US 9,539,996 B2 · Energy management control of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle

Abstract

A drive-home button is provided in the dashboard of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). The driver presses this button when heading home or to other predetermined destination at which charging is routinely performed. The actual route, the driving style, and other relevant vehicle/road information during the trip home are stored to build up a statistical database. During a present trip home, a highly probably route is predicted based on prior trips and an energy management profile is calculated. The commands to the internal combustion engine and the electric motor are selected to cause the vehicle's battery to be substantially discharged upon arriving at home based on actual data of energy usage by the operator of the vehicle during prior trips. By using actual data, the prediction of energy usage is more accurate allowing more complete discharge of the battery.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), comprising:

an internal combustion engine;
an electric motor;
an operator-actuated predetermined destination indicator configured to designate a predetermined destination;
and
a vehicle system control (VSC) electronically coupled to the engine, motor, and indicator wherein the VSC bases commands to the engine and motor on both:
the predetermined destination indicator having been actuated since a start of a current trip;
and
data collected from prior trips to the predetermined destination.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Energy management control of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle

Life of this patent

Energy management control of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20