Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for a charging price evaluation system that may be used in future Ford EVs, Ford Authority has learned.
The patent was filed on May 1st, 2023, published on November 7th, 2024, and assigned serial number 0367547.
The Ford Authority Take
Of the many patents that Ford has published in recent months, many of them pertain to ways the automaker may make it easier for future EV owners to find and utilize charging stations. That list includes ideas for real-time third party charger info, a system that could guide owners to chargers, and an EV charger rating system, to name just a few. Now, this newly published patent keeps that trend alive, this time, by presenting us with an idea for a charging price evaluation system that may be used in future Ford EVs, too.
As Ford points out in this patent, EV owners that charge at home typically know what it will cost to do so, but when traveling and using third-party chargers, those costs can vary greatly. Additionally, the way third-parties charge for this service can vary quite a bit as well – for example, in the case of units that charge based on a period of time that they’re used, there are a lot of other variables involved, which can make it difficult to determine what a charging session will ultimately cost. Thus, it proposes a system that’s designed to take a host of variables into account to give EV owners a more precise idea of what they’ll need to spend to use a specific charger.
The system would do this first by taking into account the vehicle’s current state of charge, as well as the temperature of the battery. From there, it would determine a charge acceptance rate, a well as whether or not those terms are acceptable, al while locating nearby chargers that meet these parameters. It’s a potentially useful idea for sure, and one that we imagine future EV owners will appreciate if it comes to fruition.
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