JP2007108922A - Power supply accounting system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the initial cost of a battery in an electric automobile. <P>SOLUTION: This power supply accounting system is composed of: a battery manufacturer 2; a charging station 3; and an electric automobile 4 in which a battery manufactured by the battery manufacturer 2 is integrated. Concretely, the power supply accounting system is configured of a server 10 to be managed by the battery manufacturer 2; a station terminal 20 arranged in the charging station 3 and a battery 30 to be integrated in the electronic automobile 4. The battery 30 is provided with an IC tag 31 in which battery information for individually identifying the battery is stored. The server 10 and the station terminal 20 are connected through a network 40 to each other, and accounting information is calculated based on a value calculated by dividing a portion or total sum of the initial costs of the battery by the predetermined number and the charging frequency of the battery to be specified according to the battery information from the battery information and battery status information acquired by the station terminal 20 from the battery 30 in the server 10. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a power supply charging system and a power supply charging method for a battery in an electric vehicle that supplies electric energy with a rechargeable battery.

  The development of electric vehicles is being promoted to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels such as oil and to consider environmental issues such as the prevention of global warming. The conventional problems with electric vehicles, such as the speed, acceleration performance, and the distance that can be traveled for a single charge, are now required for automobiles. It is being solved by recent technological developments such as establishment of technology and realization of a high-capacity battery, and an electric vehicle having the same characteristics as a conventional internal combustion vehicle can be realized.

  Under these circumstances, one of the reasons why electric vehicles are not widespread is the high cost of vehicles including batteries, the time required to fully charge, and insufficient infrastructure maintenance for supplying batteries.

As a method of quickly supplying electric energy to an electric vehicle and solving the battery charging problem at the destination, there is a method of standardizing the battery and mechanically replacing a battery with a low remaining capacity with a full battery at a station in a short time. It has been proposed so far (see Patent Document 1).
JP-A-6-48184

  Currently, the ratio of the battery cost to the manufacturing cost of an electric vehicle is large, and if the initial cost (initial cost) of an expensive battery is borne by the user together with the body of the electric vehicle, the vehicle price of the electric vehicle itself will rise. It was also a factor that hindered the popularization of electric vehicles. For this reason, in the conventional battery supply method disclosed in Patent Document 1 described above, the batteries themselves mounted at the time of vehicle purchase are replaced one after another for each power supply, and there is a concern that the battery cost will increase further. . Conventionally, in manufacturing an electric vehicle, there has been a problem of how to reduce and absorb the battery cost that is relatively expensive compared to other parts.

  Therefore, the present invention has been proposed in view of the above-described conventional situation, and can reduce the initial cost of a battery in an electric vehicle, and can provide a power supply charging system for the battery that can promote the popularization of the electric vehicle, and An object is to provide a power charging method.

  In order to achieve the above-described object, according to the present invention, a power charging system for charging power to a battery serving as an electric energy supply source of an electric vehicle includes battery information including information for individually identifying the battery. A battery having battery information recording means recorded therein, a reading means for reading battery information recorded in the battery information recording means, a transmission means for transmitting battery information read by the reading means to a network, and a transmission via the network. Information processing terminal having receiving means for receiving the charging information to be received, and presenting means for presenting the charging information received by the receiving means, battery information including information for individually identifying the battery, and a battery indicating the state of the battery Storage means for storing status information and a battery sent from the information processing terminal via the network An information storage and provision apparatus comprising: a receiving means for receiving information; a charging means for calculating charging information based on the received battery information; and a transmitting means for transmitting charging information to the information processing terminal via the network. Prepare. Thus, the power charging system according to the present invention can charge according to the battery information provided in the battery and the battery state information indicating the state of the battery.

  In the power charging system according to the present invention, the battery status information includes the number of times the battery has been charged or the period of time from the date of manufacture. The charging information is calculated based on the number of times of charging of the battery specified by the value divided by the number and the battery information, or the passage of the period from the date of manufacture. In particular, the predetermined number used for calculating the billing information is a standard number of times of charging set based on the standard number of times of charging of the battery. Thereby, a part or all of the initial cost of the battery can be widely borne by an unspecified number of electric vehicle users.

  In the power charging system according to the present invention, an IC tag can be suitably used as the battery information recording means.

  In order to achieve the above-described object, power supply charging for charging power to a battery serving as a supply source of electric energy of an electric vehicle in an information processing terminal based on charging information calculated by an information storage / providing device according to the present invention The method reads battery information from a battery information memory in which battery information including information for individually identifying the battery is recorded, transmits the read battery information to a network, and is transmitted from the information processing terminal via the network. The battery information is received by the information storage and provision device, and based on the received battery information, the charging information is calculated from the battery information stored in the storage and the battery state information indicating the state of the battery. Billing information is sent and billing information sent via the network is processed at the information processing terminal. And Shin, by presenting the accounting information received, it is possible to charge according to the battery status information indicating the status of the battery information and the battery provided in the battery.

  Further, in the power charging method according to the present invention, based on a value obtained by dividing a part or all of the initial cost of the battery by a predetermined number, the number of times of charging of the battery specified by the battery information, or a period elapsed from the manufacturing date. Accounting information is calculated. In particular, the predetermined number used for calculating the billing information is a standard number of times of charging set based on the standard number of times of charging of the battery. Thereby, a part or all of the initial cost of the battery can be widely borne by an unspecified number of electric vehicle users.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to charge according to battery information and battery state information indicating the state of the battery. Moreover, by calculating charging information based on a value obtained by dividing a part or all of the initial cost of the battery by a predetermined number and the number of times the battery is specified by the battery information, the expensive battery cost is unspecified as a result. This can be widely borne by many electric vehicle users, and the initial cost of the battery can be reduced. In addition, the initial cost of the battery and the electric vehicle can be reduced, which leads to the popularization of the electric vehicle. If a battery manufacturer manufactures and develops a battery with a longer battery life, it can lower the maintenance cost of the system and recover more profit.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The concept of the power charging system 1 shown as an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The power charging system 1 includes a battery manufacturer 2, a charging station 3, and an electric vehicle 4 in which a battery manufactured by the battery manufacturer 2 is incorporated. The battery manufacturer 2 is a mechanism in which a battery is manufactured and provided to the electric vehicle manufacturer 5, and the electric vehicle 4 manufactured by incorporating the battery by the electric vehicle manufacturer 5 is sold to the user. The user can charge the battery built in the electric vehicle 4 at the charging station 3 in the town.

  The system configuration of the power charging system 1 will be specifically described with reference to FIG. The power supply billing system 1 is actually realized by the following configuration. The power charging system 1 includes a server 10 managed by the battery manufacturer 2, a station terminal 20 disposed in the charging station 3, and a battery 30 incorporated in the electric vehicle 4, and the battery 30 individually stores the batteries. A storage unit storing battery information for identification is provided. The server 10 and the station terminal 20 are connected to each other via a network 40 such as the so-called Internet so that the battery information acquired from the battery 30 by the station terminal 20 and the charging information from the server 10 can be transmitted and received. .

  Hereinafter, each configuration of the server 10, the station terminal 20, and the battery 30 will be described.

  The configuration of the server 10 is shown in FIG. The server 10 receives the battery information storage unit 11 for storing information on the manufactured battery, the battery information of the battery to be supplied by the charging station 3, via the network 40, and the station terminal 20. A network interface 12 that transmits billing information via the network 40, an input unit 13 that receives an operation input from an administrator of the server 10, a display unit 14 that presents various information to the administrator, and a driver 15 thereof, The information storage and provision apparatus includes a control unit 16 that performs overall control of each unit, and these units are connected to each other via an internal bus 17.

  The battery information storage unit 11 stores battery information including information for individually identifying manufactured batteries and battery state information indicating the state of the battery in association with each other. The battery status information is, for example, the number of times the battery is charged, the elapsed period from the battery manufacturing date, and the like, and is updated every time power is supplied. As the battery information storage unit 11, an optical recording medium, a semiconductor memory, or the like is applicable in addition to a magnetic recording medium such as a so-called hard disk drive (HDD) as long as it can store a large amount of battery information.

  The network interface 12 is a wired or wireless communication interface for connecting to the Internet, and is a signal conversion device for metallic cables such as ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) and ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), or optical cables, In communication, it is preferable to perform encryption with high confidentiality. Further, a dedicated line directly connected to the station terminal 20 may be used.

  As the input unit 13, a keyboard, a mouse, a touch panel, or the like can be used. As the display unit 14, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), or the like can be used.

  Although not shown, the control unit 16 includes a CPU, a RAM as a work area of the CPU, a ROM storing a boot program for starting the system, and the like. It also functions as a billing unit that calculates billing information from the battery status information of the battery to be supplied, acquired from the station terminal 20, based on a program stored in another memory or a partial area of the HDD.

  The control unit 16 calculates charging information based on a value obtained by dividing a part or all of the initial cost of the battery 30 by a predetermined number, and battery state information including the number of times the battery is charged, the elapsed time from the battery manufacturing date, and the like. Perform the process. The predetermined number used when calculating the billing information is, for example, a value set on the basis of the standard number of repeated charging of the battery 30 (hereinafter referred to as the standard number of charging). As shown in FIG. 1, the battery manufacturer 2 supplies power 1 by using α / n obtained by dividing a part α of the initial cost (initial cost) A of the battery 30 by the standard charging number n as “charging basic charge”, for example. It collects from the user by adding to the power supply fee every time. On the other hand, the remaining A-α may be a selling price to the electric vehicle manufacturer 5. Of course, A / n obtained by dividing the total initial cost A by the standard charging number n may be collected from the user, and the battery may be provided to the electric vehicle manufacturer 5 at a cost of 0 at the time of manufacture.

  By having the above-described configuration, the server 10 can receive the battery information of the battery to be supplied by the charging station 3 via the network 40, retrieve the received battery information from the battery information storage unit 11, The charging information can be calculated from the battery state information of the battery to be fed to the battery state information corresponding to the battery information and transmitted to the station terminal 20.

  In order to enable such charging, the battery manufacturer 2 records battery information for individually identifying the battery 30 when the battery 30 is manufactured. The battery 30 is shown in FIG. As a recording means for recording battery information, a bar code, a plane code, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), or the like can be used. In this embodiment, RFID (hereinafter referred to as an IC tag) is used. As shown in FIG. 4, an IC tag 31 on which battery information is recorded by the battery manufacturer 2 is attached to the battery 30. The IC tag 31 has an antenna circuit and a drive circuit, and can read and write data without contact by a reader / writer. Note that the IC tag 31 may be affixed anywhere as long as it is a position where an operator can easily work in consideration of performing a reading operation during power feeding. If the electric vehicle manufacturer 5 can definitely handle the battery 30 and battery information of this battery, it may be provided on a part of the vehicle body.

  Next, the configuration of the station terminal 20 is shown in FIG. The station terminal 20 transmits, via the network 40, the RFID reader / writer 21 that reads or writes the battery information from the IC tag 31 provided in the battery 30 and the battery information of the battery to be powered by the station terminal 20. A network interface 22 that receives charging information from the server 10 via the network 40, an input unit 23 that receives an operation input from the operator of the charging station 3, and various information including charging information for the operator. An information processing terminal having a display unit 24 for presenting information and its driver 25, an HDD 26 for storing various programs, data, and the like, and a control unit 27 for overall control of each unit, which are connected to each other via an internal bus 28 It is. A general-purpose PC or the like is applicable as the station terminal 20.

  The RFID reader / writer 21 is connected to the internal bus 28 via an interface 211, and is extended with a connection cord or the like as necessary so that the IC tag 31 can be read and written easily without contact. .

  The network interface 22 is a wired or wireless communication interface for connecting to the Internet, and is a signal conversion device for metallic cables such as ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) and ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), or optical cables, In communication, it is preferable to perform encryption with high confidentiality. Alternatively, a dedicated line directly connected to the server 10 may be used. As the input unit 23, a keyboard, a mouse, a touch panel, or the like can be used. As the display unit 24, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), or the like can be used.

  In addition, the power supply unit 50 is connected to the station terminal 20 via the interface 212, and information regarding the power supply charge to the battery 30 is sent.

  The station terminal 20 has the above-described configuration, so that the battery information of the battery to be supplied by the charging station 3 can be read by the RFID reader / writer 21 and transmitted to the server 10 via the network 40. Further, the charging information calculated by the server 10 can be received, and the user can be charged based on the charging information.

  Next, billing processing during power feeding will be described with reference to FIGS. When a user of an electric vehicle visits the charging station 3 for power supply, the operator performs an operation of reading the IC tag 31 as preprocessing for power supply in the charging station 3. At this time, the station terminal 20 reads battery information from the IC tag 31 of the battery 30 as step S1, and receives battery information D1 from the IC tag 31 as step S2. Subsequently, as step S <b> 3, the station terminal 20 transmits the acquired battery information D <b> 1 to the server 10 via the network 40.

  In step S <b> 4, the server 10 receives battery information D <b> 1 from the station terminal 20 via the network 40. In step S5, the control unit 16 in the server 10 stores battery status information including the number of times the battery has been charged up to the previous time, the elapsed time from the date of battery manufacture, and the like recorded for the received battery information D1. Search from part 11. In step S6, a process for calculating charging information D2 is performed. The calculated charging information D2 is transmitted to the station terminal 20 via the network 40 in step S7.

  The station terminal 20 receives the billing information D2 from the server 10 in step S8, and gives an instruction to start power supply to the power supply unit 50 in step S9. When the station terminal 20 receives a power supply end notification from the power supply unit 50, the station terminal 20 transmits a power supply end notification D3 to the server 10 in step S10 together with battery state information such as the number of times of power supply and a power supply date.

  In step S <b> 11, the server 10 updates the battery state information for the battery 30 recorded in the battery information storage unit 11, and transmits a notification D <b> 4 to the effect that the charging process has been completed to the station terminal 20 in step S <b> 12. At this time, the server 10 may transmit additional information D5 to the station terminal 20 together with the completion notification D4. For example, when updating the battery state information in the battery information storage unit 11, the server 10 transmits a message prompting the user to replace the battery if the number of times of power supply is about to reach the number of durable charges of the battery 30. May be. In addition, information useful for the user, such as advertisement information for promoting sales of other products, road information, and the like, can be transmitted.

  When the station terminal 20 receives the completion notice D4 and the additional information D5 in step S13, in step S14, the station terminal 20 presents a charge including the charge according to the power supply amount and the charging information.

  As described above, the power supply charging system 1 can calculate the charging information according to the battery information and the battery state information. Further, the power supply charging system 1 can provide the user with the usage frequency of the battery, the elapsed time from the date of manufacture, etc. The burden ratio of the initial cost of such a battery can be changed.

  That is, for example, in the above-described embodiment, the “basic charge” after completion of n times of power feeding can be the net profit of the battery manufacturer 2 and distributed to the share of the initial cost of another battery. However, for users who have supplied power n times (that is, batteries that are frequently used), users who have owned electric vehicles for a long time (that is, batteries that have passed for a long time since the date of manufacture), etc. Profits can be returned to the user by discounting the fee. On the other hand, from the user who has replaced the electric vehicle or replaced the battery 30 before completing n times of power feeding, the remaining cost that cannot be collected may be collected as compensation money.

  According to the power supply charging system 1 described above, although the battery manufacturer 2 cannot immediately recover the initial cost of the battery, a part or the entire amount of the initial cost of the battery 30 is divided or collected from the user for each power supply. As a result, the initial cost and the consideration for using the system can be obtained as profits by being collected from a large number of specific users. If the battery manufacturer 2 manufactures and develops a battery having a long battery life and acquires more users, the running cost of the system is reduced, so that more benefits can be obtained.

  Further, according to the power charging system 1, since the initial cost burden of the battery in the electric vehicle can be widely distributed to the user, the initial cost of the battery falling on the user can be indirectly reduced. Thereby, it leads to the spread promotion of an electric vehicle.

  Note that the above-described power supply billing system 1 is shown as an example of an embodiment of the present invention, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, the battery manufacturer 2 and the electric vehicle manufacturer 5 or the battery manufacturer and the charging station 3 may be the same. In addition, there may be another supplier who manages the power charging system itself. In this case, the system administrator becomes the owner of the server 10. Then, the battery manufacturer 2 pays the battery manufacturer 2 the initial cost burden collected together with the power supply fee from the user of the electric vehicle, instead of entrusting the system management by paying a certain management cost to the system administrator. To do. Further, the processing flow for charging described with reference to FIG. 6 is an example, and the order of each step is not limited to this. In the billing process, it is only necessary to finally calculate the sum of the charge corresponding to the amount of power supply and the initial cost share. For example, after the station terminal 20 instructs the power supply unit 50 to start power supply, Communication may be started.

  This is extremely useful for reducing the initial cost of a battery in an electric vehicle.

It is a schematic diagram explaining the concept of the electric power charging system shown as one Embodiment of this invention. It is the schematic explaining the system configuration | structure of the said electric power charging system. It is a block diagram explaining the server which comprises the said electric power charging system. It is a schematic diagram explaining the battery which comprises the said electric power charging system. It is a block diagram explaining the station terminal which comprises the said electric power charging system. It is a flowchart explaining the charging process in the said electric power charging system.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Electric power charging system 2 Battery manufacturer 3 Charging station 4 Electric vehicle 5 Electric vehicle manufacturer 10 Server 20 Station terminal 30 Battery 31 IC tag 40 Network

Claims (10)

In a power charging system for charging power to a battery that is a source of electric energy of an electric vehicle,
A battery having battery information recording means in which battery information including information for individually identifying the battery is recorded;
Reading means for reading the battery information recorded in the battery information recording means, transmitting means for transmitting the battery information read by the reading means to a network, and receiving means for receiving billing information sent via the network And an information processing terminal having a presenting means for presenting billing information received by the receiving means,
Storage means for storing battery information including information for individually identifying a battery and battery status information indicating the state of the battery; and receiving means for receiving battery information sent from the information processing terminal via the network And an information storage / providing device comprising: charging means for calculating charging information based on the received battery information; and transmission means for transmitting the charging information to the information processing terminal via the network. system.   The battery status information includes the number of times the battery is charged, and the charging means in the information storage and provision device is specified by a value obtained by dividing a part or all of the initial cost of the battery by a predetermined number and the battery information. The charging information charging system according to claim 1, wherein charging information is calculated based on the number of times the battery is charged.   3. The power charging system according to claim 2, wherein the predetermined number used for calculating the charging information is a standard number of times of charging set based on a standard number of times of charging of the battery.   The battery status information includes a lapse of a period from the date of manufacture of the battery, and the charging means in the information storage and provision device includes a value obtained by dividing a part or all of the initial cost of the battery by a predetermined number and 2. The power charging system according to claim 1, wherein the charging information is calculated based on a period of time from the date of manufacture of the battery specified by the battery information.   2. The power charging system according to claim 1, wherein the battery information recording means is an IC tag. In a power charging method for charging power to a battery serving as a source of electric energy for an electric vehicle in an information processing terminal based on charging information calculated by an information storage and provision device,
A step of reading the battery information from a battery information memory in which battery information including information for individually identifying the battery is recorded;
A transmission step of transmitting the battery information read in the reading step to a network;
A receiving step of receiving battery information transmitted from the information processing terminal via the network at the information storage and providing device;
Based on the received battery information, a charging step for calculating charging information from the battery information stored in the storage and battery state information indicating the state of the battery;
A transmission step of transmitting the billing information to the information processing terminal;
A reception step of receiving billing information sent via the network at the information processing terminal;
And a presenting step of presenting the received billing information.   The battery state information includes the number of times the battery is charged. In the charging step, the battery charge number specified by the battery information and a value obtained by dividing a part or all of the initial cost of the battery by a predetermined number. The charging information charging method according to claim 6, wherein charging information is calculated based on:   8. The power charging method according to claim 7, wherein the predetermined number used for calculating the charging information is a standard number of times of charging set based on a standard number of times of charging of the battery.   The battery status information includes the passage of a period from the date of manufacture of the battery, and the charging step is specified by a value obtained by dividing a part or all of the initial cost of the battery by a predetermined number and the battery information. 7. The power supply charging method according to claim 6, wherein the charging information is calculated based on a period of time from the date of manufacture of the battery.   The power charging method according to claim 6, wherein the battery information memory is an IC tag.

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