Vehicle-to-vehicle charging box and method for direct current fast-charging using the same

A vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) charging box for performing a direct current fast charging (DCFC) session of a charge-receiving vehicle (“recipient”) by a charge-providing vehicle (“donor”), the V2V comprising:

• a portable housing that defines a housing volume, the portable housing having an inlet charging port and an outlet charging port that are connectable to the donor and the recipient, respectively;
• a high-voltage (HV) bus;
• first and second sets of HV contactors connected to the HV bus, and configured to connect/disconnect the respective inlet and outlet charging ports to/from the HV bus;
• a high-voltage-to-high-voltage (HV-HV) converter connected to the HV bus and configured to output charging power of at least about 50 kilowatts (kW);
• a thermal management system operable for regulating a temperature of the HV-HV converter;
• a communication processing unit (CPU) configured to establish and maintain two-way communication between the donor and the recipient during the DCFC session, wherein the CPU includes corresponding communication stacks for the donor and the recipient, and an application layer connected to the communication stacks to facilitate the two-way communication between the donor and the recipient;
• and
• a system controller configured, during the DCFC session, to selectively pre-charge the HV bus between the inlet charging port and the HV-HV converter, and to selectively command an offloading of a DC charging current from a battery pack of the donor, through the HV-HV converter, and to a battery pack of the recipient, wherein the high-voltage bus, the first and second sets of HV contactors, the HV-HV converter, the CPU, and the system controller are positioned within the housing volume, and wherein the system controller is configured to perform an adaptive self-learning algorithm to analyze charging behavior of a group of recipients from prior DCFC sessions, and to adjust performance of the charging box over time based on the charging behavior.

A vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) charging method, comprising:

• detecting a predetermined electrical connection of a charge-providing vehicle (“donor”) and a charge-receiving vehicle (“recipient”) to a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) charging box via a system controller thereof, the predetermined electrical connection including a connection of the donor and the recipient to an inlet charging port and an outlet port of a portable housing of the V2V charging box, respectively;
• establishing two-way communication between the donor and the recipient using a communication processing unit (CPU) of the V2V charging box, the CPU being connected to a low-voltage (LV) energy storage device within the V2V charging box, wherein the CPU includes corresponding communication stacks for the donor and the recipient and an application layer connected to the communication stacks to facilitate the two-way communication;
• during a V2V charging session:
• commanding, via a system controller of the V2V charging box, a high-voltage-to-low-voltage (HV-LV) converter of the V2V charging box to pre-charge an HV bus between the inlet charging port and a high-voltage-to-high-voltage (HV-HV) converter of the V2V charging box;
• selectively recharging the LV energy storage device via the HV-LV converter;
• and
• offloading of a DC charging current from a battery pack of the donor, across a first set of contactors of the V2V charging box, through the HV-HV converter, across a second set of contactors of the V2V charging box, and to a battery pack of the recipient to thereby perform the V2V charging session;
• and
• performing an adaptive self-learning algorithm via the system controller to analyze charging behavior of a group of recipients from prior DCFC sessions, and adjusting performance of the V2V charging box over time based on the charging behavior.