Electrically powered vehicle
AssigneeSubaru Corporation
InventorsKazu Hamada, Kosuke Hirabayashi, Kazuhiro Goto, Akihiro Kawakami, Satoshi Inoue
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electrically powered vehicle includes a battery, a mounting member, a switch, and a switch controller. The battery is configured to supply power for moving. On the mounting member, a supplementary battery configured to supply power for moving is detachably mountable. The switch is configured to switch connection of the battery and the supplementary battery mounted on the mounting member between series and parallel connections. The switch controller is configured to control the switch in accordance with condition information about the battery and condition information about the supplementary battery mounted on the mounting member.
Claims15
An electrically powered vehicle comprising:
- a battery configured to be installed in the electrically powered vehicle and to supply electric power to the electrically powered vehicle for moving;
- a mounting member configured to mount a supplementary battery configured to supply electric power to the electrically powered vehicle for moving;
- a switch configured to switch connection of the battery and the supplementary battery mounted on the mounting member between series and parallel connections;
- and
- a switch controller configured to:
- calculate a difference value between a first terminal voltage of the battery and a second terminal voltage of the supplementary battery,
- calculate a threshold by subtracting a margin from the difference value at which output current or input current of one or both of the battery and the supplementary battery exceeds a current upper limit value when the switch is switched from the series connection to the parallel connection, the margin being at least more than powering current or regeneration current, and
- control the switch from the series connection to the parallel connection when the switch controller detects that the difference value exceeds the threshold,
- wherein the switch controller is configured to control the switch from the parallel connection to the series connection when the switch controller detects that the difference value is approximately zero.
An electrically powered vehicle comprising:
- a battery configured to be installed in the electrically powered vehicle and to supply electric power to the electrically powered vehicle for moving;
- a mounting member configured to mount a supplementary battery configured to supply electric power to the electrically powered vehicle for moving;
- a switch configured to switch connection of the battery and the supplementary battery mounted on the mounting member between series and parallel connections;
- and
- circuitry configured to:
- calculate a difference value between a first terminal voltage of the battery and a second terminal voltage of the supplementary battery,
- calculate a threshold by subtracting a margin from the difference value at which output current or input current of one or both of the battery and the supplementary battery exceeds a current upper limit value when the switch is switched from the series connection to the parallel connection, the margin being at least more than powering current or regeneration current, and
- control the switch from the series connection to the parallel connection when the circuitry detects that the difference value exceeds the threshold,
- wherein the circuitry is configured to control the switch from the parallel connection to the series connection when the circuitry detects that the difference value is approximately zero.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.