US-20260124957-A1 - BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLE

Abstract

A battery electric vehicle includes an accelerator pedal, a shifter, a mode selector, and a control device. The mode selector selects either an EV mode or an MT mode as a control mode for an electric motor according to a mode selection operation by a driver. When the SOC of a battery is within a predetermined range, the control device controls the electric motor in the control mode selected by the mode selector. When the SOC is out of the predetermined range, the control device controls the electric motor in the EV mode regardless of the control mode selected by the mode selector.

Inventors

• Yoichiro ISAMI
• Kenji Mizutani
• Hirotaka IKEGAMI
• Akihito YASUE

Assignees

• TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA

Dates

Publication Date

20260507

Application Date

20251219

Priority Date

20221221

Claims (6)

1. 1 . A battery electric vehicle that uses an electric motor as a traction power unit, the electric motor being configured to run on power supplied from a battery and that stores regenerative power in the battery, the battery electric vehicle comprising: an accelerator pedal; a shifter; a mode selector configured to select either a first control mode or a second control mode as a control mode for the electric motor based on a mode selection operation by a driver; and a control device configured to enable selection of the control mode by a driver via the mode selector when a state of charge of the battery is within a predetermined range, wherein in the first control mode, an output of the electric motor is changed according to an operation of the accelerator pedal regardless of an operation position of the shifter, and in the second control mode, an output characteristic of the electric motor is changed according to the operation of the accelerator pedal and the operation position of the shifter.
2. 2 . The battery electric vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the control device is further configured to change the control mode to the first control mode when the state of charge of the battery falls outside of the predetermined range even if the second control mode is selected by a user.
3. 3 . The battery electric vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the control device is further configured to disable selection of the second control mode when the state of charge of the battery is outside of the predetermined range.
4. 4 . The battery electric vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the mode selector includes a display, and the control device is further configured to display a notification to the driver on the display that selection of the second control mode is disabled when the state of charge deviates from the predetermined range.
5. 5 . The battery electric vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein: the predetermined range is defined by a first threshold greater than half a capacity of the battery; and the control device is configured to control the electric motor in the first control mode when the state of charge is above the first threshold.
6. 6 . The battery electric vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein: the predetermined range is defined by a second threshold less than half a capacity of the battery; and the control device is configured to control the electric motor in the first control mode when the state of charge is below the second threshold.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/519,604 filed on Nov. 27, 2023, which claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2022-204361 filed on Dec. 21, 2022. The disclosure of each of the above-identified applications, including the specification, drawings, and claims, is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. BACKGROUND 1. Technical Field The present disclosure relates to battery electric vehicles using an electric motor as a traction power unit. 2. Description of Related Art Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2022-036845 (JP 2022-036845 A) discloses a battery electric vehicle that can switch between the following two control modes: a control mode (hereinafter referred to as manual transmission (MT) mode) in which the battery electric vehicle has torque characteristics like those of a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission and an internal combustion engine (hereinafter referred to as manual transmission (MT) vehicle), and a control mode (hereinafter referred to as electric vehicle (EV) mode) in which the battery electric vehicle has torque characteristics of a normal battery electric vehicle. SUMMARY By allowing the driver to switch the battery electric vehicle between the MT mode and the EV mode, the driver can selectively enjoy driving the battery electric vehicle like driving an MT vehicle and driving the battery electric vehicle as a normal battery electric vehicle. However, driving a battery electric vehicle is constrained by the state of charge (SOC) of a battery. For example, in order to prevent the battery from going into the state of overdischarge in which the SOC is lower than its lower limit value, the power that is supplied during acceleration is limited by the allowable discharge power. In order to prevent the battery from going into the state of overcharge in which the SOC is higher than its upper limit value, the regenerative power during deceleration is limited by the allowable charge power. In a battery electric vehicle, the supplied power and the regenerative power are controlled with reference to the SOC. However, when the MT mode is selected, the supplied power and the regenerative power are determined according to the manual operation by the driver. As a result, the SOC may become close to an overcharge region, and the supplied power may be limited by the allowable discharge power. Also, the SOC may become close to an overdischarge region, and the regenerative power may be limited by the allowable charge power. These limitations are against the driver's desire to drive a battery electric vehicle like he or she drives an MT vehicle. The present disclosure was made in view of the above problems. It is one object of the present disclosure to allow a driver of a battery electric vehicle to enjoy both driving the battery electric vehicle like driving an MT vehicle and driving the battery electric vehicle as a normal battery electric vehicle by switching the control mode, and at the same time, to reduce the possibility that the enjoyment of driving may be spoiled by the condition of the SOC of a battery. The present disclosure provides a battery electric vehicle that achieves the above object. A battery electric vehicle according to the present disclosure is a battery electric vehicle that uses as a traction power unit an electric motor configured to run on power supplied from a battery and stores regenerative power in the battery. The battery electric vehicle of the present disclosure includes an accelerator pedal, a shifter,a mode selector, anda control device configured to control an electric motor. The mode selector is configured to select either a first mode or a second mode as a control mode for the electric motor according to a mode selection operation by a driver. The control device is configured to, when an SOC of the battery is within a predetermined range, control the electric motor in the control mode selected by the mode selector, and when the SOC of the battery is out of the predetermined range, control the electric motor in the first mode regardless of the control mode selected by the mode selector. The control device is configured to, when controlling the electric motor in the first mode, change an output of the electric motor according to an operation of the accelerator pedal regardless of an operation position of the shifter, and when controlling the electric motor in the second mode, change an output characteristic of the electric motor for the operation of the accelerator pedal according to the operation position of the shifter. According to the battery electric vehicle of the present disclosure, the driver can selectively enjoy driving the battery electric vehicle as a normal battery electric vehicle by selecting the first mode and driving the battery electric vehicle like driving an MT vehicle by selecting the second mode. When the SOC i