System and method for charging a plug-in electric vehicle

摘要

A charging system and method that may be used to automatically apply customized charging settings to a plug-in electric vehicle, where application of the settings is based on the vehicle's location. According to an exemplary embodiment, a user may establish and save a separate charging profile with certain customized charging settings for each geographic location where they plan to charge their plug-in electric vehicle. Whenever the plug-in electric vehicle enters a new geographic area, the charging method may automatically apply the charging profile that corresponds to that area. Thus, the user does not have to manually change or manipulate the charging settings every time they charge the plug-in electric vehicle in a new location.

主权项

1. A method for charging a plug-in electric vehicle, comprising the steps of:
(a) creating and storing one or more user-defined charging profile(s), each charging profile being associated with a stored profile area, and wherein each charging profile includes customized charging setting(s) that are defined by a user when creating the charging profile for each stored profile area, wherein the customized charging setting(s) defined by the user include at least one selected from the group consisting of: a charging mode, a charging level, a charging time, or a charging preference; (b) obtaining a current location for the plug-in electric vehicle; (c) determining if the current location for the plug-in electric vehicle corresponds to a stored profile area by comparing the current location to one or more stored profile area(s) in order to determine if the current vehicle location falls within geographic boundaries of the stored profile area(s); (d) when the current location for the plug-in electric vehicle corresponds to a stored profile area, then using a control module to implement the associated charging profile for the stored profile area and a battery charger to charge the plug-in electric vehicle; and (e) when the current location for the plug-in electric vehicle does not correspond to a stored profile area, then using the control module to create and implement a new charging profile for the current location according to a community method that utilizes a collection or repository of shared charging information from other plug-in electric vehicles to provide one or more charging setting(s) and the battery charger to charge the plug-in electric vehicle.