ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGE CONTROL SYSTEM

• US 20120256588A1
• Filed: 04/02/2012
• Published: 10/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Hayashi, Masanori, Takemasa, Koichiro, Tsurutani, Taisuke
• Granted Patent: US 8,981,717 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/109
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/12 Recording operating variables ; Monitoring of operating variables
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/14 Conductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00036 Charger exchanging data with battery
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00047 with provisions for charging different types of batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0071 with a programmable schedule
• 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

The usage pattern of an electric vehicle including the amount of power consumption of a battery on each day of the week is extracted from usage histories of the vehicle in a predetermined period. When the vehicle goes home after one day'"'"'s operation and is connected to a charging apparatus, a charge determination unit predicts a usage pattern of the vehicle on the next day and determines whether the vehicle can operate on the next day with the remaining amount of power of a battery in the vehicle. When it is determined that the charging of the battery is necessary, the battery is charged until it reaches the target remaining amount of power. The target remaining amount of power is determined on the basis of the amount of power consumption in the predicted usage pattern so that the full charge is prevented and the number of charges is reduced.

Claims

1. An electric vehicle charge control system comprising:

a history recording unit configured to record a usage of an electric vehicle including an amount of power consumption of the electric vehicle in each period as a period-by-period usage history;

a charge determination unit configured to predict a future amount of power consumption of the electric vehicle from the period-by-period usage history, determine whether charging of a battery in the electric vehicle is necessary on the basis of the predicted future amount of power consumption and a present remaining amount of power of the battery, and calculate a target remaining amount of power that is a level to which the battery is charged in a case where it is determined that charging of the battery is necessary; and

a charging unit configured to charge the battery on the basis of results of the determination of whether charging of the battery is necessary and the calculation of the target remaining amount of power which are performed by the charge determination unit.

2. The electric vehicle charge control system according to claim 1,

wherein the history recording unit records a daily usage history as the period-by-period usage history, and

wherein the charge determination unit determines a daily pattern of the electric vehicle including the amount of power consumption of the electric vehicle on the basis of the daily usage histories, predicts the future amount of power consumption on a future day from the daily pattern, and performs the determination of whether charging of the battery is necessary and the calculation of the target remaining amount of power on the basis of the predicted future amount of power consumption and the present remaining amount of power of the battery.

3. The electric vehicle charge control system according to claim 2,

wherein the history recording unit records the daily usage history including driver information about who has driven the electric vehicle, and

wherein the charge determination unit determines the daily pattern including the driver information on the basis of the daily usage histories, predicts a driver on the next day from the daily pattern including the driver information, and calculates the target remaining amount of power corresponding to the predicted driver on the next day.

4. The electric vehicle charge control system according to claim 3, wherein the charge determination unit sets a standard target remaining amount of power for each of drivers expected to be a next day'"'"'s driver, sets the standard target remaining amount of power as the target remaining amount of power,

changes the target remaining amount of power to a smaller target remaining amount of power that is below the standard target remaining amount of power by a predetermined amount in a case where a next charging day predicted on the basis of the daily pattern is not brought forward even when the smaller target remaining amount of power is set, and

changes the target remaining amount of power to a larger target remaining amount of power that is above the standard target remaining amount of power by a predetermined amount in a case where the predicted next charging day is postponed for one or more days by setting the larger target remaining amount of power.

5. The electric vehicle charge control system according to claim 4, further comprising an information unit, and

wherein, in a case where the charge determination unit determines that an actual usage pattern of an actual driver of the electric vehicle on a driving day differs from a predicted usage pattern of a predicted driver on the driving day, the charge determination unit activates the information unit and causes the information unit to transmit a notification that the battery may become exhausted.

6. The electric vehicle charge control system according to claim 3, wherein the charge determination unit sets a standard target remaining amount of power for each of drivers expected to be a next day'"'"'s driver, sets the standard target remaining amount of power as the target remaining amount of power,

changes the target remaining amount of power to a larger target remaining amount of power that is above the standard target remaining amount of power by a predetermined amount in a case where the predicted next charging day is postponed for one or more days by setting the larger target remaining amount of power, and

changes the target remaining amount of power to a smaller target remaining amount of power that is below the standard target remaining amount of power by a predetermined amount in a case where a next charging day predicted on the basis of the daily pattern is not brought forward even when the smaller target remaining amount of power is set.

7. The electric vehicle charge control system according to claim 3, wherein the charge determination unit sets a standard target remaining amount of power for each of drivers expected to be a next day'"'"'s driver, sets the standard target remaining amount of power as the target remaining amount of power, and

changes the target remaining amount of power to a larger target remaining amount of power that is above the standard target remaining amount of power by a predetermined amount in a case where the predicted next charging day is postponed for one or more days by setting the larger target remaining amount of power.

8. The electric vehicle charge control system according to claim 3, wherein the charge determination unit sets a standard target remaining amount of power for each of drivers expected to be a next day'"'"'s driver, sets the standard target remaining amount of power as the target remaining amount of power, and

changes the target remaining amount of power to a smaller target remaining amount of power that is below the standard target remaining amount of power by a predetermined amount in a case where a next charging day predicted on the basis of the daily pattern is not brought forward even when the smaller target remaining amount of power is set.

9. An electric vehicle charge control method comprising:

recording a usage of an electric vehicle including an amount of power consumption of the electric vehicle in each period as a period-by-period usage history;

predicting a future amount of power consumption of the electric vehicle from the period-by-period usage history;

determining whether charging of a battery in the electric vehicle is necessary on the basis of the predicted future amount of power consumption and a present remaining amount of power of the battery;

calculating a target remaining amount of power that is a level to which the battery is charged in a case where it is determined that charging of the battery is necessary; and

charging the battery on the basis of results of the determination of whether charging of the battery is necessary and the calculation of the target remaining amount of power which are performed by the charge determination unit.