An electric vehicle charger includes a power supply and a controller. The power supply is for supplying electric power over a charging connection to an electric vehicle. The charging connection employs charging conductors to supply electric power from the power supply to the electric vehicle for charging. The power supply is adapted to send data to and receive data from the electric vehicle over the charging conductors according to a power-line communications protocol. The controller coupled to the power supply to control supply of electric power to the electric vehicle, The controller is adapted to, prior to initiating supply of electric power by the power supply to the electric vehicle for charging, communicate with the electric vehicle to identify a payment method associated with the electric vehicle and with the payment network to authorize the payment method for payment for electric power supplied to the electric vehicle for charging.

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.

A modular electric wheel assembly includes integral/in-built acceleration and braking componentry and/or steering and suspension componentry allowing for the modular application thereof. Each modular wheel assembly may receive drive control data from various sensors (such as accelerator and brake pedal position sensors, steering column rotational offset sensors and the like), vehicle control systems or the like so as to be able to independently drive, brake, steer and/or provide active suspension for the vehicle. The wheel assemblies may communicate with each other across a wheel assembly vehicular network, wherein a master wheel assembly may receive drive control data and control the slave wheel assemblies accordingly. The modular wheel assemblies may further communicate with each other to receive various sensor data, including rotational speed sensor data so as to be able to detect loss of traction events and the like so as to substantially autonomously take remedial traction control action.

An electric vehicle charging system includes a power distributing system configured to receive power from a power control system and selectively direct the power to one of a plurality of power dispensers coupled to the power distribution system.

A computer-implemented method for increasing safety during charging of a vehicle battery of a vehicle by a charging station, the method comprising the steps of calculating a forecast value for a maximum safe charging current by the controller of the vehicle based on sensor data generated by sensors of the vehicle and adjusting the charging current provided by the charging station in response to the forecast value of a maximum safe charging current.

A vehicle communication, power, and guidance system for use in guiding and communicating with a land vehicle along a roadway, the system comprising: one or more reference devices positioned along the roadway, each of the reference devices further comprising: a memory device for storing fixed values for one or more vehicle and traffic related parameters; and one or more transmission modules for transmitting said fixed values for one or more vehicle and traffic related parameters; a vehicle mounted device comprising: a receiving module for receiving transmitted signals from the transmission module of said reference devices; and a processing module for processing the received signals and a transmitter module to transmitting signals to the reference device to communicate with one or more controllers of the vehicle to guide and control movement of the vehicle along the roadway.

Systems and methods may coordinate and provide bidirectional energy transfer events between electrified vehicles and other vehicles, devices, and/or structures. A power outage map can automatically be generated in response to a power outage condition of a grid power source. Both a power outage zone and a predicted power outage zone may be identified within the power outage map. A notification, alternative drive route recommendation, etc. may be sent to users of the bidirectional energy transfer system who are operating their vehicles near the power outage zone or the predicted power outage zone.

Systems and methods for charging electric vehicles and for quantitative and qualitative load balancing of electrical demand are provided.

A method and apparatus (100) are provided for charging a vehicle battery (108). The apparatus (100) includes a controller (102) designed to influence a charging process of the vehicle battery (108). The apparatus (100) further has a switching device (104) to transmit a signal to the controller (102) in response to operation of the switching device (104) by a user. The controller (102) is designed to influence the vehicle battery (108) before the charging process in response to receiving the signal depending on at least one desired state for the charging process.

A method for controlling an electric hand truck includes determining whether user manipulation is present due to a user input on the electric hand truck; and, if there is no user manipulation, then braking an electric motor that drives the wheels of the electric moving vehicle in a softlock manner in which, instead of power being applied to the electric motor, electrodes of the electric motor are short-circuited.