Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for passthrough charging support for EVs, Ford Authority has learned.
The patent was filed on August 4th, 2021, published on February 9th, 2023, and assigned serial number 0038656.
The Ford Authority Take
Ford has filed a plethora of charging patents in recent months as it continues down its path to mass electrification, including one for a hands-free charging system, an in-flight EV towing assistance system, an in-flight charging system for EVs, an EV charging coordination system, a portable vehicle charging system, and an EV charging pad with wireless charging. Now, this new Ford patent expands upon those previous filings, as well as the vehicle-to-vehicle charging capability of the Ford F-150 Lightning.
Currently, EV charging stations are only capable of charging one vehicle at a time, but this Ford patent aims to change that by introducing an idea for a bidirectional energy transfer system. This setup would include a “host” vehicle and a “surrogate” vehicle, with the latter being attached to the former via a charging cable. Since these vehicles feature two charge ports instead of one, additional vehicles could also be hooked up in tandem – an expansion on the F-150 Lightning’s capabilities.
This entire process would be controlled by a web-based application, which owners could use to change which vehicle is charging which, as well as the desired output of energy. Once that process is complete, both drivers could go on about their merry way, both with sufficient charge to reach their destination. It’s an interesting idea, albeit one that isn’t terribly far-fetched, given existing technology, and may one day provide EV owners with yet another way to charge on the go.
We’ll have more on this and all Ford patents soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford patent news, Ford business news, and non-stop Ford news coverage.
Comments
Why do they waste time with this stuff?
They charge old golf carts this way or old fork lifts,. But different vehicles are varying states of charge are going to complete at various times., Whereas the former wouldn’t be group charged unless they were all pretty much depleted and it’s a relatively small amount of power anyways.
They would productively use engineering talent to make cars more reliable, not all this reinventing the wheel crap.
I agree
So you walk up to a strangers EV and plug into it? Let your mind run with that…..
When you think about the GREAT BRAINS who come up with this stuff, you have to wonder where they hid the brains……
With Golf Carts and Fork Lifts that may run on 36 volts direct current or so, it is more economical to build a 240 at 10 amp DC charger than to build a 40 volt 60 amp DC charger… Or Six 40 volt @ 10 amp chargers.. Plus in a large golf course or large distribution center, the golf carts and fork lifts are all pretty much the SAME..
Putting cars which can only withstand 240 volts AC (since they are using the Level 1&2 ports and not the DC fast charging port in series requires anywhere from 600 – 750 volts ac, and then if one of the cars cannot take 30 amps (like most FORD PHEVs which are 16 amperes max, and GM stuff which in the past has been 15 amperes max – and then the other 2 cars in SERIES must all charge at the rate of the slowest car…
Of course then you have all those Expensive and Troublesome added J1772 male and female connectors that make the entire project uneconomic anyway….
The other problem is that 600-750 volts (for 3 cars in Series) is far above the voltage to GROUND that the individual cars are expecting…
A FAR BETTER idea would be to have the cars tolerate being charged at 277 volts – that way the cars would not draw much power off of a commercial 277Y/480 volt service. 3 – 30 amp cars would draw 30 amps off a single 3 phase feeder, 1 car per phase.
Tesla tried this for a while with their wallboxes (with a defeat mechanism if a NON-Tesla tried to charge, since the NON-Teslas couldn’t take it), but then decided that even this rather TINY change was not worth the added effort, and they dumped the idea as totally stupid and not worth the infintesimal benefit.
This idea is a total joke for the reasons I said, and if the people at the US Patent office have any brains they should FINE FORD for wasting their time with Ideas written by Ignoramouses.
Seems like a solution no one is asking for. Are they?
3 Minutes of my life I’ll never get back, after reading this article, assuming Ford figured out a new way electrons work. Nope, they didn’t.
It all boils down to, as it always does with EV’s; where’s the power coming from again?
From AAA’s words:
In late 2022, there were some 79,000 of them in California; the state needs 1.2 million by 2030 to meet the expected growth in EV adoption.
1.2 mil divided by the 84 weeks remaining until 2030 = 14285, per week, chargers needing to be installed. Hahahahahaha in this state? They do Nothing right, but I guess that’s all changing with the EV initiative.
And this is just the chargers, not the power that feeds them. Even if the loons decided on nuclear, that would take decades to come online.
But in the end, what will save them is the lack of demand.
Fools.