Systems and methods to determine electric vehicle range based on environmental factors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10328814-B2
Application number	US-201615091311-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 5, 2016
Priority date	Apr 5, 2016
Publication date	Jun 25, 2019
Grant date	Jun 25, 2019

Abstract

Example systems and methods to determine electric vehicle range based on environmental factors are disclosed. An example disclosed vehicle includes a battery pack, a HVAC control module, and an electronic control unit that includes a range calculator. The example range calculator determine a base power load, determines an auxiliary power load based on a sun load, an ambient temperature, a cabin temperature, and a temperature setting, and calculates a range of the vehicle based on the base power load, the auxiliary power load and a charge of the battery pack.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle comprising:
a battery pack;
temperature sensors within a cabin of the vehicle;
an HVAC control module comprising input devices; and
an electronic control unit that includes a range calculator configured to:
determine a base power load;
select a base auxiliary power load from a table comprising a plurality of base auxiliary power loads based on: (1) a first temperature measured by the temperature sensors, (2) a user-selected temperature value input via the input devices; (3) and an amount of time elapsed since the first temperature was measured by the temperature sensors;
determine an auxiliary power load based on a solar power load, a convective power load, and the selected base auxiliary power load; and
calculate a range of the vehicle based on the base power load, the auxiliary power load and a charge of the battery pack.

2. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the range calculator is configured to predict a route on which the vehicle will travel, the base power load is based on an average speed and an average road load force on the predicted route.

3. The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the range calculator is configured to determine a speed and a road load force for a plurality of segments of the predicted route.

4. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the auxiliary power load includes a first power load during a first period in which the HVAC control module adjusts a cabin temperature from an initial temperature to a temperature setting and a second power load during a second period in which the HVAC control module maintains the cabin temperature at the temperature setting.

5. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein to determine the base power load, the range calculator is configured to:
calculate an average base power load based on past power loads at an ambient temperature; and
determine the base power load to be a statistical variation above the average base power load.

6. The vehicle of claim 5 , wherein the statistical variation is one standard deviation above the average base power load.

7. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the range calculator is further configured to: select the solar power load from a plurality of solar power loads based on: (1) a difference in value between a cabin temperature of the vehicle and an ambient temperature of the vehicle; and (2) and an energy value of solar radiation in a geographical region in which the vehicle is currently located; and
select the convective power load from a plurality of convective based on the difference in value between the cabin temperature of the vehicle and the ambient temperature of the vehicle; and (2) and a speed of the vehicle.

8. A method to determine an estimated range of an electric vehicle, the method comprising:
determining a base power load on a battery pack used to drive an electric motor of the electric vehicle;
selecting a base auxiliary power load from a table comprising a plurality of base auxiliary power loads based on: (1) a first temperature measured by temperature sensors within a cabin of the electric vehicle; (2) a user-selected temperature value input via input devices of an HVAC control module; (3) and an amount of time elapsed since the first temperature was measured by the temperature sensors;
determining an auxiliary power load on the battery pack used to power the HVAC control module of the electric vehicle based on a solar power load, a convective power bad, and the selected base auxiliary power bad; and
calculating, with a processor, the estimated range of the vehicle based on the base power bad, the auxiliary power bad and a charge of the battery pack.

9. The method of claim 8 , including predicting a route on which the vehicle will travel, wherein the base power load is based on an average speed and an average road load force on the predicted route.

10. The method of claim 9 , including determining a speed and a road load force for a plurality of segments of the predicted route.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the auxiliary power load includes a first power load during a first period in which the HVAC control module adjusts a cabin temperature from an initial temperature to a temperature setting and a second power load during a second period in which the HVAC control module maintains the cabin temperature at the temperature setting.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein to determine the base power load, the method includes:
calculating an average base power load based on past power loads at an ambient temperature; and
determining the base power load to be one standard deviation above the average base power load.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Miller Kenneth James
• Perkins William Paul
• Kapadia Jimmy

Classifications

• Y02T90/162

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• B60L2240/34

  Cabin temperature · CPC title

• B60L2240/62

  Vehicle position · CPC title

• Y02T10/705

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• B60L2240/547

  Voltage · CPC title