Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Taichi Ogawa

Tohru Kuribayashi

Kaoru Fukui

Shinobu Ochiai

Kazunori Watanabe

Kazuhiro Hara

Osamu Hasegawa

Kazuki Takahashi

Arata Ohishi

Hideharu Takemoto

Yuusuke Ozaki

Eiji Agatsuma

Masaki Amakai

Yoshio Hosono

Akihito Ohtsu

A circuit breaker device is provided with a main contactor part that can switch between connection and disconnection of a battery and a circuit, and a circuit breaker () that can disconnect the battery. The circuit breaker () is provided with: a connector connection part () having a pair of connector circuit terminals () related to passing electricity through a coil for the main contactor part; a connector () that is attachable to and detachable from the connector connection part () and has a connector shorting terminal () that shorts the pair of connector circuit terminals () upon attachment to the connector connection part (); and a claw part () for restricting attachment of the connector () to the connector connection part ().

Circuit breaker device

A power supply apparatus includes a controller. If the controller detects that the internal resistance of a battery detected by an internal resistance detecting unit is relatively high, then the controller switches a first switch from an open state to a closed state using a first threshold value with respect to the voltage difference between a battery voltage and a system voltage, and if the controller detects that the internal resistance of the battery is relatively low, then the controller switches the first switch from the open state to the closed state using a second threshold value which is smaller than the first threshold value.

Power supply apparatus and method of controlling the same

An electric vehicle may include a main battery, a charging system electronic device, an electrically powered system-based electronic device, a first high-voltage electric wire; and a second high-voltage electric wire. The electrically powered system-based electronic device and the charging system electronic device may be sequentially disposed in parallel. The electric vehicle may further include a first junction relay capable of isolating the first high-voltage electric wire; and a second junction relay capable of isolating the second high-voltage electric wire. The first junction relay is disposed between the main battery and the charging system electronic device, and a first pre-charge relay which bypasses the first junction relay is disposed in parallel with the first junction relay, and the second junction relay is disposed between the charging system electronic device and the electrically powered system-based electronic device.

Electric vehicle

An air inlet is provided at the bottom of a vehicle to open downwardly. The air inlet is connected by a first tube to an air cooler for a PDU and a down converter. A fan for inputting the flow of air and turning its direction 90 degrees is connected at the downstream of the air cooler. The fan is further connected by a second tube to an exhaust outlet. The air inlet is located above a fuel tank thus to prevent any object jumping up from the road surface from straightforwardly entering the air inlet while the vehicle is running. The exhaust outlet is located above a silencer and can thus be prevented from being frozen in the winter. Using the above arrangement, the present invention embodies an air intaking and exhausting apparatus in an air cooling system for air cooling the PDU and the down converter at higher efficiency without the help of the air cooler mounted in the interior of the vehicle.

Air-intaking and exhausting apparatus in air cooling system for PDU and down-converter

A wasteful consumption of electric energy supplied to charge a battery is reduced when the battery is charged with a low charging efficiency due to a high battery temperature. The battery, typically comprising nickel-hydrogen secondary cells, is prevented from being deteriorated due to a high battery temperature after the battery is charged. While the battery is being charged, the battery is cooled by a battery cooling unit to prevent the charging efficiency from being lowered. If the battery temperature rises above a predetermined temperature, a contactor is opened to temporarily stop the charging of the battery, and the battery is cooled by the battery cooling unit. After the battery is charged, the battery is cooled if the battery temperature is high.

Battery charging apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Utsunomiya, Japan

Taichi Ogawa