A system and method for charging a vehicle having a first battery, such as a high-voltage traction battery, and a second battery, such as a low-voltage battery, include controlling a DC converter or relay to effectively decouple the second battery from the converter when the vehicle is connected to an external power source to reduce or prevent damage to the second battery from extended or prolonged charging. The second battery may be effectively decoupled from the converter by controlling the relay or converter voltage based on state of charge of the second battery so that substantially zero current flows to and from the second battery relative to the converter and any vehicle low voltage consumers/accessories.

A power supply method carried out in a system that includes a fuel cell, a secondary battery, a motor, and an auxiliary for the fuel cell includes controlling an intermittent operation by which execution and stoppage of power generation by the fuel cell is switched intermittently to supply power to electric power loads including the motor and the auxiliary, determining whether or not an abnormality occurs in the secondary battery during the intermittent operation, instructing the motor to regenerate power on a condition that it is determined that an abnormality occurs in the secondary battery in the determination of whether or not the abnormality occurs, and supplying power, which is obtained by carrying out the regeneration, to the auxiliary.

A lithium battery system includes a first battery pack including a plurality of first battery cells connected in series. The first battery pack is configured to be connected in parallel to an alternator and a second battery pack, and has a lower capacity than the second battery pack. A negative electrode of each of the first battery cells includes a negative electrode active material. The negative electrode active material includes a carbon-based material having an interlayer spacing of a (002) plane of 0.34 nm to 0.50 nm in X-ray diffraction measurement using copper (Cu) Kα lines.

Systems and methods for dynamic control of a configuration of electrical circuits are provided. An example system includes a plurality of electric power sources and a plurality of switches configured to connect and disconnect some of the electric power sources. The system may include a controller coupled to the switches. The controller may be configured to enable and disable the switches to cause a change in a configuration of the connections between the electric power sources. The electric power sources can include at least one generator and at least two batteries. The controller can be further configured to cause a change in the configuration to connect the two batteries in series to a load for discharging and connect the two batteries in parallel to the generator for recharging.

An autonomous driving control system is configured to perform autonomous driving of a vehicle. The autonomous driving control system includes: an electric power supply circuit including a plurality of electric power supplies, electric power supply lines respectively belonging to a plurality of systems and a relay device; a fault detector configured to detect a fault state of the relay device; an electric power supply controller configured to control the electric power supply circuit; and an autonomous driving control unit provided to control the autonomous driving of the vehicle. The autonomous driving control unit is configured to perform, upon detection by the fault detector of occurrence of a fault corresponding to a specific fault pattern in the relay device, a restricted autonomous driving control in which part of a control function of the autonomous driving is restricted compared to when no fault corresponding to the specific fault pattern is detected.

According to some embodiments, a start-stop system for a vehicle is disclosed. The start-stop system includes a first energy storage device coupled to a starter motor. The start-stop system also includes a first DC-to-AC inverter coupled to the first energy storage device, a starter/alternator coupled to the first DC-to-AC inverter, and a second DC-to-AC inverter coupled to the starter/alternator. The start-stop system further includes a second energy storage device coupled to the second DC-to-AC inverter. The start-stop system finally includes a controller configured to control the two DC-to-AC inverters such that either the starter motor or starter/alternator starts the vehicle based on the state of charge of the second energy storage device.

The inverter generator controller equipped with the engine generator unit driven by the engine and operates to prompt user to specify the load to be used (S10); to respond to load specified by user in response to prompt by selecting and connect to the engine generator unit at least one among multiple batteries differing in discharge capacity per unit time (S12 to S22); and to control charge/discharge of the connected battery/batteries and operation of the engine generator unit based on load output demand from the specified load (S24).

A battery system comprises a battery pack, an equalization unit, and a battery ECU. The battery pack includes a plurality of blocks connected in series. The equalization unit performs equalization control to equalize the plurality of blocks in voltage. The battery ECU obtains a determined equalization time, and controls the equalization unit to end the equalization control when the equalization time has elapsed since the equalization control was started.

A battery charging system of an electronic device includes: a battery having a first nominal voltage and including: battery cells each having a second nominal voltage that is less than the first nominal voltage; and electrical connectors that electrically connect ones of the battery cells to provide the battery with the first nominal voltage; a first charge port configured to electrically connect to a first type of connector; a charging module configured to: receive power via the first charge port; and when a voltage of the received power is less than the first nominal voltage at least one of: charge ones of the battery cells individually; and charge groups of two or more of the battery cells.

A battery pallet racking system stores a plurality of battery pallets for use by a plurality of vehicles and manages charging the plurality of battery pallets based on the needs of the plurality of vehicles. The system communicates with a vehicle to determine a state of charge needed by the vehicle, selects a battery pallet to provide the state of charge, and charges the selected battery pallet to the state of charge. Battery pallets may be charged serially, collectively in parallel or individually to meet states of charge for the plurality of vehicles.