Methods and systems for electric vehicle (EV) charging, charging unit (CU) interfaces, auxiliary batteries, and remote access and user notifications

A system for charging vehicles, the system comprising,

• a charge unit;
• the charge unit includes an interface to an auxiliary battery;
• and
• a controller for interfacing the charge unit to a vehicle, the controller configured to obtain charge status data from the vehicle as the charge unit is connected to the vehicle and is configured to obtained charge status of the auxiliary battery when connected to the charge unit or when installed in the vehicle, the controller having access to cloud services over the Internet, the cloud services providing remote access to view the status or adjust charging settings at the charge unit from a remote computer, the cloud services further executing notifications logic to automatically send status notifications for a charging session to a predetermined account;
• wherein the controller provides status of the charge unit to the remote computer, the status includes identifying if the auxiliary battery is connected to the charge unit and a state of charge of the auxiliary battery when connected to the charge unit.

A charging unit for charging an electric vehicle, comprising:

• a housing of the charge unit, the housing being connectable to an electric source at a point of installation;
• a connector of the charging unit for coupling the charging unit to the electric vehicle, the connector connects to a cable for transferring charge and exchanging data with automobile electronics;
• a dock integrated with the housing, the dock includes a port for interfacing with and charging an auxiliary battery, the dock further provides a holding location for the auxiliary battery on the housing;
• a display having a graphical user interface (GUI) for providing charge status of a main battery of the electric vehicle and charge status of the auxiliary battery;
• and
• a communications port for interfacing with cloud services over the Internet, the communications port defined for providing data of the charge unit to the cloud services, the cloud services including one or more servers for enabling access of data and control of functions of the charge unit by a computer over the Internet, and the communications port includes a network interface card (NIC) for communication with the Internet, the NIC providing for wired or wireless communication;
• wherein the port provides electrical charge and exchanges data between the auxiliary battery and the charge unit;
• wherein the charge status of one or both of the main battery and the auxiliary battery, during charging and after completion, is accessible for viewing from the display of the charging unit, a vehicle display, or a display of the computer;
• wherein the cloud services includes a database of users, the users being associated user accounts, each user account including data regarding a respective electric vehicle and any charge status of the respective electric vehicle.