GB2540174A

GB2540174A - A vehicle having a charging system

Info

Publication number: GB2540174A
Application number: GB1511948.0A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Hamilton Niall; John Murray Andrew
Original assignee: Ford Global Technologies LLC
Current assignee: Ford Global Technologies LLC
Priority date: 2015-07-08
Filing date: 2015-07-08
Publication date: 2017-01-11
Also published as: GB201511948D0

Abstract

An electric vehicle (plug-in hybrid, EV, PEV, PHEV), 10, has a number of centrally lockable passenger doors (car doors, vehicle doors), 11, 13, and a charge port (socket, outlet, inlet), 20, for recharging the vehicles battery, 32. The charge port locks a charging plug, 24, in place while charging the battery. The charge port has a charge port door (flap, cover, lid), 22, which is also lockable. When the passenger doors are locked, the unlocking of the charging plug or the charge port door will not result in the unlocking of the passenger doors. A second inventive concept includes the features of checking whether an authorised user/driver is present (proximity sensing) and whether a touch sensitive device (button) associated with the charge port door has been touched before unlocking the charge port door. The unlocking of the charge port door does not change the locking state of the passenger doors. The lock mechanism may be biased to return to a normally locked state.

Description

A Vehicle having a Charging System

This invention relates to the charging of an electric vehicle and in particular to the selective securing of apparatus used to facilitate charging.

There is an increasing use of road vehicles using electric power as a source of motive power.

The use of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and full electric vehicles (EVs) is becoming more commonplace and such vehicles have a significant effect on reducing emissions . PHEVs are powered by an internal combustion engine that can run on conventional or alternative fuel and an electric motor that uses energy stored in a battery. A PHEV is primarily charged by plugging in to an electric power source to charge a battery used to power the electric motor. EVs use a battery to store the electric energy that powers the motor. EV batteries are also primarily charged by plugging the vehicle into an electric power source.

Therefore there is an increasing need for drivers to charge their full electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) in public such as at a public charging station or on a residential driveway.

Public charging stations make all-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles more convenient because they increase the daily useful range of EVs and reduce the amount of fuel consumed by PHEVs.

Public charging stations will in future be increasingly provided at locations where vehicles are parked for long periods of time, such as, shopping centers, car parks, airports, hotels, government offices and other businesses.

However, to facilitate the use of such public charging standards the equipment provided on a PHEV or EV for use in charging the battery must match the output and connections provided by the public charging station.

So far as North America is concerned SAE standard J1772 provides recommended practice covering the general physical, electrical, functional and performance requirements to facilitate charging of EV/PHEV vehicles including the functional and dimensional requirements for the vehicle electrical inlet and mating connector hereinafter referred to as a 'charge-port' and a 'charging plug'. It will be appreciated that equivalent standards apply in other parts of the world.

For aesthetics and security, the charge-port is normally concealed behind a door referred to as a 'charge-port door' and on many PHEVs or EVs the locking of the charge-port door is linked to a central door locking system. Such an arrangement ensures that the charge-port door (or in some cases the charging plug) is locked whenever the vehicle is locked.

However, such an arrangement is not always convenient and a user may want to connect or disconnect their vehicle without necessarily unlocking the vehicle. For example, a user may wish to free up the charging cord for another user or when plugging in the charging cord some time after their last journey having previously forgotten to do so.

Currently, unlocking the charge-port door may mean first walking up to a designated door such as a driver's door and potentially opening it to initiate vehicle unlocking. Alternatively, the user may need to use a key fob to remotely unlock all the passenger doors of the vehicle in order to unlock the charge-port door. In both cases the user must remember to lock the vehicle again afterwards .

It is an object of this invention to provide a vehicle with a system in which unlocking of a charge-port door is facilitated without the need to unlock other doors of the motor vehicle.

According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a motor vehicle having an electronic controller, a number of centrally lockable passenger doors, a battery for providing a source of motive power to the vehicle, a charge-port for use in recharging the battery by connection to a charging station via a charging plug, a locking mechanism to selectively lock the charging plug in engagement with the charge-port and a charge-port door to cover the charge-port when the charge-port is not in use wherein, when the passenger doors are in a locked state, unlocking of one of the charge-port door and the charging plug will not result in unlocking of the passenger doors of the motor vehicle.

The vehicle may include an electronically releasable locking mechanism controlled by the electronic controller for releasing the charge-port door from a closed, locked position.

The locking mechanism for the charging plug may be formed as part of the electronically releasable locking mechanism.

The electronically releasable locking mechanism may be biased into a normally locked state and may be released in response to an unlock signal from the electronic controller.

The electronic controller may be arranged to release the charge-port door when a touch sensitive device has been touched and a proximity sensor indicates the presence of an authorised user.

According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a method of controlling the locking and unlocking of a charge-port door of a motor vehicle having a number of centrally lockable passenger doors wherein the method comprises checking whether a touch sensitive device associated with the charge-port door has been touched and, if the touch sensitive device has been touched and an authorised user is sensed to be present, unlocking the charge-port door without causing a change of locking state of the passenger doors.

When the passenger doors of the vehicle are in a locked state, the method may further comprise unlocking the charge-port door without unlocking the passenger doors of the vehicle .

When a charging plug is engaged with a charge-port of the vehicle, the method may further comprise checking whether a touch sensitive device associated with the charging plug has been touched and, if the touch sensitive device has been touched and an authorised user is sensed to be present, unlocking the charging plug to allow it to be removed from engagement with the charge-port without causing a change of locking state of the passenger doors.

The motor vehicle may further comprise a lockable trunk lid and the method may further comprise unlocking the charge-port door without causing a change of locking state of the lockable trunk lid.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing of which:-

Fig.l is a pictorial representation of a plug-in motor vehicle constructed in accordance with this invention showing the vehicle co-operating with a charging station;

Fig.2 is a front view of a charge-port door forming part of the vehicle shown in Fig.l;

Fig.3 is a schematic diagram of an electronic security system forming part of the vehicle shown in Fig.l;

Fig.4 is a first alternative arrangement of a charge-port door to the arrangement shown in Fig.2;

Fig.5 is a second alternative arrangement of a charge-port door to the arrangement shown in Fig.2; and

Figs.6a to 6c show the vehicle of Fig.l in three locking states.

With reference to Fig.l there is shown a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) 10 having in this case two front doors 11 and two rear doors 13 of which only the left hand side doors are visible.

The vehicle 10 has a re-fuelling port 12 located on a rear exterior body panel of the vehicle 10 for filling the vehicle 10 with inflammable fuel. The refuelling port 12 is fitted with a fuel door 14 that is moveable between an open condition (shown) which allows access to a fuel filler pipe and a closed condition (not shown) that blocks access to the fuel filler pipe. A re-fuelling nozzle 16 is shown inserted into the re-fuelling port 12 as it would be when refuelling of the vehicle is underway.

The vehicle 10 further comprise a charge-port 20 located on a front exterior body panel of the vehicle 10 and a charge-port door 22 that is moveable between an open condition (shown) and a closed condition (not shown).

It will be appreciated that in practice re-fuelling and charging of the vehicle 10 would not be occurring at the same time. A charging plug 24 shown connected via a charging cord 26 with a charging station 28. The charging station may be of the type generically known in the industry as electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) which complies with industry standards appertaining to the supply of electrical energy from a mains electricity source for the purpose of charging road vehicle batteries.

As is well known in the art, when the charging station 28 and the vehicle 10 are connected with one another, the charging station 28 monitors and/or communicates with the electrical system of the vehicle 10 in order to ensure that the charging electricity supplied to the vehicle 10 is of the appropriate voltage and amperage.

An on-board charger (OBC) 30 and a high voltage battery 32 are in electrical connection with the charge-port 20.

The high voltage battery 32, as is well known in the electric vehicle field, is used to power an electric motor (not shown) for providing motive power for the vehicle 10 and/or other vehicle electrical systems on the vehicle 10. The OBC 30 is arranged to monitor and manage the charging and state of charge of the battery 32.

The charge-port door 22 is hingedly connected to part of the body structure of the motor vehicle 10 by in this case a hinge 25 shown in dotted outline on Fig.2. A locking member 17 is mounted on an inner face of the charge-port door 22 for co-operation with a locking mechanism (not shown) mounted on the body of the vehicle 10. The locking mechanism includes an electronically controlled actuator 56a for selectively releasing the charge-port door 22 from a locked, closed position. As shown in Fig.2 a touch sensitive device in the form of a touch sensitive pad 23 is located on an outer surface of the charge-port door 22.

The locking mechanism used to lock the charge-port door 22 has a locking member biased by spring means (not shown) into a locking position. When the locking member 17 mounted on the inner face of the charge-port door 22 is engaged with the locking member of the locking mechanism it is automatically latched by the locking mechanism thereby locking the charge-port door 22 in a closed position. The action of the electronically controlled actuator 56a is to temporarily release the locking mechanism by moving the spring biased locking member out of engagement with the locking member 17 on the charge-port door 22. After a short time delay the spring biased locking member will move back to its locking position but if the charge-port door 22 has been opened it can no longer engage with the locking member 17 on the charge-port door 22.

As previously mentioned the vehicle 10 has four doors 11, 13 each of these doors 11, 13 has a door handle 33, 34 associated with it. Only a front left hand side door handle 33 and a rear left hand side door handle 34 are visible in Fig.l but there are corresponding front and rear door handles 33, 34 on the right hand side of the vehicle 10.

An electronically controlled central locking system is fitted to the vehicle 10 and is shown schematically in Fig.3.

The electronically controlled central locking system comprises a data bus 50 that operatively connects a number of sensors 51s, 51S; 52s, 52S and 56s, 56S to an electronic controller 58. The electronic controller 58 is also connected via the data bus 50 to a number of electronically controlled actuators 51a, 52a, 53, 54, 55, 56a, 57 and to a transceiver 61. A remote device in the form of a key-fob 60 is used to communicate at short range with the transceiver 61 in order to lock and unlock all of the passenger doors 11, 13 of the vehicle 10. The key-fob 60 in this case also includes a proximity function as will be described hereinafter.

The front left and right hand side door handles 33 both include a touch sensitive device in the form of a sensor 51S, 52S for permitting the vehicle 10 to be unlocked. Such touch sensitive devices are known from, for example,

European Patent Publication EP-A-1103432 and US Patent 6,891,312 . A proximity sensor 51s, 52s is also included either in the handle 33 or within the associated door for sensing the presence of an identity device that in this case is included in the key-fob 60.

All four doors 33, 34 of the vehicle include a respective electronically controlled door lock actuator 51s, 52s, 53 and 54 that is controllable by the electronic controller 58 to effect locking and unlocking of the respective door 33, 34. A trunk lid or boot lid 9 of the vehicle 10 also includes an electronically controlled actuator 57 that is controllable by the electronic controller 58 to effect locking and unlocking of the trunk lid 9.

The touch sensitive pad 23 forming of a touch sensor 56S is used to provide an indication to the electronic controller 68 when a user wishes to unlock the charge-port door 22. A proximity sensor 56s such as, for example and without limitation, a keyless entry antenna, is also provided for the charge-port door 22 to sense whether a correctly authorised user is in close proximity to the charge-port door 22.

Upon touching the touch sensitive area 23 of the charge-port door 22 the electronically controlled actuator 56a of the charge-port door 22 will under the control of the electronic controller 58 unlock the charge-port door 22 independently of the rest of the vehicle 10 provided an authorised user is sensed to be close by.

The construction of the touch sensor 56S and the proximity sensor 56s are similar to such devices used on door handles used for key-less entry systems.

Operation of the electronic locking system will now be described with reference to Figs.6a to 6c.

To lock all of the doors 33, 34 of the vehicle 10 and the trunk lid 9 a user of the vehicle 10 presses a button on the key-fob 60 which transmits a locking signal to the transceiver 61 as is well known in the art. The locking signal from the key-fob 60 is transmitted via the data bus 50 to the electronic controller 58. In response to the receipt of this signal, the electronic controller 58 is arranged to send via the data bus 50 locking signals to the electronically controlled actuators 51a, 52a, 53, 54 and 57 which respond by placing associated mechanical locks into a locked state thereby locking all the passenger doors 11, 13 and the trunk lid 9 of the vehicle 10.

The vehicle 10 is shown in Fig.6a in a fully locked state in which all of the doors 11, 13 and the trunk lid 9 are locked, the charge-port door 22 is locked and the fuel door 14 is locked.

Remote unlocking of the doors 33, 34 of the vehicle 10 and the trunk lid 9 can be achieved by using the key-fob 60 to transmit an unlock signal to the transceiver 61 as is well known in the art. The unlock signal from the key-fob 61 is transmitted via the data bus 50 to the electronic controller 58. In response to the receipt of this signal, the electronic controller 58 is arranged to send via the data bus 50 unlock signals to the electronically controlled actuators 51a, 52a, 53, 54 and 57 which respond by placing the associated mechanical locks of the passenger doors 11, 13 and the trunk lid 9 into an unlocked state. The fuel door 14 is in this case also unlocked when the doors 33, 34 are unlocked.

The fuel door 22 in the case of this embodiment remains locked when the passenger doors 11, 13 are unlocked but this need not be the case.

In addition to the remote access mode of unlocking the vehicle 10, a second key-less entry mode of unlocking is provided. The key-less entry mode can be arranged to open all of the doors 33, 34 of the vehicle 10, only selected doors of the vehicle 10 and may or may not unlock the trunk lid 9. Whatever the arrangement the opening is affected by the use of the touch sensitive devices associated with the front door handles 33 forming part of a key-less entry system.

In order for such key-less unlocking of the doors 11, 13 to occur a user must touch on the touch sensitive device on one of the front door handles 33 which cause the associated touch sensor 51S, 52S to provide a signal to the electronic controller 58 via the data bus 50. At the same time the proximity sensor 51s, 52s of the respective door must verify that the user attempting to open the door is authorised to do so. It will be appreciated that in the case of this example this will require the user to have the key-fob 60 on their person as that is the identity device that interacts with the proximity sensors 51s, 52s on the vehicle 10.

The locking state of the fuel port door 14 is normally the same as the doors of the vehicle 10 so that when the vehicle 10 is locked the fuel door cannot be opened and when the vehicle 10 is unlocked the fuel door 14 is unlocked but remains latched in a closed position.

The locking state of the charge-port door 22 will in the case of this example remain in a locked state because the associated electronically controlled actuator 56a is only operable to release the charge-port door 22 when the touch sensitive pad 23 is pressed.

Unlocking of the charge-port door 22 is independently controllable so that the charge-port door 22 can be unlocked even if the rest of the vehicle 10 remains in a locked state .

In Fig.6b a user 'U' is shown approaching the motor vehicle 10 when it is in a locked state and touching the touch sensitive pad 23. The user has the key-fob 60 in their back pocket and so both the touch sensor 56S and the proximity sensor 56s have been activated and the electronic controller 58 will respond to this combination by operating the electronically controlled actuator 56a to release the charge-port door 22 which can then be opened by the user 'U'. Note that the doors 11, 13 of the motor vehicle 10 and the trunk lid 9 have remained locked.

In order for unlocking of the charge-port door 22 to occur the user 'U' must touch the touch sensitive pad 23 on the outer face of the charge-port door 22 and be close to the charge-port door 22 so that the proximity sensor 56s can verify that the person attempting to open the charge-port door 22 is authorised to do so. That is to say, the user must have on their person the correct identity device, the presence of which is sensed by the proximity sensor 56s associated with the charge-port door 22.

Although in the case of this example this identity device is included as part of the key-fob 60 it will be appreciated that it could be provided in a separate small transportable object such as, for example, a suitably enabled smartphone.

Therefore by providing an additional 'node' on the keyless entry system of the motor vehicle 10 a user is able to independently unlock the charge-port door 22 as long as they have a keyless entry device such as the key-fob 60 with them.

After the charge-port door 22 has been opened, the user can then insert the charging plug 24 into the charge-port 20 thereby connecting the charge-port 20 via the charging cord 26 to the charging station 28 shown in Fig.l.

In the case of this example the locking mechanism used to lock the charge-port door 22 is also used to lock the charging plug 24 to the charge-port 20. The insertion of the charging plug 24 into the charge-port 20 automatically engages a latch device on the charging plug 24 with the locking mechanism mounted on the motor vehicle 10 thereby locking the charging plug 24 in the charge-port 20

When charging is complete the user merely has to touch the touch sensitive pad 23 on the charge-port door 22 to release the charging plug 24 from the charge-port 20 or touch a touch sensitive device located in close proximity to the charge-port door 22. This causes the electronically controlled actuator 56a to release the locking mechanism allowing the charging plug 24 to be removed from the charge-port 20.

The charge-port door 22 can then be closed and, upon closing of the charge-port door 22 it will automatically relock.

It will be appreciated that the charging plug 24 could be fitted with a separate electronically controlled unlocking mechanism controlled by the electronic controller 58 in response to the user touching a touch sensitive device on the charge-port door, within the enclosure covered by the charge-port door 22 or in close proximity to the charge-port door 22. As before, the user would need to have a required identity device on their person for the charging plug 24 to be released.

It will be appreciated that the electronically controlled actuators on the charge-port door and/or the charging plug could be arranged to positively lock and unlock these devices.

Therefore, in summary, if the passenger doors of the vehicle are in a locked state and a user wishes to open the charge-port door they can do so without opening the passenger doors of the motor vehicle.

Fig.4 shows an alternative charge-port door arrangement that is intended as a direct replacement for the charge-port door arrangement shown in Fig.2.

As before, the charge-port door 122 is hingedly connected to part of the body structure of the motor vehicle 10 by a hinge 125 shown in dotted outline on Fig. 4. A locking member (not shown) is mounted on an inner face of the charge-port door 122 for co-operation with a locking mechanism (not shown) that includes an electronically controlled actuator for selectively releasing the charge-port door 122 from a locked, closed position. A touch sensitive device in the form of a push button 123 is mounted on an outer surface of the body structure of the motor vehicle 10 adjacent the charge-port door 122. The push button 123 is arranged to operate a switch (not shown) when pressed by a user of the motor vehicle 10.

Fig.5 shows an alternative charge-port door arrangement that is intended as a direct replacement for the charge-port door arrangement shown in Fig.2.

As before, the charge-port door 222 is hingedly connected to part of the body structure of the motor vehicle 10 by a hinge 225 shown in dotted outline on Fig.5. A locking member (not shown) is mounted on an inner face of the charge-port door 222 for co-operation with a locking mechanism (not shown) that includes an electronically controlled actuator for selectively releasing the charge-port door 222 from a locked, closed position. A touch sensitive device in the form of a touch sensitive pad 223 is mounted on an outer surface of the body structure of the motor vehicle 10 close to the charge-port door 222. The touch sensitive pad 223 could be of a similar construction the touch sensitive device used for the front door handles 33 in order to affect key-less opening of the vehicle 10.

Although the invention has been described with reference to a PHEV it will be appreciated that the invention could be applied with equal merit to full electric vehicles (EVs) requiring the use of public or domestic charging station.

It will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to the specific electronic architecture or modes of operation described above which are provided by way of example only.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that although the invention has been described by way of example with reference to one or more embodiments it is not limited to the disclosed embodiments and that alternative embodiments could be constructed without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A motor vehicle having an electronic controller, a number of centrally lockable passenger doors, a battery for providing a source of motive power to the vehicle, a charge-port for use in recharging the battery by connection to a charging station via a charging plug, a locking mechanism to selectively lock the charging plug in engagement with the charge-port and a charge-port door to cover the charge-port when the charge-port is not in use wherein, when the passenger doors are in a locked state, unlocking of one of the charge-port door and the charging plug will not result in unlocking of the passenger doors of the motor vehicle.

2. A vehicle as claimed in claim 1 wherein the vehicle includes an electronically releasable locking mechanism controlled by the electronic controller for releasing the charge-port door from a closed, locked position.

3. A vehicle as claimed in claim 2 wherein the locking mechanism for the charging plug is formed as part of the electronically releasable locking mechanism.

4. A vehicle as claimed in claim 2 or in claim 3 wherein the electronically releasable locking mechanism is biased into a normally locked state and is released in response to an unlock signal from the electronic controller.

5. A motor vehicle as claimed in claim 4 wherein the electronic controller is arranged to release the charge-port door when a touch sensitive device has been touched and a proximity sensor indicates the presence of an authorised user.

6. A method of controlling the locking and unlocking of a charge-port door of a motor vehicle having a number of centrally lockable passenger doors wherein the method comprises checking whether a touch sensitive device associated with the charge-port door has been touched and, if the touch sensitive device has been touched and an authorised user is sensed to be present, unlocking the charge-port door without causing a change of locking state of the passenger doors.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6 wherein, when the passenger doors of the vehicle are in a locked state, the method further comprises unlocking the charge-port door without unlocking the passenger doors of the vehicle.

8. A method as claimed in claim 6 or in claim 7 wherein, when a charging plug is engaged with a charge-port of the vehicle, the method further comprises checking whether a touch sensitive device associated with the charging plug has been touched and, if the touch sensitive device has been touched and an authorised user is sensed to be present, unlocking the charging plug to allow it to be removed from engagement with the charge-port without causing a change of locking state of the passenger doors.

9. A method as claimed in any of claims 6 to 8 wherein the motor vehicle further comprises a lockable trunk lid and the method further comprises unlocking the charge-port door without causing a change of locking state of the lockable trunk lid.

10. A motor vehicle substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawing.

11. A method substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawing.