ELECTRIC VEHICLE

• US 20120303198A1
• Filed: 11/15/2010
• Published: 11/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Wada, Shinji
• Application Number:
  US13/521,422
• Publication Number:
  US 20120303198A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/22
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/174 Economic driving
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/174 Economic driving
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/10 Input arrangements, i.e. from user to vehicle, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/22 Display screens
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/28 characterised by the type of the output information, e.g. video entertainment or vehicle dynamics information; characterised by the purpose of the output information, e.g. for attracting the attention of the driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 15/2045 for optimising the use of energy
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/12 Recording operating variables ; Monitoring of operating variables
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• 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 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/84 Data processing systems or methods, management, administration

Abstract

An electric vehicle is provided with an electric energy consumption calculating unit for calculating the electric energy consumption of a battery for supplying electric energy to a motor for traveling, a virtual gasoline consumption estimating unit for estimating the virtual gasoline consumption corresponding to the electric energy consumption, an electric energy fee calculating unit for calculating the electric energy fee corresponding to the electric energy consumption, a virtual gasoline fee calculating unit for calculating the virtual gasoline fee corresponding to the virtual gasoline consumption, and a fee comparison information output means for outputting information about the comparison between the electric energy fee and the virtual gasoline fee in the form of an image or a speech.

Claims

1. An electric vehicle propelled by supplying electric power from a battery to a traction motor, comprising:

an amount-of-consumed-electric-power calculator for calculating an amount of consumed electric power of the battery;

a hypothetical-amount-of-consumed-gasoline estimator for estimating a hypothetical amount of consumed gasoline corresponding to the amount of consumed electric power;

an electric-power-charge calculator for calculating an electric power charge corresponding to the amount of consumed electric power;

a hypothetical-gasoline-charge calculator for calculating a hypothetical gasoline charge corresponding to the hypothetical amount of consumed gasoline; and

a charge-comparing-information outputting unit for outputting an image or speech that provides information of a comparison between the electric power charge and the hypothetical gasoline charge.

2. The electric vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising:

a charge difference calculator for calculating a charge difference between the electric power charge and the hypothetical gasoline charge,

wherein the charge-comparing-information outputting unit outputs an image or speech that indicates the charge difference.

3. The electric vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the amount of consumed electric power and the hypothetical amount of consumed gasoline comprise an amount of consumed electric power and a hypothetical amount of consumed gasoline, respectively, per unit time or per unit traveled distance;

and

the charge-comparing-information outputting unit outputs an image or speech that indicates the electric power charge and the hypothetical gasoline charge based on the amount of consumed electric power and the hypothetical amount of consumed gasoline per unit time or per unit traveled distance.

4. The electric vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage unit for storing, in association with each other, a range of states of charge of the battery charged from a charging station, and an electric power unit cost at the charging station while the battery is being charged from the charging station,

wherein the electric-power-charge calculator calculates the electric power charge using the amount of consumed electric power and the electric power unit cost at the charging station.

5. The electric vehicle according to claim 4, wherein the storage unit stores results of charging processes at a plurality of charging stations.

6. The electric vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising:

a position detector for detecting the position of the electric vehicle,

wherein the hypothetical-gasoline-charge calculator calculates the hypothetical gasoline charge using a gasoline unit cost corresponding to a geographic region where the electric vehicle is presently located.