Patent ID: 7904217
Filing Date: 2011-03-08
Classification: B60K,B60W,Y02T,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A hybrid electric vehicle comprising: a chassis comprising wheels on which the vehicle travels; a powertrain coupled to driven ones of the wheels; an ignition switch that when operated to an “on” position enables the powertrain to propel the vehicle and when operated to an “off” position shuts down the powertrain; the powertrain comprising an internal combustion engine having a rotary output coupled to a rotary input of an electric motor/generator that has a rotary output coupled to the driven wheels; a battery pack coupled to the motor/generator through a controller for selectively operating the motor/generator as a motor that draws electricity from the battery pack to add torque to the powertrain and as a generator that delivers electricity to the battery pack to subtract torque from the powertrain when a management strategy for the battery pack allows such operation; the controller being selectively operable to any of multiple strategies for managing the battery pack via an algorithm that, when the ignition switch is operated from “off” position to “on” position, operates to select a particular battery pack management strategy according to a calibratable parameter that, for the vehicle, has been set to a particular one of multiple values; a first of the calibratable parameter values being effective to cause the algorithm to set the battery pack management strategy to the same battery pack management strategy that was being used when the ignition switch was last operated from “on” position to “off” position, and a second of the calibratable parameter values being effective to cause the algorithm to set the battery pack management strategy to a strategy that is determined by the number of times that the ignition switch has been operated from “off” position to “on” position since the last re-charging of the battery pack from a source external to the vehicle.