JP2010011525A - Electric vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To properly display an image when the use of some of batteries is prohibited. <P>SOLUTION: The electric vehicle is equipped with a plurality of batteries 10, 30 and runs by driving a motor 18 receiving power from the plurality of batteries 10, 30. If the prohibited battery 30 is set to be used, only the main battery 10 not prohibited is used to drive the motor 18. In this case, for the additional battery 30 set to be prohibited, an image different from usual is displayed depending on a prohibited state. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an electric vehicle that travels by driving a driving motor with electric power from a battery, and more particularly to display of a battery.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an electric vehicle that is equipped with a battery and a travel motor and travels by the travel motor is known, and has an advantage of not discharging harmful gases, and has been widely adopted. Examples of such an electric vehicle include an electric vehicle that uses only the driving force of a traveling motor and a hybrid vehicle that includes an engine and also uses the driving force of the engine. Here, some hybrid vehicles can be charged with a battery from a commercial power source, and some can run as an electric vehicle without driving an engine.

  In such an electric vehicle, when traveling with electric power from a battery, traveling performance is limited by the capacity of the battery. For example, the travel distance can be increased as the capacity of the battery is increased, and the motor output can be increased as the battery voltage is increased.

  Therefore, it has also been proposed that the number of batteries to be installed is selected by the user. For example, Patent Document 1 describes that the number of batteries to be mounted can be adjusted according to a user's travel distance demand. Patent Document 2 describes the display of energy flow between elements such as a motor, a battery, and an engine of a hybrid vehicle. Patent Document 3 can travel as an electric vehicle up to an arbitrarily set SOC. Are listed.

JP 2004-262357 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-247706 JP 2007-62640 A

  Here, when a plurality of batteries are added, there is a demand for keeping one battery unused. In such a case, an easy-to-understand display is desired.

  The present invention is an electric vehicle that is equipped with a plurality of batteries and travels by driving a traveling motor with electric power from the plurality of batteries, and is set to prohibit use of at least one of the plurality of batteries. And a display means for displaying the state of charge of the battery, and when the use-prohibited battery is set by the setting means, only the battery that is not set to be prohibited is used for the traveling The motor is driven, and at this time, the display means performs a display different from the normal display according to the use prohibition for the battery set to the use prohibition.

  In addition, when a use-prohibited battery is set by the setting means, it is preferable to drive the traveling motor based on the state of charge of only the battery that is not set to use prohibition.

  In addition, it is preferable that the display means displays an entire state of charge of the battery that is not set to be prohibited from use.

  According to the present invention, when there are a plurality of batteries and some of them are prohibited from being used, the state of the battery can be displayed in an easy-to-understand manner.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of an electric vehicle. The main battery 10 is a battery mounted as standard equipment on the vehicle. A main converter 12 is connected to the main battery. The main converter 12 boosts the output voltage of the main battery 10 of about 200 to 300V to about 400V. Note that the output voltage of the main converter 12 can be changed.

  A capacitor 14 is connected to the output side of the main converter 12 to stabilize the output voltage. The output of the main converter 12 to which the capacitor 14 is connected is connected to the input side of the inverter 16. The inverter 16 converts the input DC power into a predetermined AC current. The output of the inverter 16 is supplied to the motor 18 and the motor 18 is driven. In this example, the motor 18 is a three-phase permanent magnet motor, and three-phase motor drive currents u, v, and w are output from the inverter 16.

  Wheels are connected to the output shaft of the motor 18 via the power transmission mechanism 20, and the vehicle travels by driving the wheels by the output of the motor 18. An engine 22 is also connected to the power transmission mechanism 20. The wheels can be driven by the driving force of the engine 22, and the motor 18 is driven as a generator to charge the main battery 10 with the generated power. it can. Furthermore, a regenerative operation is also possible in which the motor 18 is operated as a generator by the driving force from the wheels.

  In addition, this vehicle can be equipped with an additional battery as an option. In this example, two additional batteries 30 and 32 are additionally mounted. One of these two additional batteries 30 and 32 is connected to the sub-converter 36 by a switch 34. The output of the sub-converter 36 is connected to the output of the main converter 12, and the output of the main converter 12 and the output of the sub-converter 36 are supplied to the inverter 16.

  Here, main converter 12 is a voltage control type that operates so that its output voltage matches a target value, and sub-converter 36 functions as a current control type that controls the amount of output current. Therefore, the inverter input voltage is determined by the main converter 12, and the ratio of the power output to the motor output is determined by the sub-converter 36.

  An ammeter 38 is disposed on the line leading to the main converter 12 of the main battery 10 and the line leading to the sub-converter 36 of the additional batteries 30 and 32, and the charge / discharge current of each battery 10, 30 and 32 is 3 Each ammeter 38 measures each. The outputs of the three ammeters 38 are supplied to the SOC detector 40, and the SOC detector 40 detects the state of charge (SOC) of each battery 10, 30, 32 from the charge / discharge current of each battery 10, 30, 32. . The SOC of each of the batteries 10, 30, and 32 may be detected by other means such as detecting the SOC by measuring an electromotive voltage from these voltages instead of integrating the charge / discharge current.

  The SOC of each battery 10, 30, 32 from the SOC detection unit 40 is supplied to the control unit 42. The control unit 42 is supplied with various signals such as an output torque signal corresponding to the accelerator depression amount, and the control unit 42 operates the main converter 12, the sub-converter 36, and the inverter 16 based on the supplied signal. Control. In addition, a display unit 44 is connected to the control unit 42, and various displays are performed on the display unit 44. In this example, the display of the SOC of each battery 10, 30, 32 is performed.

  In the present embodiment, among the various signals supplied to the control unit 42, there is also a signal for prohibiting the use of a part of the battery, and the control unit 42 disconnects a part of the battery according to the input of this signal. To prohibit use. Such a signal can be input by various input means. For example, a touch switch provided on the front surface of the display unit 44 used in a navigation device or the like is preferable.

  Here, the operation of the control unit 42 of the present embodiment will be described. Here, only the case where the motor 18 travels as an electric vehicle will be described. When the accelerator opening, travel speed, etc. are supplied to the control unit 42, the control unit 42 determines the output torque of the motor 18 from these signals, and generates a switching signal of the inverter 16 in consideration of the motor rotation speed. The current supplied from the inverter 16 to the motor 18 is controlled by this switching signal. As a result, the output torque of the motor 18 is controlled. Usually, the amount of current to the motor 18 is controlled by PWM control of each switching transistor of the inverter 16.

  Furthermore, in this embodiment, the input voltage of the inverter 16 is controlled by the output torque at that time. That is, when the output torque is large, the inverter input voltage is increased to increase the voltage applied to the motor 18 and reduce the iron loss. On the other hand, when the output torque is small, the inverter input voltage is reduced to reduce the loss in the switching transistor of the inverter. Therefore, the operation of the main converter 12 is controlled so that the output voltage of the main converter 12 becomes the target inverter input voltage.

  On the other hand, the output torque of the motor 18 is determined by the input power. Therefore, motor input power is distributed between output power from the main converter 12 and output power from the sub-converter 36. For this reason, the sub-converter 36 performs control so that the output current becomes a target value.

  The distribution of the output power is determined by the control unit 42 according to the SOC of each battery supplied from the SOC detection unit 40. For example, if the SOC of the additional battery 30 is 30% and the SOC of the main battery 10 is 60% when the additional battery 30 is connected to the sub-converter 36, the SOCs of both batteries 10 and 30 are close to each other. The sub-converter 36 is controlled so that the amount of current from the main converter 12 is twice the amount of current from the sub-converter 36.

  In the present embodiment, the additional batteries 30 and 32 can be switched and used. For example, when the additional battery 30 is first connected to the sub-converter 36 and used, and the additional battery 30 is used up, the additional battery 32 is connected to the sub-converter 36 by the switch 34. Therefore, in the case of the present embodiment, it is preferable to control the output from the sub-converter 36 on the assumption that there are two additional batteries 30 and 32.

  For example, when there are only two batteries, the main battery 10 and the additional battery 30, the control unit 42 controls the SOCs of both the batteries 10 and 30 to be substantially constant, but the motor 18 is driven as intended. Is the first purpose, not the SOC match. Therefore, the SOCs of both batteries 10 and 30 vary to some extent. When two additional batteries 30 and 32 are mounted, the SOC of the main battery 10 and the SOC of the additional batteries 30 and 32 are considerably different values.

  FIG. 2 shows a display example on the display unit 44. In this example, the main battery 10 and the additional battery 30 are mounted, and the batteries 10 and 30 are used so as to be substantially constant. In the state of FIG. 2, the state in which the electric power from the batteries 10 and 30 is supplied to the motor 18 and the wheels are driven by the output of the motor is shown. As described above, the main battery 10 includes the main battery display 10 a, the SOC display 10 b of the main battery 10, and the energy display 10 c from the main battery 10 toward the motor 18. The additional battery 30 includes an additional battery display 30 a, an SOC display 30 b of the additional battery 30, and an energy display 30 c from the additional battery 30 toward the motor 18.

  Thus, it can be seen that the motor 18 is driven by the power from both the main battery 10 and the additional battery 30. Further, the SOC displays 10b and 30b each display the SOC of the battery, but it is also preferable to display the SOC as a whole by both.

  Here, when a plurality of batteries are mounted, some of them can be set to be prohibited from use. For example, the switch 34 of FIG. 1 may be operated so that the batteries 30 and 32 are not connected to the sub-converter 36. For example, when it is known in advance that the vehicle travels in an area where only EV traveling is permitted, the additional battery 30 that has been fully charged is prohibited from being used until the vehicle enters the area, and the additional battery 30 is charged. It may be possible to maintain the capacity. The use of the additional battery 30 may be prohibited when the SOC of the additional battery 30 reaches an appropriate value such as 80%. In this case, use prohibition may be set by a user's operation, or a value may be set in advance and the corresponding battery may be automatically set to use prohibition when that value is reached.

  A display example of the display unit 44 in this case is shown in FIG. In this example, the additional battery 30 that is set to be prohibited from use is indicated by a broken line. Actually, it is preferable to adopt a translucent or thin display.

  FIG. 4 shows another display example when the additional battery 30 is set to be prohibited from use. In this example, the battery display 30a and the energy flow display 30c are deleted, and the SOC display 30b is indicated by a broken line. Note that a translucent display or a thin display is also suitable instead of the broken line display.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when use prohibition is set for the additional battery 30, the display of the additional battery 30 is changed from normal and the user can know at a glance that the use is prohibited. I am doing so.

  Here, as described above, it is possible to disable the additional battery 30 and preserve the battery capacity, but it is also possible to maintain the charging capacity of the main battery 10 at an appropriate value. .

  That is, normal HV traveling targets SOC 20% to 80%. On the other hand, in traveling that preserves the SOC, the lower limit of the SOC is set to about 60%. This is set by inputting a desired value by a user operation. It is preferable that this input can be set to any value as long as the normal lower limit SOC is 20% or more. Thereby, the battery SOC in HV traveling is maintained at 60 to 80%. When lower limit SOC is set to 60%, battery SOC is maintained at 60% or more. Therefore, when entering a predetermined EV traveling area, it is possible to maintain the SOC of the additional battery 30 at 100% and the SOC of the main battery 10 at 60% or more.

  It is preferable that the EV switch is operated by clearing the set lower limit SOC by operating the EV switch. Also in this EV traveling, when the SOC reaches the lower limit SOC 20%, the engine 22 is driven and the battery is charged to a predetermined SOC (for example, 50%). Further, if the battery SOC is high due to regenerative braking or the like, EV traveling can be continued.

  In this way, the main battery 10 can also travel while maintaining a predetermined SOC. Furthermore, although the discharge of the additional battery 30 is prohibited, charging can be permitted and the SOC of the additional battery 30 can be set to a desired value.

  Here, FIG. 5 shows internal configurations of the main converter 12 and the inverter 16. Main converter 12 includes coil L, transistors T11 and T12, and diodes D11 and D12. One end of the coil L is connected to the positive electrode of the main battery 10, and the other end is connected between the transistor T11 and the transistor T12. In this example, the transistors T11 and T12 are n-type IGBTs. Further, diodes D11 and D12 are connected in parallel to the transistors T11 and T12, respectively. The collector of the transistor T11 is connected to the positive bus of the inverter 16, and the emitter is connected to the collector of the transistor T12. The emitter of the transistor T12 is connected to the negative electrode of the main battery 10. The diodes D11 and D12 pass current from the emitter side to the collector side of the transistors T11 and T12.

  In such a main converter 12, by turning off the transistor T <b> 12 from the on state, a large current flows through the diode D <b> 11 by the energy held in the coil L and a boosted voltage is obtained at the positive bus of the inverter 16. . Further, by turning on the transistor T11, it is also possible to pass a current from the positive bus side of the inverter 16 toward the main battery 10, and by controlling the duty ratio of the transistors T11 and T12, the positive bus of the inverter 16 Can be arbitrarily controlled. The sub-converter 36 has the same configuration as the main converter 12.

  In the inverter 16, a series connection of transistors T1 and T2, transistors T3 and T4, and transistors T5 and T6 is arranged between the positive bus and the negative bus. The transistors T1 to T6 are also n-type IGBTs, and diodes D1 to D6 are connected from the emitter to the collector, respectively. An intermediate point between the transistors T1 and T2, transistors T3 and T4, and transistors T5 and T6 is an output to the u, v, and w phases of the motor 18. Therefore, by controlling on / off of the transistors T1 to T6, a motor driving current can be output, and power from the motor 18 can be recovered.

  In the present application, the number of batteries is in units of battery packs such as the main battery 10 and the additional batteries 30 and 32. The control unit 42 and the display unit 44 are preferably shared with the ECU of the navigation device, the display unit, and the like.

It is a block diagram which shows the whole structure. It is a figure which shows the example of a display when there is no use prohibition battery. It is a figure which shows the example of a display at the time of prohibiting use of an additional battery. It is a figure which shows the other example of a display at the time of prohibiting use of an additional battery. It is a figure which shows the detail of a main converter and an inverter.

Explanation of symbols

  10 main battery, 12 main converter, 14 capacitor, 16 inverter, 18 motor, 20 power transmission mechanism, 22 engine, 30, 32 additional battery, 34 switch, 36 sub-converter, 38 ammeter, 40 SOC detection unit, 42 control unit 44 Display section.

Claims (3)

An electric vehicle that is equipped with a plurality of batteries and travels by driving a traveling motor with electric power from the plurality of batteries,
Setting means for setting at least one of the plurality of batteries to use prohibition;
Display means for displaying the state of charge of the battery;
Including
When the use-prohibited battery is set by the setting means, the driving motor is driven using only the battery that is not set to use prohibition,
At this time, the display means performs a display different from the normal display according to the use prohibition for the battery set to the use prohibition. The electric vehicle according to claim 1,
An electric vehicle characterized in that when a use-prohibited battery is set by the setting means, a driving motor is driven based on a charge state of only a battery that is not set to be use-prohibited. The electric vehicle according to claim 1 or 2,
The said display means displays the charge condition of the whole battery which is not set to use prohibition, The electric vehicle characterized by the above-mentioned.

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