Charging of an electric vehicle fleet
AssigneeProterra Inc.
InventorsSeamus McGrath, Reuben Sarkar
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for controlling the charging of multiple electric vehicles operating in a geographic area may include inputting a tariff schedule into a control system. The tariff schedule may identify the cost of energy at different times in the geographic area. The method may also include receiving data from the multiple electric vehicles. The data may include at least the state of charge of the vehicle. The method may further include sending instructions to at least one vehicle of the multiple electric vehicles. The instructions may include directives on charging based at least on the tariff schedule and the received data.
Claims19
A method for charging an electric vehicle of an electric vehicle fleet, comprising:
- receiving, at a control system, data from multiple electric vehicles of the electric vehicle fleet, wherein the data is wirelessly transmitted from each electric vehicle of the multiple electric vehicles while in motion, the data including at least (a) a current location of the electric vehicle, and (b) a current state of charge of the electric vehicle;
- and
- determining, at the control system, based at least on the received data, (a) the state of charge of a first electric vehicle of the multiple electric vehicles when the first electric vehicle arrives for charging, and (b) an amount of energy to transfer to the first electric vehicle during the charging, wherein determining the amount of energy to transfer to the first electric vehicle includes determining the amount based on a total amount of energy that was previously transferred to the multiple electric vehicles during a time window.
A method for charging an electric vehicle of an electric vehicle fleet, comprising:
- receiving, at a control system, a tariff schedule, wherein the tariff schedule indicates a cost of energy at different times;
- receiving, at the control system, data from multiple electric vehicles of the electric vehicle fleet, wherein the data is wirelessly transmitted from each electric vehicle of the multiple electric vehicles while in motion, the data from each electric vehicle including at least (a) information indicative of a charging schedule of the electric vehicle and (b) a current state of charge of the electric vehicle;
- and
- determining, at the control system, an amount of energy to transfer to a first electric vehicle of the multiple electric vehicles during charging based at least on (i) the state of charge of each electric vehicle of the multiple electric vehicles and (ii) the tariff schedule.
A control system for controlling the charging of an electric vehicle fleet, comprising:
- a receiver configured to receive data from multiple electric vehicles of the electric vehicle fleet, wherein the data is wirelessly transmitted from each electric vehicle of the multiple electric vehicles while in motion, the data including at least (a) a current location of the electric vehicle, and (b) a current state of charge of the electric vehicle;
- receiving data from one or more charging stations, wherein the data from each of the one or more charging stations includes at least a current state of charge of an associated energy storage device;
- and
- a processor configured to determine, based at least on the received data from the multiple electric vehicles and the one or more charging stations, (a) the state of charge of a first electric vehicle of the multiple electric vehicles when the first electric vehicle arrives for charging, and (b) an amount of energy to transfer to the first electric vehicle during the charging.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.