Battery charging for electric vehicle via a neutral of a polyphase motor with a current command determined by the neutral voltage

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12587112-B2
Application number	US-202418616935-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 26, 2024
Priority date	Apr 5, 2023
Publication date	Mar 24, 2026
Grant date	Mar 24, 2026

Abstract

An electric vehicle may include a battery; an inverter; a motor; a first and second terminal configured to connect to an external power supply; a first wire connecting the first terminal to a neutral point; a second wire connecting the second terminal to the battery, a first relay disposed on the first wire; a first and second voltage sensor configured to measure a potential difference; and a controller. The controller may be configured to: calculate permissible power of the battery; calculate a first voltage value obtained by adding a first margin to a detected value by the first voltage sensor; calculate a second voltage value obtained by adding a second margin to a detected value by the second voltage sensor; and calculate a current command value to the external power supply based on the permissible power and a smaller value of the first voltage value and the second voltage value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An electric vehicle comprising:
a battery; an inverter comprising three arm circuits, wherein each of the three arm circuits comprises an upper switching element connected to a positive electrode of the battery and a lower switching element connected to a negative electrode of the battery, and the upper switching element and the lower switching element are connected in series; a motor comprising three coils, wherein in each of the three coils, one end thereof is connected to a neutral point and other end thereof is connected to a midpoint of corresponding one of the three arm circuits; a first terminal configured to connect to a positive electrode of an external power supply; a second terminal configured to connect to a negative electrode of the external power supply; a first wire connecting the first terminal to the neutral point; a second wire connecting the second terminal to the negative electrode of the battery, a first relay disposed on the first wire, a first voltage sensor configured to measure, between the first terminal and the first relay, a potential difference between the first wire and the second wire; a second voltage sensor configured to measure, between the first relay and the neutral point, a potential difference between the first wire and the second wire; and a controller configured to control the inverter to increase a voltage of power supplied from the external power supply and charge the battery, wherein the controller is configured to:
calculate permissible power of the battery;
calculate a first voltage value obtained by adding a first margin to a detected value by the first voltage sensor;
calculate a second voltage value obtained by adding a second margin to a detected value by the second voltage sensor; and
calculate a current command value to the external power supply based on the permissible power and a smaller value of the first voltage value and the second voltage value.

2 . The electric vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
the electric vehicle further comprises a second relay disposed on the first wire between the first relay and the neutral point, and the second voltage sensor is configured to measure, between the first relay and the second relay, a potential difference between the first wire and the second wire.

3 . The electric vehicle according to claim 2 , wherein
the electric vehicle further comprises:
a third wire connecting a connection path between the first relay and the second relay to the positive electrode of the battery; and
a third relay disposed on the third wire.

4 . The electric vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
the controller is further configured to:
calculate a voltage drop value based on a resistance value of a connection path between the first voltage sensor and the second voltage sensor and the current command value; and
correct the first voltage value or the second voltage value based on the voltage drop value.

5 . The electric vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the first margin is different from the second margin.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Oya Ryosuke
• Takesue Ippei

Classifications

• H02J7/04

  Regulation of charging current or voltage · CPC title

• H01M2220/20

  Batteries in motive systems, e.g. vehicle, ship, plane · CPC title

• Y02T10/70

  Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries · CPC title

• B60L53/22

  Constructional details or arrangements of charging converters specially adapted for charging electric vehicles · CPC title

• H02M7/537 Primary

  using semiconductor devices only, e.g. single switched pulse inverters · CPC title