{
  "patent_number": "US 11235681",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "Smart EV Charging to Protect Battery Life During Long Parking",
  "original_title": "Curtailing battery degradation of an electric vehicle during long-term parking",
  "summary": "This patent describes a system that intelligently discharges and recharges an electric vehicle's battery while parked for a long time, like at an airport, to prevent battery damage and ensure it's ready when the owner returns, using vehicle-to-grid technology.",
  "what_it_does": "This patent describes a computer program, called a \"charge control application\" (Claim 1), that manages an electric vehicle's (EV) battery when it's parked for an extended period. When the EV connects to a special \"vehicle-to-grid (V2G) interface\" (Claim 1), the application first commands the interface to discharge the battery to a \"low threshold state of charge (SoC)\" (Claim 1). This low charge level helps prevent the battery from degrading while stored. The system then figures out when the EV owner is expected to return by using information from their \"end-user device\" (Claim 1), such as a smartphone (Claim 4) or the car's computer (Claim 5), which might include flight details (Claim 6). Based on this predicted return time, the application calculates a \"return threshold time\" (Claim 1) and commands the V2G interface to recharge the battery to an \"upper threshold SoC\" (Claim 1) just before the owner is expected back. For example, if you park your EV at an airport for a week, the system might discharge your battery to 3% (Claim 7) for storage, then recharge it to 95% (Claim 8) just before your flight lands.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover battery management systems that only charge or only discharge without the intelligent timing based on an expected return.",
    "Does not cover systems that manage battery degradation without specifically utilizing a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) interface.",
    "Does not cover systems that determine an operator's return time without using data from an \"end-user device\" or information characterizing \"another vehicle\" like a flight.",
    "Does not cover simply maintaining a battery at a fixed State of Charge (SoC) without the initial discharge to a low threshold and a timed recharge to an upper threshold.",
    "Does not cover systems that do not involve both a \"low threshold SoC\" and an \"upper threshold SoC\" for battery management."
  ],
  "filed": "2020-05-08",
  "granted": "2022-02-01",
  "expires": "2040-05-08",
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "Inventus Holdings",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/inventus-holdings",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Christopher S. Collins",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/christopher-s-collins"
    },
    {
      "name": "Prasanna Shrivastava",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/prasanna-shrivastava"
    },
    {
      "name": "Daniel M Brake",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/daniel-m-brake"
    },
    {
      "name": "Rachana VIDHI",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/rachana-vidhi"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 3,
  "tags": [
    "consumer_electronics",
    "automotive",
    "telecommunications",
    "software",
    "energy"
  ],
  "abstract": "A non-transitory machine readable medium having machine executable instructions can include a charge control application. The charge control application can determine, in response to detecting that an electric vehicle (EV) is electrically coupled to a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) interface, a degradation threshold state of charge (SoC) for a battery of the EV. The charge control application can also command the V2G interface to discharge the battery of the EV to a lower threshold SoC that is below the degradation threshold SoC. The charge control application can further command the V2G interface to charge the battery of the EV to an upper threshold SoC that is above the degradation threshold SoC at a return threshold time, wherein the return threshold time is a calculated amount of time prior to an expected return time of an operator of the EV.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/11235681/curtailing-battery-degradation-of-an-electric-vehicle-during-long-term-parking",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/11235681/curtailing-battery-degradation-of-an-electric-vehicle-during-long-term-parking/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US11235681",
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}