Patent ID: 8497031

Claim:
A battery circuit comprising: a battery including a positive terminal and a negative terminal; a positive high voltage bus line electrically coupled to the positive terminal of the battery; a negative high voltage bus line electrically coupled to the negative terminal of the battery; a resistor including a first end electrically coupled to the positive high voltage bus line and a second end electrically coupled to the negative high voltage bus line; a first switch electrically coupled between the second end of the resistor and the positive high voltage bus line; and a second switch electrically coupled between the second end of the resistor and the negative high voltage bus line, said resistor separately providing both a pre-charging operation and a heating operation for heating the battery where the resistor is part of an electric heater, said first switch being closed and said second switch being opened to provide the pre-charging operation and said second switch being closed and said first switch being opened to provide the heating operation.