Rechargeable battery for electric powered vehicles and system for tracking operational and / or status data of said rechargeable battery

Abstract

A rechargeable battery (30) for electric vehicles (1) comprising: - a plurality of rechargeable cells (36) electrically connected to one another and housed in a container body (35); - a battery management system - BMS - (50) configured to control and monitor the state and / or operation of the rechargeable battery (30), wherein the BMS (50) comprises at least one circuit board (60) housed in the container body (35) and at least one data communication bus (51); characterized in that: - the rechargeable battery (30) comprises a hardware wallet (70), included in the BMS (50) or operatively connected to the BMS (50); - the hardware wallet (70) comprises a protected memory area (72) in which at least one key for recording transactions (201) on a distributed ledger (200) is stored; - the hardware wallet (70) is configured to acquire from the BMS (50), by means of the data communication bus (51), at least one piece of data of operation and / or state of the rechargeable battery (30); - the hardware wallet (70) is configured to transmit, outside the rechargeable battery (30), said at least one piece of data of operation and / or state and said at least one key, in order to record said at least one piece of data of operation and / or state in a transaction (201) in the distributed ledger (200).

Description

Rechargeable battery for electric traction vehicles and system for tracking pieces of data of operation and / or state of said rechargeable battery***TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of electric mobility, and in particular to a rechargeable battery for electric traction vehicles and a method for tracking pieces of data of operation and / or state of said battery.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] As known, for all electric traction vehicles, the constraint for the autonomy of rechargeable batteries provided on board such vehicles and the need to periodically recharge said batteries exist.

[0003] In an electric traction vehicle, one or more rechargeable batteries are operatively connected to the on board electric system of the vehicle and provide the electrical power required to power at least one electric traction motor, in addition to other electric or electronic components on board the vehicle which require the supply of electrical power for the operation thereof.

[0004] Generally, the rechargeable batteries of the electric traction vehicles can be recharged with electrical power provided by an electrical power distribution network or by a domestic power supply network. Charging times vary as a function of the capacity of the rechargeable battery and the power supplied by the power supply and the same rules apply for all lithium accumulators. With a power of 3 kW representing the operating range of many domestic users, the complete charging of an electric traction vehicle with a rechargeable lithium battery is completed in about eight hours.

[0005] Charging stations, installed in public places, are becoming more common, supplying electrical power for charging vehicles for micro-mobility. In such charging stations, vehicles can absorb useful energy in 15 minutes, to cover up to 5 km of road, to give an order of magnitude. The fact of knowing that charging stations are on hand can improve the practicality of movement and aid end users in the event of an emergency, also from a psychological point of view.

[0006] One alternative to end users periodically charging the rechargeable batteries by connecting to a power supply is to mechanically replace low batteries, at battery swapping stations. This solution, also referred to as “battery swapping” should ideally be completed generally quickly, e.g., comparable with the times of a traditional refueling carried out at a service station.

[0007] The rechargeable batteries used in the aforesaid replacement should belong to the service station or the operator or company owning the batteries, while the driver or owner ofthe electric vehicle is only a battery lender, or a policy should be drawn up for the battery exchange.

[0008] The exchange of the rechargeable battery thus provides the mechanical replacement and charging of the rechargeable battery and it is also referred to as mechanical refueling or mechanical charging. By providing battery swapping stations, it will be possible to combine the advantages both of slow charging and quick charging, i.e., charging the batteries of electric vehicles slowly during non-rush hour periods and supplying electric vehicles with charged batteries quickly, in a short space of time. By using robotic machines, the whole process of replacing the rechargeable battery can be completed in a few minutes and is directly comparable to the existing refueling mechanism for conventional fuel driven vehicles, or vehicles powered by specialized operators or with appropriate manual training on the vehicle.

[0009] However, in the case of the aforesaid advantages, it is believed that replacing rechargeable batteries at battery swapping stations can cause problems of a lack of trust in users of electric vehicles and thus of rechargeable batteries. For this reason, the need is felt to dynamically track, in a safe and invariable manner, the pieces of information of operation and / or state of the rechargeable batteries and make such pieces of information available to end users. Such pieces of information of operation and / or state, include, for example, information about the quality status of the rechargeable battery, which depends, for example, on the year of production, the number of charges carried out, and the conditions in which the battery was charged. Such pieces of information of operation and / or the state include, for example the state of charge of the rechargeable battery (designated with the acronym SoC) or the state of health of the rechargeable battery (designated with the acronym SoH).

[0010] It is a general object of the present invention to provide a solution which allows meeting the aforesaid need.

[0011] Such an object is achieved by a rechargeable battery as generally defined in claim 1 . Preferred and advantageous embodiments of the aforesaid rechargeable battery are defined in the appended dependent claims. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a tracking system for tracking pieces of data of operation and / or state of a rechargeable battery, as defined in the appended claim 12.

[0012] The invention will be better understood from the following detailed description of particular embodiments thereof, given by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying drawings briefly described in the following paragraph.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] In the accompanying drawings:Figure 1 is a side plan view of a non-limiting embodiment of an electric vehicle comprising a rechargeable battery and an electric traction motor;Figure 2 is a partial section view of the tail portion of the electric vehicle in figure 1 , showing the rechargeable battery;Figure 3 is a diagrammatic side view of the rechargeable battery;Figure 4 is a circuit block diagram of a part of the rechargeable battery;Figure 5 is a diagrammatic view of a tracking system for tracking the pieces of data of operation and / or state of at least one rechargeable battery.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014] The same or similar elements were indicated by the same reference signs in the accompanying drawings.

[0015] Figures 1 and 2 show an embodiment of an electric vehicle 1 , i.e., an electric traction vehicle 1 , which in the particular example shown, without introducing any limitations, is embodied by a rideable saddle vehicle. In the example, the rideable-saddle vehicle 1 is a two- wheel motorcycle, and in particular a two-wheel scooter, having a front wheel 6 and a rear wheel 7. In alternative embodiments, the electric vehicle 1 could be an automobile, a van, a minicar, a truck, a bus, etc. The electric vehicle 1 could further be a three-wheeled truck, or a rideable saddle motorcycle with two or three wheels.

[0016] From here on in the present description, without introducing any limitations, reference will be made to a general electric vehicle 1 , comprising at least one rechargeable battery 30 and an electric traction motor 8 powerable by said at least one rechargeable battery 30.

[0017] The electric vehicle 1 comprises:- a main body 2, 3, 4;- at least two wheels 6, 7 constrained to the main body 2, 3, 4;- an electric traction motor 8 connected to, or integrated into at least one of the two wheels 6, 7.

[0018] In the particular example shown in figure 1 , the electric vehicle 1 comprises, without introducing any limitations, an electric traction motor 8 connected directly or by means of a transmission system, to the rear wheel 7, which is thus a traction wheel.

[0019] The main body 2, 3, 4 of the motorcycle 1 has a front part 2, a tail part 4, and a central part 3 interposed between the front part 2 and the tail part 4.

[0020] For example, the central part 3 comprises a footboard 5. Preferably, the central part 3 comprises a central tunnel 15 projecting upwards from the footboard 5. In other words, the central tunnel 15 surmounts the footboard 5.

[0021] In the example, the front part 2 of the main body 2, 3, 4 comprises a front shield 12, a steering handlebar 9, the front wheel 6, a front suspension 11 .

[0022] In the example, the tail part 4 comprises a rideable saddle 40, a tail fairing 41 or tail chassis 41 , the rear wheel 7, the electric traction motor 8, a rear suspension 18.

[0023] With reference to figure 2, the electric vehicle 1 further comprises at least a rechargeable battery 30 and a housing seat 20 for the rechargeable battery 30 defined in the main body 2, 3, 4. The housing seat 20 is sized so as to contain completely or partially the rechargeable battery 30. The rechargeable battery 30 can be selectively removed from the housing seat 20 and inserted into the housing seat 20, thus the rechargeable battery 30 is removable.

[0024] In the example, the housing seat 20 of the rechargeable battery 30 is preferably defined in the tail part 4 of the electric vehicle 1 , so as to be arranged within the space defined by the tail fairing 41 or the tail chassis 41 , for example. The housing seat 20 preferably lies under the saddle 40 and in particular under a storage container 27 beneath the saddle 40.

[0025] With reference to figure 3, the housing seat 20 extends between an insertion or removal opening 21 a and an opposite bottom portion 21 b. The insertion or removal opening 21 a is crossable by the rechargeable battery 30 when inserting the rechargeable battery 30 into the housing seat 20 and when removing it from the housing seat 20. Preferably, the housing seat 20 is delimited by a side wall 22 and a bottom wall 23 connected to the side wall 22. For example, the side wall 22 is a tubular wall. The housing seat 20 preferably comprises guide means, e.g., guides which allow directing the insertion / removal of the rechargeable battery 30 into / from the housing seat 20. The user is thus assisted in placing the rechargeable battery 30 in the correct position in the housing seat 20. In detail, the housing seat 20 and / or the rechargeable battery 30 are conveniently shaped so as to avoid the rechargeable battery 30 from being mounted in an incorrect position or orientation. In particular, the housing seat 20 and the rechargeable battery 30 conveniently achieve a mutual shape coupling, defining a unique position between the housing seat 20 and the rechargeable battery 30 when the rechargeable battery is inserted into the housing seat 20.

[0026] Advantageously, the housing seat 20 is arranged beneath the rideable saddle 40. According to a preferred embodiment, the rideable saddle 40 is movable between a closing configuration, in which the rideable saddle 40 prevents the housing seat 20 from being accessed from the outside, and an opening configuration, in which the rideable saddle 40 allows the housing seat 20 to be accessed from the outside. In figure 1 the rideable saddle 40 is shown in the closing configuration, while in figure 2 it is shown in the opening configuration.

[0027] According to an advantageous embodiment, the rideable saddle 40 is rotatably hinged to the main body 2, 3, 4 of the electric vehicle 1 for being rotated about a rotation axis between two mutually angularly spaced apart positions, corresponding to the closing configuration and the opening configuration, respectively.

[0028] With reference to figure 3, the rechargeable battery 30 extends between a bottom portion 31 and a head portion 32. For example, the rechargeable battery 30 comprises a container body 35 made of an electrically insulating material, accommodating a plurality ofrechargeable cells 36 therein. The bottom portion 31 is a first end portion of the container body 35, and the head portion 32 is a second end portion of the container body 35 opposite to the first end portion. For example, the container body 35 of the rechargeable battery 30 is prismatic in shape, e.g., it has a general polygonal shape, in particular a parallelepiped shape, for example a straight parallelepiped shape.

[0029] According to an advantageous embodiment, the container body 35 contains antitampering means 37, e.g., closing means, preventing the unauthorized opening of the container body 35. If said anti-tampering means 37 are forced by unauthorized personnel, they make it impossible to access the inside of the container body 35 or they cause irreversible damage to the rechargeable battery 30. For example, said anti-tampering means 37 comprise closing means, such as special screws and / or thermosetting resins and / or a key lock and / or snap coupling elements or interlocking elements which, when mutually engaged, make it impossible to open the container body 35 or only possible using at least one special and / or proprietary tool. For example, said anti-tampering means 37 allow fastening a lid 38 of the container body 35 to a remaining portion of the container body 35 so as to prevent the unauthorized opening or removal of the lid 38.

[0030] The rechargeable battery 30 conveniently comprises a gripping handle 33 preferably included in, or secured to, the head portion 32. Preferably, the gripping handle 33 protrudes from the head portion 32 of the rechargeable battery 30 and more preferably it is C-shaped, with two supporting side arms and a central gripping part, e.g., an ergonomic grip interposed between the two side arms. For example, the two side arms are mutually inclined and the central part is cylindrical in shape.

[0031] Preferably, the rechargeable battery 30 is slidingly insertable into, and slidingly removable from the housing seat 20 by translation along a sliding axis Z.

[0032] The rechargeable battery 30 comprises at least one electric connection terminal 34 adapted to be coupled, e.g., by engagement, to at least one electrical cable (not shown in the figures) for connecting the rechargeable battery 30 to the onboard electric system of the electric vehicle 1. For example, the electric connection terminal 34 is configured to be operatively coupled to a complementary terminal arranged at an end portion of the aforesaid electrical cable. For example, the on-board electrical system of the electric vehicle 1 comprises an engine control unit (ECU) which allows controlling the operation of the electric traction motor 8, e.g., to power the motor 8 so that it can deliver a driving torque. The electrical power required to power the electric motor 8 is provided by the rechargeable battery 30 by means of the aforesaid electrical cable. According to an embodiment, the electric connection terminal 34 also allows electrically connecting the rechargeable battery 30 to a charging station 100 (Fig. 5), so that the rechargeable battery 30 can be recharged.

[0033] In the example, the electric connection terminal 34 is arranged on the head portion 32 of the rechargeable battery 30. In an alternative embodiment, the electric connection terminal 34 could be arranged elsewhere, e.g., on the bottom portion 31 .

[0034] With reference to figures 3 and 4, the rechargeable battery 30 comprises a battery management system 50, the English acronym of which is BMS. As known, a BMS 50 is an electronic system configured to monitor the state of charge of a rechargeable battery 30 and manage the recharging thereof. The BMS 50 is advantageously housed in the container body 35 of the rechargeable battery 30.

[0035] The BMS 50 is preferably configured to carry out one or more of the functionalities listed below:- controlling the balancing of the rechargeable battery 30: when any rechargeable cell 36 exceeds the initial balancing voltage, the BMS 50 redistributes the excess charge among the various rechargeable cells 36 (active balancing) or using special resistances (passive balancing);- estimating the state of the rechargeable battery 30: the state of charge (SoC) and the state of health (SoH) of the rechargeable battery 30, e.g., based on current and voltage values.- detecting possible malfunctioning: measuring the voltage to verify possible charging or discharging overloads; measuring resistance to detect faults in connections; monitoring the temperature; real-time diagnosis of loss in insulation of the rechargeable battery 30.

[0036] The BMS 50 comprises at least one circuit board, 60, e.g., at least one printed circuit board 60. Advantageously, the circuit board 60 is arranged inside the container body 35 of the rechargeable battery 30.

[0037] The BMS 50 further comprises a data communication bus 51 , which is preferably a CAN bus. The data communication bus 51 allows the BMS 50 to monitor and control the charge, discharge and temperature of the rechargeable battery 30. The data communication bus 51 allows a communication between the different components of the BMS 50 and with external devices, such as inverters or charging stations 100, and / or with the onboard electric system of the electric vehicle 1 , e.g., with the ECU of the electric vehicle 1 . For communication with the external devices, the data communication bus 51 is connected to the electric connection terminal 34, which, in this case, is thus also a data connection terminal, or to a special further connection terminal provided in the rechargeable battery 30.

[0038] The BMS 50 comprises an electronic control module 52, comprising, for example a microcontroller or a single board computer or a SoC (System on Chip), which is operatively connected to and / or comprises a memory unit 53. The electronic control module 52 is connected to the data communication bus 51 , in order to transmit or receive pieces of data on the data communication bus 51 . The BMS 50 is configured to acquire and / or calculate pieces of data of operation and / or the state of the rechargeable battery 30. Said pieces of data ofoperation and / or the state is, for example data acquired and / or calculated by means of measurements and / or estimates. More briefly, reference will be made to the pieces of data of operation and / or the state of the rechargeable battery, for the sake of brevity using the expression “battery data”. Conveniently, once the battery data has been acquired and / or calculated by the BMS 50, e.g., by the electronic control module 52, such pieces of data are stored in the memory unit 53 and / or transmitted on the data communication bus 51 .

[0039] The BMS 50 further comprises an electric connection interface 54, configured to electrically connect the BMS 50 to the plurality of rechargeable cells 36. The BMS 50 can thus receive the electrical power required for the operation thereof from the plurality of rechargeable cells 36 and it can also monitor, by means of the electronic control module, 52, the state and / or operation of the plurality of rechargeable cells 36, e.g., by monitoring current and / or voltage values of the plurality of rechargeable cells 36. Furthermore, by means of the electric connection interface 54, the BMS 50 can be connected to one or more sensors integrated into the plurality of rechargeable cells 36, e.g., to at least one temperature sensor.

[0040] According to an embodiment, all the aforesaid components of the BMS 50 are integrated on the at least one circuit board 60.

[0041] The rechargeable battery 30 comprises a hardware wallet 70, included or integrated into the BMS 50, or operatively connected to the BMS 50. In the embodiment shown in figure 4, the hardware wallet 70 is operatively connected to the BMS 50 by means of a data communication interface 71 , preferably included in the hardware wallet 70, operatively connected to the data communication bus 51. In an alternative embodiment, the hardware wallet 70 is integrated into the BMS 50. Advantageously, the data communication interface 71 is a CAN BUS interface. Note that in the embodiment shown in figure 4 the hardware wallet 70 is integrated into the same circuit board 60 in which the BMS 50 is integrated, but in an alternative embodiment, the hardware wallet 70 could be integrated into a special circuit board.

[0042] The hardware wallet 70 comprises a protected memory area 72, in which at least one key for performing, in particular requesting, transactions on a distributed ledger 200 is stored. Advantageously, the aforesaid key is a private cryptographic key. Advantageously, said at least one private cryptographic key is a seed for accessing the distributed ledger 200 and authorizing transactions on the distributed ledger 200. In particular, said seed is a sequence of alphanumerical characters, conveniently relatively long or very long, which serves as a main private key to generate all the other public and private keys required to access the distributed ledger 200 and authorize transactions on the distributed ledger 200. According to an advantageous embodiment, the hardware wallet 70 comprises a processing unit 73 configured to safely manage access to the protected memory area 72, i.e., to prevent unauthorized access to such a memory area 72. The processing unit 73 comprises a microcontroller, for example.Conveniently, the processing unit 73 is operatively connected to the data communication bus 51 of the BMS 50, e.g., by means of the data communication interface 71 .

[0043] The hardware wallet 70 is configured to acquire, from the BMS 50, by means of the data communication bus 51 , at least one piece of data of operation and / or state of the rechargeable battery 30. i.e., at least one piece of battery data. Said piece of data of operation and / or state comprises, for example one or more of the pieces of data on the following list:- SoC (State of Charge) of the rechargeable battery 30;- SoH (State of Health) of the rechargeable battery 30;- A piece of data related to an operating state, in which charging was carried out, such as, for example the average or maximum temperature reached by the rechargeable battery 30 while charging, or the voltage and / or current value supplied by a charging station 100 to the rechargeable battery 30;- A piece of data indicative of successful charging or indicative of a malfunctioning or problem detected while charging.

[0044] It is the processing unit 73, for example, which is configured to acquire, from the BMS 50, by means of the data communication bus 51 , said at least one piece of data of operation and / or state of the rechargeable battery 30.

[0045] The hardware wallet 70 is configured to transmit outside the rechargeable battery 30 said at least one piece of data of operation and state and said at least one key, in order to record said at least one piece of data of operation and state in a transaction 200 on said distributed ledger 200. “Transmitting outside the rechargeable battery 30” is understood to mean transmitting a piece of battery data to a data processing unit outside the rechargeable battery 30. For example, without introducing any limitations, the aforesaid external data processing unit is a node of the distributed ledger 200 and / or a data processing unit 104 of a charging station 100 (Figure 5) of the rechargeable battery 30 and / or any data processing unit outside the rechargeable battery 30 and interposed between the rechargeable battery 30 and the distributed ledger 200.

[0046] According to an advantageous embodiment, the hardware wallet 70 is configured to perform the aforesaid transmission at the start and / or during and / or at the end of a recharging of the rechargeable battery 30. According to an advantageous embodiment, the BMS 50 communicates to the hardware wallet 70 when it starts and / or finishes an operation of charging the rechargeable battery 30, so that the hardware wallet 70 can start or schedule the above transmission.

[0047] According to an embodiment, the rechargeable battery 30 comprises a short-range radio communication interface 74 operatively connected to the hardware wallet 70 or integrated into the hardware wallet 70. The hardware wallet 70 is configured to transmit said at least one piece of data of operation and / or state and said key through the short-range radiocommunication interface 74. For example, the aforesaid short-range radio communication interface 74 is a Bluetooth or BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) interface. In an embodiment variant, the aforesaid short-range communication interface 74 is an NFC or RF-ID interface.

[0048] According to an embodiment, the short-range radio communication interface 74 is operatively connected to the processing unit 73 to be controlled by the processing unit 73 in order to transmit battery data outside the rechargeable battery 30.

[0049] Thus, we can see that, by virtue of the provision of a hardware wallet 70 in the rechargeable battery 30, operatively connected to the BMS 50, or included or integrated into the BMS 50, and inside which a key is stored for carrying out, in particular, requesting, transactions on a distributed ledger 200, it is safely and invariably possible to record or track pieces of information in the distributed ledger 200 on the state and / or operation of the rechargeable battery 30. This information is acquired and supplied to the hardware wallet 70 by the same BMS 50 of the rechargeable battery 30. Consequently, users of rechargeable batteries 30 can reliably and transparently access important information on the state and operation of the rechargeable batteries 30. This contributes to users placing greater trust in the charging systems based on the swapping of low batteries with charged batteries. Furthermore, also operators of charging systems and owners of rechargeable batteries 30 can easily obtain precise and reliable information regarding the state and / or operation of the rechargeable batteries 30.

[0050] A distributed ledger 200 is a replicated electronic register, shared and synchronized among several subjects, spatially distributed on several sites, countries or institutions. Unlike a centralized database, a distributed register does not require a central administrator and consequently, does not have a single point of failure (central). The features of a distributed ledger are: digitalization of the data, decentralization, disintermediation, traceability of transfers, transparency / verifiability, immutability of the register or programmability of transfers. By virtue of such features, a distributed register is thus considered an alternative in terms of safety, reliability, transparency and costs to the data banks and registers managed centrally by recognized and regulated authorities (public administrations, banks, insurance, insurance companies, payment intermediaries, etc.).

[0051] According to an embodiment, the above distributed ledger 200 is a blockchain. A blockchain is a data structure consisting of increasing lists of records, referred to as “blocks", safely connected to one another using encryption. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp and transaction data. As each block contains information about the previous block, they basically form a chain with each additional block connected to the previous ones. Consequently, the blockchain transactions are irreversible because once they have been recorded, the data in a particular block cannot be retroactively changed without altering all the successive blocks.

[0052] According to a particularly advantageous embodiment, the aforesaid distributed ledger 200 is IOTA. IOTA is the first open-source distributed ledger built to provide the future of the Internet of things (loT) with the aim of allowing interconnected calculation devices to carry out transactions autonomously, in a safe and trustworthy environment, without commission and without requiring human interaction. IOTA is also the name of the cryptocurrency used in the distributed ledger IOTA. According to a particularly advantageous embodiment, said at least one key stored in the hardware wallet 70 is a seed for accessing the distributed ledger IOTA 200 and authorizing transactions on the distributed ledger IOTA 200. In particular, said seed is a sequence of alphanumerical characters, conveniently relatively long or very long, which serves as a main private key to generate all the other public and private keys required to access the distributed ledger 200 and authorize transactions on the distributed ledger 200. Basically, the seed is a main private encryption key from which all the other keys originate. Instead, the private keys are the keys used to sign the transactions and authorize the sending of funds to the IOTA network. Private keys are generated from the seed and are used to ensure safe transactions.

[0053] The data structure at the base of IOTA is referred to as Tangle and is a direct acyclic graph (DAG). Tangle was developed as an alternative and evolution of the normal blockchain architecture, that the founders of IOTA believe does not meet the requirements of scalability, speed and costs of the growing number of devices forming the Internet of things.

[0054] With Tangle, each transaction, in order to be entered correctly, must validate two previous transactions, which have not yet been validated. In fact, this eliminates the difference between users and miners, present with the blockchain, because validation is not based on competition between nodes, but it is carried out in a distributed and uniform manner by all network participants. This leads to two particularly significant results. Firstly, in theory, IOTA is infinitely scalable, because as the number of transactions increases, the number of transactions validated increases (each new transaction validates two previous ones). Whereas, in the blockchain, the insertion, at a constant speed, of a block in the blockchain, on average every ten minutes, is a bottleneck for network performances. Secondly, fees have not been introduced for the transactions, as every node takes part in the network in the same manner, without competition, and thus, in order to maintain a node, it is not necessary to invest in increasingly expensive hardware (as is the case instead for blockchain mining).

[0055] Now, with reference to figure 5, a non-limiting embodiment of a system 400 is diagrammatically shown, for tracking pieces of data of operation and / or state of at least one rechargeable battery 30, also referred to in short as tracking system 400.

[0056] The tracking system 400 comprises at least one charging station 100, configured to charge at least one rechargeable battery 30 of the type described above. Conveniently, thecharging station 100 is configured to simultaneously charge a plurality of rechargeable batteries 30 of the above type.

[0057] The charging station 100 comprises a container body 101 , such as, for example a cabinet, having at least one housing and / or support seat 103 configured to house and / or support a respective rechargeable battery 30. Conveniently, the charging station 100 comprises a plurality of housing and / or support seats 103 each of which is configured to house and / or support a respective rechargeable battery 30.

[0058] When a low rechargeable battery 30 is placed in a seat 103, the rechargeable battery 30 is operatively connected to electric charging means (not shown in the figures) provided in the charging station 100 and can thus be recharged.

[0059] The charging station 100 is configured to receive pieces of data of operation and / or state and said key from said at least one rechargeable battery 30 and transmit said data through a telecommunications network 150 in order to record said pieces of data of operation and / or state in at least one transaction 201 on the distributed ledger 200.

[0060] For example, the charging station 100 comprises a data processing unit 104 and a network communication interface 105 connected to the data processing unit 104. For example, the network communication interface 105 allows connecting the charging station 100, and, in particular the data processing unit 104, to at least one telecommunications network 150, e.g., a wired or radio network or a mixed network, both wired and radio.

[0061] By means of the telecommunications network 150, the charging station 100 is configured to access the distributed ledger 200, which is advantageously IOTA, conveniently using the Internet. The pieces of data of operation and / or state (and the keys) transmitted by the hardware wallets 70 outside the rechargeable batteries 30 can thus be received by the charging station 100 and, by virtue of the keys, the aforesaid data can be stored in transactions 201 of the distributed ledger 200. For example, the charging station 100 comprises a short- range radio communication interface 106 configured to be operatively connected to the short- range radio communication interface 74 of the hardware wallets 70 of the rechargeable batteries 30 to receive the battery data (and keys) transmitted by the hardware wallets 70. The short-range radio communication interface 106 is conveniently operatively connected to the data processing unit 104 of the charging station 100 which deals with managing access to the distributed ledger 200 in order to generate the transactions which allow storing the battery data of the rechargeable batteries 30, subjected to charging, in the distributed ledger 200. The short- range radio communication interface 106 of the charging station is preferably a Bluetooth or BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) interface. In an embodiment variant, the aforesaid short-range radio communication interface 106 is an NFC or RF-ID interface.

[0062] Advantageously, the tracking system 400 comprises an application program (APR) installed or installable on a personal mobile communication device 300, such as, for examplea smartphone or a tablet-pc, and / or it comprises a web portal accessible through the Internet. When the pieces of information of operation and / or state of a rechargeable battery 30 have been recorded in a transaction on the distributed ledger 200, users can consult it by means of said one application program (APP) or by means of said web portal accessible through the Internet. In order to consult pieces of data of operation and / or state of a specific rechargeable battery 30, a user can use, for example, a unique identification code of the battery (e.g., the serial number) and / or put the hardware wallet 70 in communication with a personal mobile communication device 300, for example by means of a short-range radio communication interface 74 of the hardware wallet 70.

[0063] Based on the above explanation, it is thus possible to understand how a rechargeable battery 30 of the type described above allows achieving the objects set out above with reference to the prior art.

[0064] Without prejudice to the principle of the invention, the embodiments and constructional details may be widely varied with respect to the above description, merely disclosed by way of non-limiting example, without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

CLAIMS1 . A rechargeable battery (30) for electric vehicles (1 ) comprising:- a plurality of rechargeable cells (36) electrically connected to one another and housed in a container body (35);- a battery management system - BMS - (50) configured to control and monitor the state and / or operation of the rechargeable battery (30), wherein the BMS (50) comprises at least one circuit board (60) housed in the container body (35) and at least one data communication bus (51 ); characterized in that:- the rechargeable battery (30) comprises a hardware wallet (70), included in the BMS (50) or operatively connected to the BMS (50);- the hardware wallet (70) comprises a protected memory area (72) in which at least one key for recording transactions (201 ) on a distributed ledger (200) is stored;- the hardware wallet (70) is configured to acquire from the BMS (50), by means of the data communication bus (51 ), at least one piece of data of operation and / or state of the rechargeable battery (30);- the hardware wallet (70) is configured to transmit, outside the rechargeable battery (30), said at least one piece of data of operation and / or state and said at least one key, in order to record said at least one piece of data of operation and / or state in a transaction (201 ) in the distributed ledger (200).

2. A rechargeable battery (30) for electric vehicles (1 ) according to claim 1 , wherein the hardware wallet (70) is integrated into said circuit board (60).

3. A rechargeable battery (30) for electric vehicles (1 ) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the data communication bus (51 ) is a CAN BUS.

4. A rechargeable battery (30) for electric vehicles according to claim 3, wherein the hardware wallet (70) comprises a CAN BUS data communication interface (71 ) operatively connected to the data communication bus (51 ).

5. A rechargeable battery (30) for electric vehicles (1 ) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the distributed ledger (200) is IOTA.

6. A rechargeable battery (30) for electric vehicles (1 ) according to any one of the preceding claims, comprising a short-range data communication interface (73) operatively connected to the hardware wallet (70) or integrated into the hardware wallet (70), and wherein the hardware wallet (70) is configured to transmit said at least one piece of data of operation and / or state and said key through the short-range data communication interface (73).

7. A rechargeable battery (30) for electric vehicles (1 ) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said piece of data of operation and / or state comprises, for example, one or more of the pieces of data of the following list:- SoC (State of Charge) of the rechargeable battery (30);- SoH (State of Health) of the rechargeable battery (30);- A piece of data correlated with an operating condition, in which the rechargeable battery (30) has been charged;- A piece of data indicative of successful charging or indicative of a malfunctioning or problem detected while charging.

8. A rechargeable battery (30) for electric vehicles (1 ) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the hardware wallet (70) is configured to carry out the aforesaid transmission at the start and / or during and / or at the end of a charging of the rechargeable battery (30).

9. A rechargeable battery (30) for electric vehicles according to claim 8, wherein the BMS (50) is configured to communicate to the hardware wallet (70) when an operation of charging the rechargeable battery (30) starts and / or when it ends, so that the hardware wallet (70) can initiate or schedule the transmission of said at least one piece of data of operation and / or state.

10. A rechargeable battery (30) for electric vehicles (1 ) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the container body (35) is provided with anti-tampering means (37), such as closing means which prevent an unauthorized opening of the container body (35).1 1 . An electric traction vehicle (1 ) comprising a rechargeable battery (30) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said vehicle (1 ) is a rideable saddle motorcycle with two or three wheels.

12. A tracking system (400) for tracking the pieces of data of operation and / or state of at least one rechargeable battery (30), wherein said tracking system (400) comprises:- at least one rechargeable battery (30) according to any one of claims 1 to 10;- at least one charging station (100) configured to charge said rechargeable battery(30) and receive said pieces of data of operation and / or state and said key from said rechargeable battery (30) and transmit said data through a telecommunications network (150) in order to record said pieces of data of operation and / or state in at least one transaction (201 ) on said distributed ledger (200).

13. A tracking system (400) according to claim 12, comprising:- an application program installed or installable on a personal communication mobile device (300); and / or- a web portal accessible through the Internet;and wherein said application program and / or said web portal are configured to allow a user to access said distributed ledger (200) to consult pieces of data of operation and / or state of said at least one rechargeable battery (30).

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