Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for preemptive reenergizing alerts that may be used in future Ford EVs, Ford Authority has learned.
The patent was filed on September 28th, 2021, published on November 12th, 2024, and assigned serial number 12139034.
The Ford Authority Take
Finding ways for future Ford EVs to make it easier on owners looking to utilize public chargers has been a point of emphasis from The Blue Oval as of late, as we can see from some recently published patents outlining ideas for a “coaching” system to help with charging decisions, a charging price evaluation system, and a system that could even respond to changes in driving conditions. Now, this newly published patent presents us with another, similar idea, this time for preemptive reenergizing alerts that may be used in future Ford EVs, too.
The concept here is to come up with a way to notify EV owners that power disruptions are likely to occur which could significantly impact energy prices. The idea is that if a big spike in energy prices is on the horizon, users could go ahead and charge their EVs before that happens, which could potentially save them a lot of money – or even prevent them from not being able to charge at all, if the grid goes down. This has become increasingly common in recent years amid major weather events and increased strain on the grid.
As Ford points out in the patent, this could also come in handy given the rise of bi-directional charging capability. For those that use their EVs as a power source when the grid is down, they’ll certainly want to have those vehicles charged before blackouts occur, or they may not be able to do precisely that. As such, this system could warn users via their smartphone app when an outage or surge pricing is likely to occur within a certain time frame, and even direct them to nearby charging stations – a potentially useful feature, if it ever comes to fruition.
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