JP5407876B2 - Display device for hybrid vehicle - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a display device used for a hybrid vehicle including an electric motor for traveling and an engine (internal combustion engine).

  The hybrid vehicle has an electric motor for traveling (hereinafter simply referred to as a motor) and an engine (internal combustion engine), and travels using only the motor according to traveling conditions or the like, and a hybrid traveling or engine that uses the engine in combination. It is configured to be able to switch to only traveling. Hybrid vehicles equipped with an engine dedicated to power generation are also known.

  In an example of a hybrid vehicle, control may be performed such that the vehicle travels only with a motor when the accelerator operation amount is small, and is switched to hybrid travel when the accelerator operation amount exceeds a certain level. Also, a display device that displays the motor travel zone and the hybrid travel zone on the background of the meter for displaying the travel status of the vehicle, and moves the indicator between the motor travel zone and the hybrid travel zone in accordance with the amount of accelerator operation. Is also known. In this type of display device, the indicator indicates the motor travel zone when the accelerator operation amount is small, and the indicator moves to the hybrid travel zone when the accelerator operation amount increases. (See Patent Documents 1 and 2 below)

Japanese Patent No. 4155321 Japanese Patent No. 4251210

  In a vehicle that performs control such as driving by a motor only when the accelerator operation amount is small, and switching to hybrid driving when the accelerator operation amount exceeds a certain level, such as the conventional hybrid vehicle, In order to reduce the fuel consumption or to reduce the fuel consumption, there is a possibility that traveling by only the motor is frequently used.

  In particular, in a hybrid vehicle equipped with a large-capacity battery, it is possible to run for a long time using only the motor. Therefore, in extreme cases, the engine may not be used for a long time. If the engine is stopped for a long period of time, it will not continue to supply lubricating oil to various parts of the engine, or the engine auxiliary equipment will remain stopped for a long period of time, causing adverse effects on moving parts, etc. May occur.

  Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a display device capable of suppressing the engine from being stopped for a long period of time in a hybrid vehicle including a traveling motor and an engine.

The present invention is a display device for a hybrid vehicle that includes a motor for driving, a drive battery, and an engine, and a display unit provided at a position where a driver can visually check the display unit, and the display unit is controlled. A data processing unit. The display unit includes a background display surface including a motor travel zone and a hybrid travel zone, and an indicator movable with respect to the background display surface. The data processing unit includes means for moving the indicator between the motor travel zone and the hybrid travel zone according to an accelerator operation amount, and a state in which the hybrid vehicle travels only by the motor and the engine is stopped. Means for counting the continuous time, and when the counted engine stop time is within a predetermined reference value, the background display surface of the display unit is set to a first stage display, and the engine stop time is greater than the reference value Means for switching the background display surface to a third stage display when a second reference value is exceeded, and the background display surface of the motor travel zone in the first stage display and the third stage display. aforementioned hybrid traveling zone the background display surface between the mutually common first background display on the display, and, before the display of the first stage Wherein the hybrid drive zone and background display surface and the background display surface and the mutually common second background display of the motor drive zone in the display of the third stage, the first background than the running mode in the second background display In the display, the first background display is an alerting display for prompting the travel more than the second background display so as to encourage the travel in the travel mode .

  In one form of this invention, the said data processing part has a means to change the width | variety of the said motor driving | running | working zone according to the charging rate of the said drive battery, and when the charging rate of the said drive battery falls, the said motor The driving zone is narrowed.

An example of the background display surface changes color between the first-stage display and the second-stage display. The data processing unit further includes means for switching the background display surface to a second stage display when the engine stop time exceeds the reference value, and the counted engine stop time is a first reference. No display of the second stage when greater below the second reference value than the value, the background display surface on the display of the third stage when the engine stop time exceeds said second reference value You may make it switch.

  According to the present invention, in a hybrid vehicle including a motor and an engine for traveling, when the state of traveling by only the motor continues for a long time and the engine has stopped for a long time, the engine is switched to hybrid traveling. The driver can be prompted to operate, and the driver can switch to hybrid driving based on the position of the indicator with respect to the background display surface displayed on the display unit. For this reason, it is possible to avoid problems caused by the engine being stopped for a long time.

The figure which shows typically the structure of the hybrid vehicle provided with the display apparatus which concerns on one embodiment of this invention. The block diagram which shows the structure of the display apparatus of the hybrid vehicle shown by FIG. The front view which shows the display of the 1st step of the display apparatus of the hybrid vehicle shown by FIG. The front view which shows the display of the 2nd step of the display apparatus of the hybrid vehicle shown by FIG. The front view which shows the display of the 3rd step of the display apparatus of the hybrid vehicle shown by FIG. The flowchart which shows the flow of a process of the display apparatus of the hybrid vehicle shown by FIG.

Hereinafter, a hybrid vehicle including a display device according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6.
A hybrid vehicle 10 shown in FIG. 1 includes traveling motors 11 and 12, a large-capacity driving battery 13 (hereinafter simply referred to as a battery 13) that is a power source for the motors 11 and 12, and a traveling motor. An engine 14 and a display device 15 are provided. The battery 13 is configured to obtain a high voltage of 100 volts or more by connecting a plurality of cells in series. The battery 13 can be charged with electric power supplied from a commercial power source via a charging cable (not shown) and a charger 16.

  The front motor 11 rotates the front wheel 21 via the power transmission mechanism 20. The rear motor 12 rotates the rear wheel 23 via the power transmission mechanism 22. The engine 14 is controlled by an engine ECU (electronic control unit) 30. The engine 14 is operated by the fuel supplied from the fuel tank 31, rotates the front wheel 21 via the power transmission mechanism 20, and drives the generator 32. The output of the generator 32 is supplied to a 12V on-vehicle battery 34 via an inverter 33. The inverter 33 is connected to the air conditioning device 35 and is also used as a power source for the air conditioning device 35. Exhaust gas from the engine 14 is discharged into the atmosphere through an exhaust treatment device 40 and a muffler 41.

  The hybrid vehicle 10 includes an accelerator position sensor 51 for detecting an operation amount of an accelerator pedal 50 (shown in FIG. 1), a hybrid ECU 55, motor ECUs 56 and 57, a battery ECU 58, and the like. The accelerator position sensor 51 detects the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal 50 operated by the driver, and outputs the detection result to the hybrid ECU 55. The calculation results of the motor ECUs 56 and 57 and the calculation result of the battery ECU 58 are also input to the hybrid ECU 55.

  As shown in FIG. 2, a battery detection unit 60 is provided to detect the state of the battery 13. The battery detection unit 60 includes a voltage sensor 61, a temperature sensor 62, a current sensor 63, and the like.

  The battery ECU 58 includes an SOC calculator 70 that detects the state of charge of the battery 13 based on the output of the battery detection unit 60, a battery internal resistance calculator 71 that detects the internal resistance of the battery 13, and the battery 13. A battery deterioration state calculator 72 for detecting the deterioration state of the battery is included.

  The rotational speeds of the motors 11 and 12 are detected by the rotational speed sensor 80 and input to the motor ECUs 56 and 57. The temperatures of the motors 11 and 12 are detected by the temperature sensor 81 and input to the motor ECUs 56 and 57. The motor ECUs 56 and 57 monitor the states of the motors 11 and 12 based on these data.

  The display device 15 includes a display unit (power meter) 90 and a meter ECU 91 (shown in FIG. 1). The display unit 90 is arranged at a position where the driver can visually check, such as an instrument panel of the driver's seat, and has a function of displaying the driving status of the hybrid vehicle 10 to the driver or the like. The meter ECU 91 functions as a data processing unit for controlling the display unit 90.

  The display unit 90 includes a background display surface 95 that forms the background of the meter, and an indicator 96 that moves according to the amount of accelerator operation. As will be described later, the background display surface 95 is capable of changing the color in three stages according to the time during which the engine 14 has been stopped. As the background display surface 95, for example, a display panel such as a liquid crystal panel provided with a backlight may be used, or a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) may be used.

  3 to 5 show an example of the display unit 90. FIG. 3 shows a state in which the background display surface 95 is performing the first stage display (normal display). FIG. 4 shows the second stage display, and FIG. 5 shows the third stage display (attention ventilation display). These displays will be described in detail later.

  The background display surface 95 includes a motor travel zone 95a that displays that the motor is traveling alone, a hybrid travel zone 95b that displays that the vehicle is hybrid traveling, a charge zone 95c that indicates that a regenerative current is generated, and the like. Is included. The indicator 96 moves on the background display surface 95 in the zone width direction (direction indicated by arrow A) according to the accelerator operation amount.

  For example, when the hybrid vehicle 10 is stopped and the accelerator operation amount is zero, the indicator 96 is stopped at the zero point position P1 of the background display surface 95. When the accelerator pedal 50 is operated and the accelerator operation amount is equal to or less than a predetermined value, the motor travel mode is achieved by traveling only by the motors 11 and 12, and the indicator 96 of the display unit 90 is positioned in the motor travel zone 95a. When the accelerator operation amount exceeds the predetermined value, the hybrid vehicle travels to the combined use of the engine 14 and the indicator 96 on the display unit 90 moves to the hybrid travel zone 95b.

  If the accelerator operation is stopped and the vehicle is decelerated while the hybrid vehicle 10 is traveling, a regenerative current is generated in the motors 11 and 12, so that the regenerative current is supplied to the battery 13 and the indicator 96 of the display unit 90 is set in the charge zone 95c. It can be seen that the battery 13 is charged by moving to.

  Further, the display unit 90 can change the position of the boundary P2 between the motor travel zone 95a and the hybrid travel zone 95b in the zone width direction in accordance with the remaining capacity (charge rate) of the battery 13. Yes. That is, when the remaining capacity (charge rate) of the battery 13 is sufficient, the boundary P2 is set at the standard position shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, and when the remaining capacity (charge rate) of the battery 13 falls below a predetermined value, By moving the boundary P2 in the arrow B direction, the range of the motor travel zone 95a is narrowed.

  By looking at the display unit 90, the driver can perform an accelerator operation so that the indicator 96 enters the motor travel zone 95a when motor travel is desired. When it is desired to perform hybrid travel, the accelerator operation amount is increased so that the indicator 96 enters the hybrid travel zone 95b. Thus, motor driving and hybrid driving can be selected according to the driver's intention.

  In order to save fuel consumption or to obtain quietness, the driver can perform only motor running with a small accelerator operation amount. For this reason, there is a possibility that only motor travel is performed for a long period of time, and in this case, a situation occurs in which the engine 14 does not operate for a long period of time. Therefore, the display device 15 of the present embodiment changes the background display surface 95 so as to prompt the driver to shift from motor driving to hybrid driving when the engine 14 has not been operated for a long time.

The processing flow of the display device 15 of the present embodiment will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
First, in step ST1, it is determined whether or not the main switch is turned on. If the main switch is off, the timer time T is held in step ST2. If the main switch is on, the process proceeds to step ST3, and the accelerator operation amount is detected by the accelerator position sensor 51. Furthermore, by proceeding to step ST4, the battery ECU 58 detects the charging rate of the battery 13.

  In step ST5, it is determined whether the engine 14 is operating. If the engine 14 is operating, the timer time T is set to zero in step ST6. When the engine 14 is not operating, the process proceeds to step ST7, and the timer time T is added (counted up). That is, this step ST7 functions as “means for counting the time during which the hybrid vehicle travels only with the motor and the engine is stopped”.

  In step ST8, the ratio of the width of the motor travel zone 95a and the hybrid travel zone 95b on the background display surface 95 is determined according to the battery charge state. That is, when the remaining amount (charge rate) of the battery 13 is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the motor travel zone 95a is widened and the hybrid travel zone 95b is narrowed as shown in FIGS. When the remaining amount of the battery 13 decreases, the motor travel zone 95a is narrowed and the hybrid travel zone 95b is widened by moving the boundary P2 between the motor travel zone 95a and the hybrid travel zone 95b in the direction of arrow B. In other words, this step ST8 functions as “means for changing the width of the motor travel zone in accordance with the battery charge rate”, and narrows the motor travel zone when the battery charge rate decreases.

  Further, by proceeding to step ST9, the indicator 96 is moved according to the accelerator operation amount. For example, when the accelerator operation amount is small, the indicator 96 is positioned in the motor travel zone 95a. When the accelerator operation amount increases, the indicator 96 is moved to the hybrid travel zone 95b. For this reason, the driver can know whether the motor is running or the hybrid running by looking at the position of the indicator 96. That is, this step ST9 functions as “means for moving the indicator between the motor travel zone and the hybrid travel zone in accordance with the accelerator operation amount”.

  In step ST10, the timer time T is compared with the first reference value T1. If T is equal to or less than T1 (T1 ≧ T), the background display surface 95 is set to the first stage display in step ST11. . That is, this step ST10 functions as “means for displaying the background display surface of the display unit in the first stage when the counted engine stop time is within a predetermined reference value”.

  FIG. 3 shows a state in which the background display surface 95 is displaying the first stage. For example, the motor travel zone 95a is displayed in light green, and the hybrid travel zone 95b is displayed in pink. The charge zone 95c is displayed in light blue. When the first stage display is performed, the engine 14 does not need to be operated intentionally, so the background display surface 95 is not a display prompting the driver to perform hybrid travel, but a general display (normal display). .

  In step ST10, when T exceeds T1 (T> T1), the process proceeds to step ST12. In step ST12, the timer time T is compared with the second reference value T2, and if T is T2 or less (T2 ≧ T> T1), the process proceeds to step ST13, and the background display surface 95 is switched to the second stage display. . That is, this step ST13 functions as "means for switching the background display surface to the second stage display when the engine stop time exceeds the reference value".

  FIG. 4 shows a state in which the background display surface 95 is displaying the second stage. For example, the motor travel zone 95a is displayed in green, and the hybrid travel zone 95b is displayed in yellow. The charge zone 95c is displayed in light blue. At the time when the second stage display is performed, an intermediate time has passed since the engine 14 was stopped, so a display prompting the driver that hybrid driving may be performed soon (medium warning) Display).

In step ST12, when T exceeds T2 (T> T2), the process proceeds to step ST14, and the background display surface 95 is switched to the third stage display.
FIG. 5 shows a state in which the background display surface 95 displays the third stage. For example, the motor travel zone 95a is displayed in pink, and the hybrid travel zone 95b is displayed in light green. The charge zone 95c is displayed in light blue. At the time when the third stage display is performed, the engine 14 has been in a stopped state for a long time, and therefore, a display that prompts the driver to perform hybrid travel (attention display).

  Therefore, the driver can operate the engine 14 by increasing the accelerator operation amount and moving the indicator 96 to the hybrid travel zone 95b. For this reason, it is possible to avoid problems due to the engine 14 remaining in a stopped state for a long period of time, and it is possible to maintain the condition of the engine 14 and auxiliary equipment well.

  As described above, according to the hybrid vehicle 10 including the display device 15 of the present embodiment, the display unit is displayed when the state in which the running by only the motors 11 and 12 continues for a long time and the engine 14 does not operate continues for a long time. By displaying 90 in a warning color other than the normal display, it is possible to prompt the driver to shift to hybrid driving, and the engine 14 can be operated.

  In the case of the above embodiment, the color of the background display surface 95 is changed in each of the first-stage display (normal display), the second-stage display, and the third-stage display (attention display). Instead of changing, for example, display may be made with different symbols, patterns, characters, etc. at each stage, and hybrid driving may be promoted according to the form of the background display surface 95. Further, only the first-stage display and the second-stage display may be used. In short, it is only necessary to be able to switch to a display capable of prompting hybrid travel.

  Moreover, when implementing this invention, it cannot be overemphasized that aspects, such as a structure, number, arrangement | positioning, etc. of an engine, a motor, a battery, etc. which are mounted in a hybrid vehicle can be changed variously including the specific aspect of a display part. .

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Hybrid vehicle 11, 12 ... Motor 13 ... Battery 14 ... Engine 15 ... Display apparatus 90 ... Display part 91 ... Meter ECU (data processing part)
95 ... Background display surface 95a ... Motor traveling zone 95b ... Hybrid traveling zone 96 ... Indicator

Claims (4)

A display device for a hybrid vehicle including a traveling motor, a driving battery, and an engine,
A display unit provided at a position where the driver can see;
A data processing unit for controlling the display unit,
The display unit
A background display surface including a motor travel zone and a hybrid travel zone, and an indicator movable relative to the background display surface,
The data processing unit
Means for moving the indicator between the motor travel zone and the hybrid travel zone in accordance with an accelerator operation amount;
Means for counting a time during which the hybrid vehicle travels only with the motor and the engine is stopped; and
When the counted engine stop time is within a predetermined reference value, the background display surface of the display unit is set to the first stage display, and when the engine stop time exceeds a second reference value greater than the reference value Means for switching the background display surface to a third stage display;
Comprising
The background display surface of the motor travel zone in the display of the first step and the background display surface of the hybrid travel zone in the display of the third step are set as a common first background display, and the first step The background display surface of the hybrid travel zone in the display of the above and the background display surface of the motor travel zone in the display of the third stage as a second background display common to each other ,
The first background display is an alerted display for urging the vehicle to travel more than the second background display so as to encourage the vehicle to travel in the travel mode in the first background display rather than the travel mode in the second background display. display device for a hybrid vehicle, characterized in that there.   The data processing unit has means for changing the width of the motor travel zone according to the charge rate of the drive battery, and narrows the motor travel zone when the charge rate of the drive battery decreases. The display device for a hybrid vehicle according to claim 1. The data processing unit
Means for switching the background display surface to a second stage display when the engine stop time exceeds the reference value;
When the counted engine stop time is greater than the first reference value and less than or equal to the second reference value, the background display surface is displayed in the second stage, and the engine stop time is the second reference value. 3. The display device for a hybrid vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the background display surface is switched to the display of the third stage when the value exceeds the threshold.   4. The display device for a hybrid vehicle according to claim 3, wherein the background display surface changes color between the first stage display and the second stage display.

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