Patent ID: 9580078
Date: 2017-02-28
CPC Classifications: B60W,F01P,Y02T,Y10S

Claim:
1. A method of preheating a hybrid vehicle, the method comprising: storing reserve coolant in an insulated reservoir fluidly coupled to a coolant circuit of an engine of the hybrid vehicle, the reserve coolant having a temperature T controlling, with an electronic control unit, a preheating system of the hybrid vehicle comprising the steps of: powering, with a power source external to the hybrid vehicle, a fluid pump fluidly coupled to the coolant circuit; pumping line coolant through the coolant circuit with the fluid pump, the line coolant having a temperature T powering, with the power source external to the hybrid vehicle, a heater thermally coupled to the coolant circuit; heating the line coolant with the heater as the line coolant is pumped through the coolant circuit to increase a temperature of the line coolant; and mixing the line coolant with the reserve coolant to accelerate preheating of at least the engine of the hybrid vehicle.