B60L11/18

ILLUMINATED VEHICLE CHARGING ASSEMBLY

A wireless vehicle charging system is provided herein. The charging system includes a charging station having a power source and a charging station interface operably coupled to a primary coil assembly. The primary coil assembly includes a primary coil therein for generating a magnetic field. An illumination system is disposed within the primary coil assembly and includes a passive illumination system and an active illumination system. A first photoluminescent structure is disposed within the passive illumination system and is configured to luminesce in response to excitation by an incident light. A vehicle has a secondary coil assembly thereon operably coupled with a rectifier and configured to transmit electrical current from the secondary coil assembly to a battery. A second photoluminescent structure is disposed on a vehicle component and is configured to luminesce in response to excitation by a light source on the primary coil assembly.

CHARGE-DISCHARGE CONTROLLER
20170355277 · 2017-12-14 ·

A charge-discharge controller includes a resetter for executing a SOC reset charging and a timing calculator for executing a timing calculation process that calculates an execution timing of the SOC reset charging by the resetter. The timing calculator calculates a profit reduction amount by an execution of the SOC reset charging for each of a plurality of time ranges, and sets the execution timing of the SOC reset charging in one or more time ranges to minimize the profit reduction amount, in consideration of an economy of charging of battery besides SOC.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ONLINE VEHICLE BATTERY CAPACITY DIAGNOSIS
20170355276 · 2017-12-14 ·

A vehicle includes a traction battery. The vehicle further includes a controller programmed to generate a capacity estimate of the traction battery and, in response to an amount of energy supplied to the traction battery during a charge cycle being less than an estimated amount of energy stored in the traction battery during the charge cycle, detect that the capacity of the traction battery has changed and alter an operating strategy of the traction battery until the capacity estimate is updated.

VARIABLE WAKEUP OF A HIGH-VOLTAGE CHARGER BASED ON LOW-VOLTAGE SYSTEM PARAMETERS

A method of operating a vehicular system includes charging, by a controller and via an electric vehicle charge station, a low-voltage battery when a module powered by the low-voltage battery is awake and an SOC of the low-voltage battery is less than a threshold; and in response to the SOC exceeding the threshold, commanding by the controller the module to enter a sleep mode for a sleep duration defined by a power usage of the module such that as the power usage changes, the sleep duration changes.

Method for operating a motor vehicle and motor vehicle
20170355273 · 2017-12-14 · ·

A method for operating a motor vehicle, which is driven by an electric motor. The motor vehicle has a high-voltage power system, to which the electric motor is connected, with a high-voltage battery that is operated in an operating temperature range, for which purpose, a temperature control mechanism utilizing a circulating coolant, and having a heating mechanism for the coolant and a cooling mechanism for the coolant is assigned to the high-voltage battery, to satisfy a power deficiency which indicates that a braking power required by recuperation of the electric motor exceeds the on-demand power currently in the high-voltage power system that can be demanded for charging the high-voltage battery.

Wireless Power Transfer For Vehicles

An inductive charge system may include an inductive charging circuit having a switchgear configured to swap between a step-up converter and a step-down converter. The inductive vehicle charge station or system may include a controller configured to operate the switchgear to switch between the step-up converter and the step-down converter based on presence or absence of a load. The step-up converter may be a boost converter. The step-down converter may be a buck converter. The buck converter may have a maximum power output of 100 W. An output of the step-down converter may include a forward-biased diode to prevent backfeeding. The controller may be further configured to ramp an output voltage of the step-down converter from a coupling voltage to a charging voltage to prevent hard switching between the step-up converter and the step-down converter.

SELF-LIMITING ACTIVE DISCHARGE CIRCUIT FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE INVERTER
20170355267 · 2017-12-14 ·

A DC link capacitor coupled to positive and negative DC busses between a high voltage DC source and an electric vehicle inverter is quickly discharged during a shutdown. An active discharge circuit connected across the link capacitor has a discharge resistor in series with a discharge switch. The discharge switch has a control terminal for selectably turning the discharge switch on and off. A disable circuit is coupled to the control terminal and is responsive to a disable command signal to turn off the discharge switch. The disable circuit turns on the discharge switch upon cessation of the disable command signal. A timing circuit powered by a voltage from the link capacitor initiates a predetermined time interval upon cessation of the disable command signal, and continuously turns off the discharge switch after the predetermined time interval while the voltage from the link capacitor remains above a threshold.

FUEL CELL SYSTEM
20170355278 · 2017-12-14 ·

A fuel cell system includes a drive motor, a fuel cell, an auxiliary machine, a secondary battery, a temperature sensor, a current sensor, and a control section. The control section controls the secondary battery for discharging by driving the drive motor or the auxiliary machine and for charging through power generation by the fuel cell or regeneration by the drive motor when a temperature measured by the temperature sensor is lower than a specified value.

VEHICULAR INDUCTIVE POWER TRANSFER SYSTEMS AND METHODS

A vehicular inductive power transfer system includes a power transmission unit and a power receiving unit. The distance between the units and the overall alignment of the units with respect to each other determines the overall efficiency of the energy transfer between the power transmission unit and the power receiving unit. Magnetic fields produced by the inductive power transfer system may exceed allowable standards or regulations for human exposure to electromagnetic fields. An inductive power transfer control circuit autonomously causes an actuator to position at least one of the power transmission unit or the power receiving unit in a three-dimensional space based on one or more measured power transfer parameters. Such positioning may occur while the vehicle is moving or stationary. The control circuit may further autonomously adjust one or more power transfer parameters to maintain magnetic field exposure levels at or below industry standards or governmental regulations.

FUEL CELL VEHICLE AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE SAME
20170355279 · 2017-12-14 · ·

A fuel cell vehicle includes a fuel cell, a first electric component, a second electric component, a battery, a first switch, a second switch, and circuitry. The first electric component is to operate the fuel cell. The second electric component is not to be used to operate the fuel cell. The first switch is to electrically connect the first electric component to the battery to supply electric power from the battery to the first electric component. The second switch is to electrically connect the second electric component to the battery to supply electric power from the battery to the second electric component. The circuitry is configured to control the first switch to electrically connect the first electric component to the battery and to control the second switch not to electrically connect the second electric component to the battery when the fuel cell is started.