than the predetermined operating range of charge levels.

Claims

1. A method of charging an auxiliary battery in a plug-in electric vehicle including an onboard charging system, the method comprising:

charging the auxiliary battery to an upper charge level using an external power source thereby reducing energy used from the onboard charging system to charge the auxiliary battery during a drive mode of the vehicle, the upper charge level being one of;

approximately an upper level of a predetermined operating range of charge levels; and

greater than the predetermined operating range of charge levels.

2. The method of claim 1 further including determining parameters of the auxiliary battery in the vehicle to obtain the predetermined operating range of charge levels.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the predetermined operating range for the auxiliary battery is a voltage range.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the voltage range is between 11 volts and 13 volts and the upper charge level is a charge level between 12 volts and 15 volts.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the upper charge level is a predetermined maximum charge of the auxiliary battery.

6. The method of claim 1 further including charging a high-voltage battery in the vehicle using the external power source while charging the auxiliary battery to the upper charge level.

7. The method of claim 1 further including charging a high-voltage battery in the vehicle to a predetermined charge level before using the external power source to charge the auxiliary battery to the upper charge level.

8. The method of claim 1 further including allowing the auxiliary battery to discharge to a lower charge level during the drive mode of the vehicle, the lower charge level being at least one of:

approximately a lower level of the predetermined operating range of charge levels; and

less than the predetermined operating range of charge levels.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein allowing the auxiliary battery to discharge includes allowing the auxiliary battery to discharge from the upper charge level to the lower charge level while limiting energy usage from the onboard charging system to charge the auxiliary battery.

10. The method of claim 8 further including determining the lower charge level based on a time that the vehicle is predicted to be in an off state.

11. The method of claim 8 further including determining a predicted time until next charge of the auxiliary battery and determining the lower charge level based on the predicted time until next charge.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the predicted time until next charge is based on when the onboard charging system in the vehicle is predicted to provide power for charging the auxiliary battery.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the predicted time until next charge is based on when the auxiliary battery is predicted to be charged with power from the external power source.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the predetermined operating range for the auxiliary battery is a voltage range, the upper and lower charge levels being voltage levels, and the method further including charging a high-voltage battery in the vehicle to a predetermined voltage level before using the external power source to charge the auxiliary battery to the upper charge level.

15. The method of claim 8 further including determining the lower charge level based on operating parameters of the auxiliary battery.

16. The method of claim 1 further including charging the auxiliary battery to an intermediate charge level within the predetermined operating range of charge levels with power generated from the onboard charging system.

17. A system for charging an auxiliary battery in a plug-in electric vehicle including an onboard charging system, the auxiliary battery having a predetermined operating range of charge levels, the system comprising:

at least one logic device configured to determine an upper charge level that is at least one of;

approximately an upper level of the predetermined operating range of charge levels; and

greater than the predetermined operating range of charge levels; and

to charge the auxiliary battery to the upper charge level using an external power source thereby reducing energy used from the onboard charging system to charge the auxiliary battery during a drive mode of the vehicle.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the logic device is a controller including a processor operable to execute software instructions, a computer memory operable to store software instructions accessible by the processor, and a set of software instructions stored in the memory to determine the upper charge level and to charge the auxiliary battery to the upper charge level.

19. At least one logic storage medium having logic-device-readable code embodied thereon for performing a method of charging an auxiliary battery in a plug-in electric vehicle including an onboard charging system, the method comprising:

charging the auxiliary battery to an upper charge level using an external power source thereby reducing energy used from the onboard charging system to charge the auxiliary battery during a drive mode of the vehicle, the upper charge level being one of;

approximately an upper level of a predetermined operating range of charge levels for the auxiliary battery; and

greater than the predetermined operating range of charge levels.

20. The logic storage medium of claim 19 wherein the method further includes allowing the auxiliary battery to discharge to a lower charge level during the drive mode of the vehicle, the lower charge level being at least one of:

approximately a lower level of the predetermined operating range of charge levels; and

less than the predetermined operating range of charge levels.