Charge your EV anywhere via standard smart meter and cellular connection

You have just driven your shiny new electric car to a friend.s for dinner. Why not charge up a bit while you dine? There is a convenient plug right there. As a good guest, you want to make sure you pay for the electricity and more importantly, that your friend does not get bumped up to a higher electricity rate for the rest of the month. Our proposal solves this problem at any power outlet, at any time, even in public spaces.

Our solution is to use a simple communication between the EV and the smart power meter in common use today. When the mobile charger is connected to the outlet, the vehicle uses a standard protocol over the power line to communicate with the meter. The meter responds with its unique serial number. The vehicle then charges as desired. The meter reading is conveyed as needed to assure a calibrated measure of the energy delivered.

The next time the driver uses the car, the record of the charge is relayed to the utility company. The record includes the time and quantity of energy taken so that the correct rate is charged. The connection can be made automatically through the driver.s cell phone. The billing is reconciled on the back end so that each party is billed for the usage appropriately. This also accommodates tiered electricity rates. Alternately, the whole process can be reversed, with the car reporting its serial number to the meter. A smart meter network could then report up the chain to secure the proper billing for each party.

At Twill Tech Inc, we are developing a new class of all electric vehicles. Our ambition is that Twill vehicles will be the most efficient, most comfortable, and safest vehicles ever produced. They will also be inexpensive to purchase and to operate. The additional expense of a home charging station with a separate meter will be out of reach or impractical for many. The proposed low-cost charge-everywhere system will make owning a Twill more convenient for all buyers.

Twill vehicles are small and light so they have relatively small batteries. On most days they are only used to commute to and from work. For the average 30 mile commute the batteries are only partially drained. This small energy demand is well served by a common 120VAC household outlet. The same communication and billing system can be used for full size plug-in electric cars. For EVs with on-board chargers, only a 220 VAC outlet is needed. The details are all taken care of by the simple automatic billing system.

This is strikingly analogous to the transformation of the telephone business from hard lines to cellular. In the near future, cars will be major mobile customers, collecting energy at any power point. This software infrastructure eliminates the need for public and private charging machines, special billing services, and dedicated power meters. This greatly reduces the infrastructure cost while promoting the adoption of plug-in electric cars.