Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for an errant EV charging detection system, Ford Authority has learned.
The patent was filed on August 18th, 2021, published on February 23rd, 2023, and assigned serial number 0058031.
The Ford Authority Take
Over the past several months, Ford has filed a large number of patents related to electric vehicle charging, including one for an EV charging station guidance system, an EV charging coordination system, and passthrough charging support for EVs, to name just a few. Aside from trying to get a leg up on the competition, the reasoning behind this is quite simple – existing charging infrastructure is inadequate and oftentimes unreliable – problems backed up by some recent studies – presenting a major barrier to EV adoption. In some remote cases, vehicles have even experienced major issues after charging at public stations.
Of course, companies involved in these ventures are working to correct those problems, with Electrify America recently outlining a new quality pledge and FoMoCo launching its “Charge Angels” program to sniff out defective chargers. Now, this new Ford patent aims to further those efforts by presenting an idea for determining when a charger might be experiencing problems and automatically notify the proper authorities.
This type of system would remain in sleep mode until it’s used by a customer, at which point it could increase power consumption once an EV plugs up to it. If it detects a problem, the charger would automatically shut down and cease that process, protecting the vehicle and the charger at the same time.
Such an idea obviously has quite a bit of merit, especially given the handful of problems customers have experienced with public chargers in recent months. It could not only prevent possible damage, but also help reduce downtime, which is critical as more and more EVs hit the road in the coming years.
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 comprehensive Ford news coverage.
Comments
I’ve worked with batteries and chargers for several decades. The ability of software to detect and prevent either, a bad battery being charged or a defective charger not charging within a certain specification has been around since the 80’s This should have already been part of Ford’s (and other manufacturers) design.