Nissan Motor Company Limited

Dana Canada Corporation

Hisashi Niioka

Hiroshi Tanaka

Naoki Yamamoto

Atsushi Takano

Takashi Iimori

Kazuhiko Okino

Hayato Chikugo

Takuya Kinoshita

Satoshi Okano

Yoshinori Nakano

Junichi Hasegawa

Mitsunori Kumada

Ikuhiro Taniguchi

Masatoshi Iio

Kazuhiro Kageyama

Ken Nakayama

Shinsuke Higuchi

Tsutomu Soga

Naoto Todoroki

Hitoshi Igarashi

Takatada Usami

Kotaro Akashi

Kenji Yonekura

Akihiro Sakakida

Manaf Hasan

Takayoshi Nabeta

Yuki Takanezawa

Craig Hogg

Mark Britton

Douglas Vanderwees

Nobuo Sakatsume

Yoshinao Ootake

Yoshinao c/o Nissan Motor Co Ltd Ootake

Hitoshi c/o Nissan Motor Co Ltd Igarashi

Ikuhiro c/o Nissan Motor Co Ltd Taniguchi

Naoto c/o Nissan Motor Co Ltd Todoroki

A vehicle control system has a battery installed in a vehicle and capable of being charged with electricity supplied from an external power source outside the vehicle, an auxiliary device that operates by consuming the electricity supplied from the external power source or the battery, a communication unit that transmits information about the vehicle outward from the vehicle, and a control unit that directs the communication unit to transmit information about predetermined notice to a user of the vehicle when a predetermined condition for activating the auxiliary device is fulfilled and when the external power source is not available. The predetermined condition is that a request for activating the auxiliary device is made but the auxiliary device cannot start or continue operating.

Vehicle control system, vehicle information providing device, and vehicle information providing method

Provided is a battery temperature control device configured to automatically heat a battery with a battery-driven heater so that the battery does not freeze at a minimum electric power consumption when the battery is out of use. The battery temperature control device predicts, based on a combination of a battery temperature and an outside air temperature, a predictive time that the battery temperature is likely to be less than a first set temperature, while the battery temperature is higher than or equal to the first set temperature at which there is no risk of freezing, and sets the predictive time as the next controller startup time, and determines whether or not the battery temperature has fallen to below the first set temperature with a control program wakeup when the predictive time has expired, and battery-drives the heater when the battery temperature fall has occurred, to heat the battery.

Battery temperature control device

When completion of timer charge before elapse of a designated time is designated by a timer charge reservation means for allowing a user to designate a predetermined charge time zone and a target amount of electric power to be charged to the battery, a timer charge start time is determined. Upon carrying out the timer charge, when it is predicted that the timer charge and battery heating are simultaneously carried out, a required amount of extension of a charge time period is determined so as to complete charge of the battery by the designated time, and starts charge of the battery at a time advanced relative to the timer charge start time by the required amount of extension of a charge time period. With this control, charge of the battery can be completed at a predetermined time without unnecessary enhancement in a required capacity of a battery heater.

Charge control apparatus for vehicle

At a timing of time tbattery temperature Tbat lowers to Tbat_start and a warm-up request occurs, SOC at this time is a level, like time t, which allows a vehicle to travel by itself up to a battery charging facility and allows a battery charger to be connected to the battery charging facility. Since a warm-up permission judging value is set to SOCs_low that is substantially 0 at time t, in response to judgment of 'SOC&#x2267;SOCs_low (&#x2248;0)', warm-up of the battery is carried out from time tas shown by a solid line, then Tbat can be increased from time t. A battery charge time can be thus shortened. With this, in order that the battery does not freeze while the battery is unused, a control that warms up the battery by a battery-driven heater is performed while shortening the battery charge time.

Even when temperature sensors () used in a device for warming a battery () being not in use by using a battery-driven heater () have failed, the battery () is prevented from freezing. Based on a battery temperature (Tb) and an outside air temperature (Ta), times (&#x394;tto &#x394;t) during which Tb will decrease down to a warming start temperature (Tb_start) are each set to the next controller startup time (&#x394;t). A controller () is started up every &#x394;t, at t, t, and t, and checks whether Tb&#x3c;Tb_start is satisfied or not. At twhen Tb&#x3c;Tb_start is satisfied, a heater () is battery-driven to warm the battery (). After twhen the outside air temperature sensor () fails, the outside air temperature (Ta) is set to a fixed value (Ta_const) and based on this Ta=Ta_const and the battery temperature (Tb), the above control is repeated. Accordingly, it is unlikely that the temperature information (Ta) from the outside air temperature sensor () that is at fault causes &#x394;t to become extremely long like &#x221e;, so that it is avoided that the heater () cannot be operated because the controller () cannot be started up and the battery () freezes.

A fuel cell stack includes a heat exchange unit that performs heat exchange between a gas mixture containing source hydrogen and a circulating gas and cooling water used for controlling the temperature of the fuel cell stack. A system controller adjusts the temperature of the cooling water by controlling a temperature control unit on the basis of the temperature of source hydrogen flowing into a junction at which the source hydrogen and a circulating gas are mixed such that the temperature of a source/recirculated hydrogen mixture that is mixed at the junction and that is supplied to the fuel cell stack is kept within a managed temperature range.

Fuel cell system and method of controlling fuel cell system

A gas/liquid separator is provided in which separation performance for fluid into gas and liquid is enhanced. A gas/liquid separator includes a body which separates a circulation gas into water and hydrogen gas in a separating space, a supply port from which the circulation gas flows into the inner space, the supply port being provided on the side wall surface forming the separating space, and a discharge port through which the separated hydrogen gas flows out of the separating space, the discharge port being provided on the side wall surface. In this case, the discharge port is provided above the supply port.

Gas/liquid separator

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Yokohama, Japan

Hisashi Niioka