Vehicle charging systems and electric vehicles
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- JP · JP
- Patent Type
- Patents
- Current Assignee / Owner
- SUBARU CORP
- Filing Date
- 2022-07-29
- Publication Date
- 2026-05-27
AI Technical Summary
Existing vehicle charging systems for electric vehicles compromise convenience due to inefficient power supply pathways, particularly when supplying power to both the vehicle battery and external devices.
A vehicle charging system with a rectifier, inverter, first and second relays, and a control unit that dynamically control the operating states of these components based on power demands to optimize contactless charging and power supply to external devices, avoiding inefficient pathways through the battery and inverter.
Improves power supply efficiency by preferentially executing contactless charging or power supply to external devices without traversing unnecessary components, thereby enhancing overall convenience.
Smart Images
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Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] The present disclosure relates to a vehicle charging system and an electric vehicle equipped with such a vehicle charging system.
Background Art
[0002] As a charging system (vehicle charging system) applied to electric vehicles, various technologies have been disclosed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
Prior Art Documents
Patent Documents
[0003]
Patent Document 1
Summary of the Invention
Problems to be Solved by the Invention
[0004] By the way, in a charging system applied to an electric vehicle, for example, it is required to improve convenience. It is desirable to provide a vehicle charging system capable of improving convenience and an electric vehicle equipped with such a vehicle charging system.
Means for Solving the Problems
[0005] A vehicle charging system according to one embodiment of the present disclosure is a charging system applied to an electric vehicle, comprising: a rectifier arranged on a charging path between a coil and a battery in the electric vehicle; an inverter arranged on a first power supply path between the battery and a power output terminal for supplying power stored in the battery to an external device; a first relay arranged on the charging path; a second relay arranged on a second power supply path between the coil and the power output terminal; and a control unit that controls contactless charging of the battery from an external device via the charging path, and first power supply from the external device to an external device via the charging path and the first power supply path, respectively, or second power supply from the external device to an external device via the second power supply path. The control unit controls the operating states of the first relay and the second relay, respectively, according to the equipment power supplied from the external device to the coil, the battery power required by the battery, and the external device power required by the external device.
[0006] An electric vehicle according to one embodiment of the present disclosure is equipped with a vehicle charging system according to the above embodiment of the present disclosure. [Brief explanation of the drawing]
[0007] [Figure 1] This is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration example of an electric vehicle, etc., according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 2] This is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration example of an electric vehicle, etc., related to a comparative example. [Figure 3] This is a diagram illustrating an example of the operating state according to the embodiment. [Figure 4] Figure 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the operating state. [Figure 5] Figure 3 is a block diagram illustrating another example of the operating state shown. [Figure 6] Figure 3 is a block diagram illustrating another example of the operating state shown. [Modes for carrying out the invention]
[0008] The embodiments of this disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. The description will be in the following order. 1. Embodiment (Example of a charging system that performs contactless charging of electric vehicles and power supply to external devices) 2. Variations
[0009] <1. Embodiment> [composition] Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration example of an electric vehicle (electric vehicle 1) according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. This electric vehicle 1 is composed of an electric vehicle (EV) or a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV).
[0010] The electric vehicle 1 comprises a vehicle body 10, a battery 11, a vehicle-side coil 12, a rectifier 13, a power output terminal 14, an inverter 15, relays 161 and 162, a frequency conversion unit 17, and a control unit 18. In addition, as shown in Figure 1, an external facility 9 installed on the ground G, an equipment-side coil 92 electrically connected to the external facility 9 via an external cable R9, and a frequency conversion unit 97 positioned on the external cable R9 are provided in the vicinity of the electric vehicle 1. In the electric vehicle 1, although the details will be described later, contactless charging is performed between the electric vehicle 1 and the external facility 9 via the vehicle-side coil 12 and the equipment-side coil 92.
[0011] The rectifier 13, inverter 15, relays 161 and 162, and control unit 18 correspond to a specific example of the "vehicle charging system" in this disclosure. Relay 161 corresponds to a specific example of the "first relay" in this disclosure, and relay 162 corresponds to a specific example of the "second relay" in this disclosure. Furthermore, the vehicle-side coil 12 corresponds to a specific example of the "coil in an electric vehicle" in this disclosure.
[0012] The battery 11 stores the electricity used in the electric vehicle 1 and is composed of various types of secondary batteries, such as lithium-ion batteries. As will be described in more detail later, the electricity stored in this battery 11 can be supplied to external devices 8.
[0013] Here, the external equipment 9 is, for example, connected to the power grid and capable of contactless (wireless) charging and discharging with the electric vehicle 1. Specifically, although the details will be described later, contactless charging (contactless charging) is performed from the external equipment 9 to the electric vehicle 1.
[0014] Furthermore, the external device 8 is, for example, various household appliances. As will be explained in more detail later, power is supplied from the electric vehicle 1 to the external device 8, thereby realizing what is known as V2L (Vehicle-to-Load).
[0015] As shown in Figure 1, the vehicle-side coil 12 is located below the vehicle body 10 in, for example, the electric vehicle 1. Specifically, the vehicle-side coil 12 is positioned opposite the equipment-side coil 92, which is connected to the external equipment 9. As a result, although the details will be described later, contactless power supply is performed between the vehicle-side coil 12 and the equipment-side coil 92.
[0016] The rectifier 13 is located on the charging path R0 (see Figure 1) when the battery 11 is contactlessly charged from the external equipment 9 via the external cable R9 (frequency conversion unit 97), the equipment-side coil 92, and the vehicle-side coil 12. Specifically, in the example shown in Figure 1, the rectifier 13 is located between the vehicle-side coil 12 and the relay 161 (described later) on the charging path R0 between the vehicle-side coil 12 and the battery 11. This rectifier 13 is a device that converts the AC power supplied by contactless power supply from the external equipment 9 into DC power and outputs it to the battery 11. In other words, the rectifier 13 performs unidirectional AC / DC conversion (rectification).
[0017] In addition, in FIG. 1 (and FIGS. 2 and 4 to 6 described later), for the sake of convenience, among the paths connected between the external equipment 9, the equipment-side coil 92, inside the electric vehicle 1 and the external devices 8, the path of the alternating current power is indicated by a broken line, and the path of the direct current power is indicated by a solid line.
[0018] The power output terminal 14 is a terminal (connector) for outputting (feeding power) the power stored in the battery 11 to the outside. Specifically, although details will be described later, the power stored in the battery 11 is output from the power output terminal 14 to the external device 8 via the inverter 15, so that power feeding to the external device 8 (the first power feeding Rs1 described later) is performed.
[0019] As shown in FIG. 1, the inverter 15 is arranged on the first power feeding path R1 between the battery 11 and the power output terminal 14. This inverter 15 is a device that converts the direct current power supplied from the battery 11 into alternating current power and outputs it (performs DC / AC conversion).
[0020] The relay 161 is arranged between the rectifier 13 and the battery 11 on the charging path R0 described above. This relay 161 is configured to be mutually switchable between an ON state (connection state of the charging path R0) and an OFF state (cut-off state of the charging path R0) according to the control by the control unit 18 described later.
[0021] As shown in FIG. 1, the relay 162 is arranged on the second power feeding path R2 between the vehicle-side coil 12 and the power output terminal 14. This relay 162 is also configured to be mutually switchable between an ON state (connection state of the second power feeding path R2) and an OFF state (cut-off state of the second power feeding path R2) according to the control by the control unit 18.
[0022] As shown in Figure 1, the frequency conversion unit 17 is positioned between the relay 162 and the vehicle-side coil 12 on the second power supply path R2 described above. This frequency conversion unit 17 converts the frequency of the power supplied from the vehicle-side coil 12 (approximately several kHz) to a household appliance frequency (50 Hz or 60 Hz) and outputs it to the relay 162.
[0023] On the other hand, the aforementioned frequency conversion unit 97 converts the frequency of the power supplied from the external equipment 9 (the household appliance frequency mentioned above) to a frequency of several kHz and outputs it to the equipment-side coil 92.
[0024] The control unit 18 is the part that controls various operations in the electric vehicle 1 (driving operation, charging operation of the battery 11, power supply operation to external equipment 8, operation of various components, etc.) and performs various calculation processes. Specifically, the control unit 18 controls, for example, that contactless charging Rc is performed to the battery 11 from the external equipment 9 via the charging path R0. The control unit 18 also controls that a first power supply Rs1 is performed to the external equipment 8 from the external equipment 9 via the charging path R0 and the first power supply path R1, respectively, or a second power supply Rs2 is performed to the external equipment 8 from the external equipment 9 via the second power supply path R2.
[0025] The control unit 18 controls the operating states of relays 161, 162 and inverter 15, etc., in accordance with the equipment power Pin supplied from the external equipment 9 to the vehicle-side coil 12, the battery power Pb required by the battery 11, and the external equipment power Pout required by the external equipment 8, as will be described in detail later. By controlling the operating states of relays 161, 162 and inverter 15, etc., the contactless charging Rc and the first power supply Rs1 or second power supply Rs2 described above are executed, respectively.
[0026] Details of the control processing by the control unit 18 (relays 161, 162 and inverter 15, etc.) will be described later (Figures 3 to 6).
[0027] Such a control unit 18 is configured to include, for example, one or more processors (CPU: Central Processing Unit) that execute a program, and one or more memories that are communicatively connected to these processors. Such memories are composed of, for example, RAM (Random Access Memory) for temporarily storing processing data, and ROM (Read Only Memory) for storing programs.
[0028] [Action and function / effect] Next, the operation, function, and effects of this embodiment will be described in detail, in comparison with the comparative example.
[0029] (A. Comparative example) Figure 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration example of the electric vehicle (electric vehicle 101) etc. related to the comparative example described above. The electric vehicle 101 of this comparative example corresponds to the electric vehicle 1 of this embodiment shown in Figure 1, but with a control unit 108 instead of the control unit 18, and without the relay 162 and frequency conversion unit 17, while the other configurations are basically the same.
[0030] In this comparative example, the electric vehicle 101 is configured such that, according to various controls by the control unit 108, contactless charging is performed from the external equipment 9 to the battery 11 inside the electric vehicle 101, and power is supplied from the battery 11 to the external equipment 8.
[0031] Specifically, power is supplied to the external device 8 via the external equipment 9, through the frequency conversion unit 97, equipment-side coil 92, vehicle-side coil 12, rectifier 13, relay 161, battery 11, inverter 15, and power output terminal 14, along with contactless charging of the battery 11 (see path R101 in Figure 2).
[0032] However, when power is supplied to the external device 8 via such a path R101, the efficiency of power supply to the external device 8 decreases because it passes through the relay 161, battery 11, and inverter 15. As a result, in this comparative example, convenience may be compromised.
[0033] (B. This embodiment) In contrast, in the electric vehicle 1 of this embodiment, the operating states of relays 161, 162 and inverter 15 are controlled according to the aforementioned equipment power Pin, battery demand power Pb, and external device power Pout (according to the relative magnitudes of these powers). As a result, in this embodiment, the aforementioned contactless charging Rc and the first power supply Rs1 or second power supply Rs2 are performed, as will be described in detail below.
[0034] (Examples of processing for each action) In addition to Figure 1, Figures 3 to 6 will be used below to describe in detail the processing examples (control processing examples by the control unit 18, etc.) during each operation according to this embodiment (the contactless charging Rc, first power supply Rs1, and second power supply Rs2 described above).
[0035] Figure 3 is a table summarizing an example of the operating states according to this embodiment (operating states during each of the operations described above). Figures 4 to 6 are block diagrams representing examples of operating states in the three cases shown in Figure 3. In Figures 4 to 6, when the operation of the inverter 15 is stopped (the OFF state described below), the block of the inverter 15 is shown with a dashed line for convenience.
[0036] First, as shown in Figures 3 and 4, when the relationship (equipment power Pin > (external device power Pout + battery power Pb)) is satisfied (i.e., when equipment power Pin is greater than the sum of external device power Pout and battery power Pb), the control unit 18 performs the following control processing for each operating state. In this case, the control unit 18 sets relays 161 and 162 to the ON state (connected state) and sets inverter 15 to the OFF state (stopped state).
[0037] In this case, as shown in Figure 4, for example, contactless charging Rc is performed from the external equipment 9 via the charging path R0, and a second power supply Rs2 is performed from the external equipment 9 via the second power supply path R2. In other words, unlike the comparative example above, in this case, power is supplied to the external equipment 8 (second power supply Rs2) without going through the charging path R0, etc. (relay 161, battery 11, inverter 15).
[0038] Furthermore, as shown in Figures 3 and 5, when the relationship ((external device power Pout + battery required power Pb) > equipment power Pin > external device power Pout) is satisfied (i.e., the sum of external device power Pout and battery required power Pb is greater than equipment power Pin, and equipment power Pin is greater than external device power Pout), the control unit 18 performs the following control processing for each operating state. In this case, the control unit 18 sets relay 161 to the ON state, relay 162 to the OFF state (shut-off state), and inverter 15 to the ON state (operating state).
[0039] In this case, as shown in Figure 5, for example, contactless charging is performed to the battery 11, while the first power supply Rs1 is preferentially performed from the external equipment 9 via the charging path R0 and the first power supply path R1, respectively. In other words, in this case, the battery 11 is charged while power is supplied to the external equipment 8 via the battery 11 (first power supply Rs1), making it possible to supply the necessary power to the external equipment 8 (preferential power supply).
[0040] Furthermore, as shown in Figures 3 and 6, when the relationship (equipment power Pin < external device power Pout) is satisfied (i.e., equipment power Pin is less than external device power Pout), the control unit 18 performs the following control processing for each operating state. In this case, the control unit 18 sets relay 161 to the OFF state, relay 162 to the ON state, and inverter 15 to the OFF state (stopped state).
[0041] As a result, in this case, as shown in Figure 6, for example, contactless charging from the external equipment 9 via the charging path R0 is not performed, and a second power supply Rs2 is performed from the external equipment 9 via the second power supply path R2. In other words, in this case as well, unlike the comparative example above, power is supplied to the external equipment 8 (second power supply Rs2) without going through the charging path R0, etc. (relay 161, battery 11, inverter 15).
[0042] (C. Action / Effect) In this way, in the electric vehicle 1 of this embodiment, the operating states of relays 161, 162 and inverter 15 are controlled according to the equipment power Pin, battery power request Pb, and external equipment power Pout. As a result, the contactless charging Rc and the first power supply Rs1 or second power supply Rs2 described above are performed, respectively.
[0043] Therefore, in this embodiment, for example, as described above, the first power supply Rs1 is preferentially executed while contactless charging Rc is performed, or the second power supply Rs2 is performed without going through the charging path R0, etc., thereby improving the power supply efficiency to the external device 8. As a result, this embodiment makes it possible to improve convenience compared to the comparative example described above.
[0044] <2. Variant> Although the present disclosure has been described above with reference to embodiments, the present disclosure is not limited to these embodiments, and various modifications are possible.
[0045] For example, the configuration (type, shape, arrangement, number, etc.) of each component in the electric vehicle 1, etc., is not limited to those described in the above embodiment. That is, the configuration of each of these components may be of a different type, shape, arrangement, number, etc. Also, the values, ranges, magnitudes, etc. of the various parameters described in the above embodiment are not limited to those described in the above embodiment, and may be of a different value, range, magnitude, etc.
[0046] Furthermore, although the above embodiment specifically described examples of processing during charging and power supply operations (such as control processing examples by the control unit 18), it is not limited to these examples. That is, for example, other methods may be used to perform the processing during charging and power supply operations.
[0047] Furthermore, the series of processes described in the above embodiment may be performed by hardware (circuits) or by software (programs). If performed by software, the software consists of a group of programs that cause the computer to execute each function. Each program may, for example, be pre-installed in the computer or installed on the computer from a network or recording medium.
[0048] In addition, the various examples described so far may be applied in any combination.
[0049] Furthermore, the effects described herein are merely illustrative and not limiting, and other effects may also occur. [Explanation of Symbols]
[0050] 1...Electric vehicle, 10...Vehicle body, 11...Battery, 12...Vehicle-side coil, 13...Rectifier, 14...Power output terminal, 15...Inverter, 161,162...Relay, 17...Frequency conversion unit, 18...Control unit, 8...External equipment, 9...External facility, 92...Facility-side coil, 97...Frequency conversion unit, R0...Charging path, R1...First power supply path, R2...Second power supply path, R9...External cable, Rc...Contactless charging, Rs1...First power supply, Rs2...Second power supply, Pin...Facility power, Pout...External equipment power, Pb...Battery power requirement, G...Ground.
Claims
1. A charging system applicable to electric vehicles, A rectifier is positioned on the charging path between the coil and the battery in the electric vehicle, An inverter is positioned on a first power supply path between the battery and a power output terminal for supplying power stored in the battery to an external device. A first relay arranged on the charging path, A second relay is arranged on the second power supply path between the coil and the power output terminal, A control unit controls the following: contactless charging of the battery from an external device via the charging path, and a first power supply to the external device from the external device via the charging path and the first power supply path, respectively, or a second power supply to the external device from the external device via the second power supply path. Equipped with, The control unit, In accordance with the equipment power supplied from the external equipment to the coil, the battery power required by the battery, and the external equipment power required by the external device, The operating states of the first relay and the second relay are controlled, respectively. Vehicle charging system.
2. The control unit, If the equipment power is greater than the sum of the external equipment power and the battery power requirement, By setting the first relay and the second relay to the ON state, respectively, and stopping the operation of the inverter, Control the system so that the contactless charging is performed from the external equipment via the charging path, and the second power supply is performed from the external equipment via the second power supply path. The vehicle charging system according to claim 1.
3. The control unit, If the sum of the external device power and the battery power requirement is greater than the equipment power, and the equipment power is greater than the external device power, By setting the first relay to the ON state, setting the second relay to the OFF state, and operating the inverter, The system is controlled such that while contactless charging is performed from the external equipment via the charging path, the first power supply from the external equipment is given priority via both the charging path and the first power supply path. A vehicle charging system according to claim 1 or claim 2.
4. The control unit, If the power of the equipment is less than the power of the external equipment, By setting the first relay to the off state, setting the second relay to the on state, and stopping the operation of the inverter, Control such that contactless charging is not performed from the external equipment via the charging path, and the second power supply is performed from the external equipment via the second power supply path. A vehicle charging system according to claim 1 or claim 2.
5. Equipped with a vehicle charging system applicable to electric vehicles, The aforementioned vehicle charging system is A rectifier is positioned on the charging path between the coil and the battery in the electric vehicle, An inverter is positioned on a first power supply path between the battery and a power output terminal for supplying power stored in the battery to an external device. A first relay arranged on the charging path, A second relay is arranged on the second power supply path between the coil and the power output terminal, A control unit controls the following: contactless charging of the battery from an external device via the charging path, and a first power supply to the external device from the external device via the charging path and the first power supply path, respectively, or a second power supply to the external device from the external device via the second power supply path. It has, The control unit, In accordance with the equipment power supplied from the external equipment to the coil, the battery power required by the battery, and the external equipment power required by the external device, The operating states of the first relay and the second relay are controlled, respectively. Electric vehicle.