Vehicular accessory

• US 9,566,954 B2
• Filed: 02/25/2015
• Issued: 02/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Max Moskowitz
• Original Assignee: Max Moskowitz
• Inventors: Moskowitz, Max
• Primary Examiner(s): FREJD, RUSSELL WARREN
• Application Number:
  US14/630,809
• Publication Number:
  US 20160001748A1
• Time in Patent Office: 720 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 1/04 of the electric storage means for propulsion exchanging batteries for electric propulsion of vehicles B60L53/80; for auxiliary purposes only B60R16/04; supplying batteries to, or removing batteries from, vehicles B60S5/06
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2001/0405 characterised by their position
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2001/0416 Arrangement in the rear part of the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2001/0438 Arrangement under the floor
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2001/0455 Removal or replacement of the energy storages
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2001/0461 from the side
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2001/0466 from above
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2001/0472 from below
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2001/0477 from the back
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2001/0494 with arrangements for sliding
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/66 Arrangements of batteries
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/14 Conductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/80 Exchanging energy storage elements, e.g. removable batteries
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/26 by cooling
• 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

An electrical vehicle including a vehicle body, a passenger compartment, a chassis supporting the passenger compartment, a plurality of wheels and at least one electrical motor for driving the wheels. A battery compartment of the vehicle is configured to removably mount therein a plurality of more than two rechargeable batteries which are movable into position in the battery compartment by a battery conveyor system which has a battery access opening through which batteries are installed or removed, one by one, to and from the battery compartment. In the battery compartment, a connection mechanism effects the needed mechanical and electrical connections. An overall control system controls the conveyor system and the connection mechanism to enable rapid replacement of the removable batteries, whereby an electrical vehicle can be instantly driven, even after its batteries have been discharged by a replacement of the discharged batteries and the installation of freshly charged batteries.

Claims

1. An electrical vehicle, comprising:

a vehicle body, including a passenger compartment, a chassis supporting the passenger compartment, a plurality of wheels, and at least one electrical motor for driving the wheels;

a battery compartment for removably mounting therein a plurality of more than three electrical batteries by installing and/or removing said plurality of batteries, via at least one battery access opening defined in said vehicle, said battery compartment comprising more than three battery slots, each sized to removably receive one of said plurality of batteries;

a battery conveyor system extending substantially from the at least one battery access opening to the battery slots and configured to convey each of said plurality of batteries from said battery access opening to a desired one of said plurality of battery slots, and conveying said batteries over a substantially horizontal battery-guiding path, with each said battery being carried along the battery-guiding path from the battery access opening to a respective one of said slots;

a connection mechanism for effecting mechanical and electrical connections of each of the batteries in the battery slots without use of manual labor and direct human viewing at the battery slots; and

a control system included in said electrical vehicle and coupled to and configured to control said conveyor system and said connection mechanism to carry and guide each of said plurality of batteries to a specified slot in said battery compartment, in a manner that enables a vehicle operator and/or a vehicle battery replacer to install or remove batteries during normal vehicle use without employing hand held battery installation tools.

2. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, wherein the vehicle has a passenger compartment floor and the battery compartment is at least partially located under the floor.

3. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, wherein the access opening is located at least one of a baggage compartment and an engine compartment of the vehicle and is accessed by lifting a respective cover or hood of said baggage or engine compartment.

4. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, wherein the conveyor system has one or more tracks with rollers over which batteries are rolled into position in respective ones of the battery slots.

5. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, wherein the plurality of batteries includes more than three batteries.

6. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, wherein the controller system includes a wireless controller that sends instructions to the control system to control the conveyor system and to the connection mechanism to enable removal and/or loading of batteries to be manually regulated.

7. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of batteries has a handle by which it can be lifted in order to be removed from the vehicle or installed into the vehicle conveyor system via the access opening.

8. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, wherein each battery comprises a port for running cooling liquid to said each battery.

9. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, wherein each of batteries weighs less than seventy pounds.

10. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, wherein the batteries are configured to be lifted into the air and lowered into the access opening with a human movable lifting winch.

11. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, further including at least one permanently installed battery, in addition to the removable batteries that utilize the conveyor system, which permanently installed battery is not configured to be removed and installed during normal vehicle use.

12. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, including one or more additional batteries selected from a group including a capacitor battery bank, a rooftop mounted battery and a towed battery.

13. The electrical vehicle of claim 12, wherein the capacitor battery bank is permanently installed in wall structures of the vehicle.

14. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, wherein the conveyor system comprises a battery track, with individual batteries moving along said track, each to a respective different battery position on the track, to be connected thereat to an electrical connection system of the vehicle.

15. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, wherein the track comprises a plurality of battery cages that travel in unison on the track, wherein each cage is configured to receive one of said batteries.

16. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, wherein each of the batteries has a volume of less than two thousand square inches and all of the batteries are of the same volume and shape.

17. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, wherein the control system includes software for reporting the state of charge of each of the removable batteries to enable informing an operator which battery is out of charge and should be optionally replaced.

18. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, including an electrical control system configured to select given ones of said batteries to power said electrical motor to optimize the usage of said batteries.

19. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, including a tray under a floor of the vehicle which is configured to descend below the vehicle and to travel sideways to one of the left side, the right side, the front side and a rear side of the vehicle to enable the loading thereon of a plurality of said batteries and to return into position inside the battery compartment.

20. The electrical vehicle of claim 1, including a charging interface accessibly located to enable a vehicle operator to connect a charging cable to said charging interface to charge said plurality of removable batteries while they are installed and electrically connected in said battery compartment.