Electric vehicle recharging station

• US 8,386,103 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2010
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chemtron Research LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: MUSE Green Investments LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Tran, Bao
• Primary Examiner(s): Champagne, Luna
• Application Number:
  US12/728,237
• Publication Number:
  US 20110015821A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,073 Days
• Field of Search: 701/22, 701/45, 701/49, 701/69, 320/104, 105/396, 180/65.1
• US Class Current: 701/22
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/622 by satellite navigation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/70 Interactions with external data bases, e.g. traffic centres
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/16 by display
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/66 Arrangements of batteries
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/14 Conductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• 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 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/48 for electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/322 the battery being on-board an electric or hybrid vehicle, e.g. vehicle to grid arrangements [V2G], power aggregation, use of the battery for network load balancing, coordinated or cooperative battery charging
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0014 Circuits for equalisation of charge between batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0042 characterised by the mechanical construction
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/35 with light sensitive cells
• 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 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

A parking meter includes an access control device to uniquely identify a vehicle based on wireless communication with the vehicle; and a plurality of power connections to distribute electricity to charge in parallel a plurality of battery sets in the vehicle. The battery sets may form an exterior body of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A vehicle comprising:

a plurality of sets of rechargeable batteries, wherein each set has a dedicated charger for distributed recharging of the batteries, and wherein the batteries form a shape of an exterior of the vehicle through composite body panels; and

a power cable linking the composite body panels, wherein the power cable is configured to transmit data to and from the composite body panels.

2. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the power cable comprises a coaxial cable.

3. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the power cable comprises a power cable and a data cable.

4. The vehicle of claim 3, wherein the data cable comprises a fiber optic cable.

5. The vehicle of claim 3, wherein the data cable comprises an Ethernet cable.

6. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein each composite body panel comprises a battery recharger.

7. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the composite body panels comprise a plurality of lithium ion batteries.

8. The vehicle of claim 1, further comprising a beam configured to transfer a crash load into the vehicle body and away from a passenger cabin.

9. The vehicle of claim 1, further comprising a wireless transceiver coupled to the power cable.

10. The vehicle of claim 9, wherein the wireless transceiver is configured to transmit status of components in the vehicle to a remote computer.

11. The vehicle of claim 9, wherein the wireless transceiver is configured to communicate maintenance information to a remote computer.

12. The vehicle of claim 11, wherein the remote computer is configured to order a repair part based on the maintenance information and schedule a visit to a repair facility to install the repair part.

13. The vehicle of claim 1, further comprising a power line network device coupled to the power cable, the power line network device configured to communicate vehicular information over a power line network to a remote computer.

14. The vehicle of claim 13, wherein the power line network is configured to communicate with USB protocol or Firewire protocol.

15. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein each set of rechargeable batteries is electrically isolated during charging and electrically connected thereafter.

16. A vehicle comprising:

a plurality of sets of rechargeable conformal batteries, wherein each set has a dedicated charger for distributed recharging of the conformal batteries, and wherein the conformal batteries form a shape of an exterior of the vehicle through composite body panels; and

a power cable linking the composite body panels.

17. The vehicle of claim 16, wherein the rechargeable conformal batteries comprise lithium polymer batteries.