A method for operating an electric vehicle, in which an automatic unlocking function for a vehicle-side charging interface is activated if it is established on the basis of an ascertained position of the electric vehicle that the electric vehicle is arranged at a public charging column. The activated automatic unlocking function effectuates automatic unlocking of the charging interface as soon as a charging procedure of the electric vehicle is ended and thus a charging cable connected to the vehicle-side charging inter-face is released. The invention furthermore relates to a control device for an electric vehicle.

A system and method for managing vehicle charging stations such that when at least two of a plurality of electric vehicle charging stations (also known as electric vehicle service equipment, or EVSE) occupied with vehicles awaiting a charge, the present system manages the charging of individual vehicles in cases where the aggregated demand for charging exceeds the capacity of the circuits supplying the plurality of EVSE. By cycling so that only a few of the vehicles are charging at a time, the demand on the circuits is kept below a predetermined limit. In cases where a load shedding event is in progress, the limit can be further reduced. In cases where the cost of electricity is varying dynamically, the system considers a driver's explicit charging requirements (if any) and preferences for opportunistic charging when the price of electricity is not too high.

A mobility unit may include a driving portion connected to a driveshaft of a vehicle for providing driving force to the vehicle, a rear glass portion provided at a rear portion of the vehicle to be operable to isolate the rear portion of the vehicle, a front connection portion or a rear connection portion provided at the front or at the rear of the vehicle to be fastened to another vehicle, and an integrated controller for controlling the operation of the front connection portion or the rear connection portion depending on the direction in which the vehicle is coupled to another vehicle and controlling the operation of the rear glass portion and the driving portion when the vehicle is coupled to another vehicle.

A current limiting method of a fuel cell stack is capable of preventing current of the fuel cell stack from rapidly dropping to prevent jerking or shock from occurring while a vehicle travels. The method includes: determining whether performance deterioration of a unit cell of the fuel cell stack has occurred, employing a feed forward control type current limiting logic of the fuel cell stack before an output of the fuel cell vehicle is lowered, decreasing the current of the fuel cell stack to a predetermined level by the feed forward control type current limiting logic, and gradually restoring the current of the fuel cell stack to a maximum current usage value from a point in time when the current of a load is used.

An electric vehicle includes an electric motor for transmitting torque to a wheel, a clutch pedal operated by driver, and a torque controller for controlling torque of the electric motor. The torque controller is configured to control torque of the electric motor in response to an operation amount of the clutch pedal. The electric vehicle may include a shift lever for selecting a mode of any one of a plurality of modes in which torque characteristics of the electric motor differ in stages with respect to a rotational speed of the electric motor. The clutch pedal is operated when the shift lever is operated. The torque controller is configured to control torque of the electric motor in response to the mode selected by the shift lever.

A vehicle control apparatus includes a battery remaining-amount recognizing unit recognizing a remaining amount of a battery and a distance measurement control unit measuring a vehicle-terminal distance by switching, based on the remaining amount of the battery recognized by the battery remaining-amount recognizing unit, between a first distance measurement mode repeatedly measuring the vehicle-terminal distance by a distance measuring unit without depending on reception of measurement instruction information transmitted from a mobile terminal and a second distance measurement mode measuring the vehicle-terminal distance by the distance measuring unit in response to reception of the measurement instruction information transmitted from the mobile terminal when communication is established between the vehicle communication control unit and the mobile terminal.

An input of a destination and an input of a desired number of power supply facilities via which a vehicle travels on a route from a present location to the destination until an amount of power available becomes 0 are received. The number of facilities are selected and the route to the destination via the number of facilities is specified, the number of facilities being selected such that an amount of power with which the vehicle is able to travel a distance obtained by adding a margin distance to a distance to a farthest facility is less than the amount of power available when the route is specified. An alert is reported when the amount of power available is less than an amount of power required to travel the distance obtained by adding the margin distance to the distance to the farthest facility of the selected facilities.

A motor device for a vehicle includes a stator, a rotor, a bearing, an inverter, and a controller. The stator is attached into a housing and includes a concentrated winding coil. The rotor includes a permanent magnet. The bearing supports a rotating shaft of the rotor. The inverter controls an energization state of the concentrated winding coil. If a rotational speed of the rotor is greater than a threshold, the controller outputs a control signal to the inverter to execute field weakening control, and thereby makes a potential difference between the housing and the rotating shaft lower than a withstand voltage of the bearing. The control signal controls the energization state of the concentrated winding coil. The field weakening control generates magnetic flux of the concentrated winding coil in a direction of weakening magnetic flux of the permanent magnet.

A drive system comprises a DC-DC converter that is arranged to receive an input voltage from a battery having a nominal battery voltage. The DC-DC converter has a first mode of operation in which the DC-DC converter generates a regulated output voltage from the input voltage and supplies the regulated output voltage to a load, and a second mode of operation in which the DC-DC converter is by-passed such that the input voltage from the battery is supplied to the load. A controller is arranged to compare the input voltage to a threshold voltage that is less than the nominal battery voltage. The controller operates the DC-DC converter in the first mode when the input voltage is less than the threshold voltage, and operates the DC-DC converter otherwise.

An electrified tractor includes a vehicle body, a working machine, an electric motor, a battery, an inverter that controls input-output electric power of the battery. The electrified tractor includes a control device that controls the inverter. The control device executes a restriction process, a charging rate calculation process and a relaxation process. In the restriction process, the control device controls the inverter such that the input and output of the battery is restricted within a prescribed electric power range, when a state of the battery satisfies a restriction condition. In the charging rate calculation process, the control device calculates a charging rate of the battery when it is assumed that a work is finished in a farming field, as an estimated charging rate. In the relaxation process, the control device expands the prescribed electric power range, when the estimated charging rate is higher than a first prescribed charging rate.