Energy management techniques for heating or cooling a surface of a component of a vehicle comprise determining a heating lag time indicative of a lag time for a surface element of the vehicle component to heat to a first target temperature in response to a power on-off or power off-on modulation of a heat transfer component, determining a cooling lag time indicative of a lag time for the surface element to cool to a second target temperature in response to a power on-off or power off-on modulation of the heat transfer component, and controlling power-on and power-off times of the heat transfer component based on the determined heating and cooling lag times so as to not require a temperature sensor for feedback-based temperature control.

A method for controlling a lower limit of a state of charge of a power battery and a vehicle is provided. The method provided by the present disclosure includes: detecting a minimum ambient temperature for at least a period of time; predicting a minimum ambient temperature within a preset period of time after the at least a period of time according to the minimum ambient temperature within the at least a period of time; determining, according to the minimum ambient temperature within the preset period of time, a minimum state of charge value that able to meet power requirements for starting an engine of a vehicle under the minimum ambient temperature within the preset period of time; and adjusting a lower limit of the state of charge according to the minimum state of charge value.

Disclosed is a traction battery self-heating control method and a device. Acquiring a second temperature of a rotor at a current sampling time according to system parameters and a first temperature of the rotor at a previous sampling time, and estimating a third temperature of the rotor at a next sampling time according to the first temperature and the second temperature, and stopping the self-heating of the traction battery when the third temperature reaches a demagnetization temperature of the rotor. Whether to stop the self-heating of the traction battery is determined by estimating a rotor temperature under the self-heating condition, and comparing the rotor temperature with the demagnetization temperature of the rotor, and thus the self-heating control of the traction battery is realized.

A motor driving control method for controlling a motor speed so that a speed measured value of a motor follows a speed command value is provided. The method includes driving the motor by repeating an on section where a torque is generated in the motor and an off section where a torque is not generated in the motor at a regular period, based on the speed command value, wherein the driving includes applying a phase voltage to only one of multiple phases of the motor in the on section by a pulse width modulation scheme.

A computer implemented method for managing charge availability of a charge unit (CU) to obtain charge for a battery of an electric vehicle (EV) is provided. The CU includes a computer for processing at least part of the method and for communicating with a server over a network. The method includes receiving, by the server, status information from the computer of the CU. The method includes sending to the computer of the CU instructions to make a reservation for the CU. The reservation is for a user account that has requested a desire to charge the battery of the electric vehicle of the user at the CU or another CU. The method includes sending, by the server, a confirmation for the reservation to the user account. The confirmation is viewable via a device having access to the server via the user account. The method includes sending, by the server, a data regarding a time of availability of the CU to the user account for the reservation. The computer of the CU is configured to display a visual indicator regarding the reservation of the CU.

An insulation monitoring method and system for a traction battery and an apparatus are proposed to solve the problem of how to accurately predict a risk of insulation deterioration of the traction battery before the insulation deterioration occurs on the traction battery, so as to provide an early warning about failures in the traction battery. In this method, data statistics on a large amount of insulation resistance values within a long period of time are collected, and whether the traction battery has the risk of insulation deterioration is determined by analysis based on a data statistical result; and if the traction battery has the risk of insulation deterioration, alarm information is output. In this method, based on data statistical analysis performed on the large amount of insulation resistance values within a long period of time, insulation deterioration can be predicted before the insulation deterioration occurs on the traction battery. This allows a user to perform battery maintenance in time before the insulation deterioration occurs on the traction battery, so as to prevent traction battery failures.

The present disclosure relates to systems, methods, and devices for controlling charging of vehicles, to avoid charging during charge-adverse time periods or during charge restriction events. This can advantageously reduce cost to vehicles owners, and or provide access to reward incentives. Further, power distribution entities (utility providers) advantageously have increased control over power distribution to avoid over-burdening of power distribution infrastructure. Further, systems and methods for determining or inferring whether a vehicle is connected to a charge station are described, which can be used to inform automatic restriction of vehicle charging.

There is provided a vehicle control device including: an inverter that is configured to drive an electric motor; a DC/DC converter that is configured to step down a voltage output from a high voltage battery; a pre-charge circuit including a pre-charge switch; a voltage detector that is configured to detect an input voltage input to the inverter and the DC/DC converter; and a controller. When the input voltage is lower than the input voltage at the time when pre-charge of the inverter is completed, the controller is configured to determine that power supplied from a power supply of the DC/DC converter to the DC/DC converter is not normally stopped.

The present disclosure relates to systems, devices, and methods for analyzing health of vehicle batteries. Vehicle batteries tend to degrade over time. The described systems, devices, and methods quantify this degradation (or quantify remaining health of the battery) by comparing average energy used to charge or discharge the battery by a charge level unit to a nominal quantity of energy used to charge or discharge a battery in optimal health by a charge level unit. Charge data for previous charge events of the vehicle battery can be used in the calculation, and can be filtered by identifying qualified charge events based on at least one of a number of metrics. Usage data for previous usage events of the vehicle battery can be used in the calculation, and can be filtered by identifying qualified usage events or subgroups of usage event based on at least one of a number of metrics.

A fuel cell vehicle may include: a fuel cell unit; a battery unit connected to an output terminal of the fuel cell unit in parallel; a traction motor configured to be driven by electric power supplied from at least one of the fuel cell unit and the battery unit; and a controller configured to control the fuel cell unit to maintain a FC voltage outputted from the fuel cell unit at an idling voltage which is higher than zero and lower than a battery voltage outputted from the battery unit while driving of the traction motor is prohibited.