I have booked a test drive this weekend in the new Renault Zoe so I have been doing a bit of research on it, and the most intriguing thing is the onboard charger which will do anything from 3KW Type II all the way to 400V 3 Phase at 43KW. I know we discussed this before and it was thought that they were using someone elses technology that uses the windings in the motor as a transformer to step down to battery voltage. But after some googling I have come across Renault's patent for their charger and this doesn't seem to be the case.
https://www.google.com/patents/US20120286740?dq=Renault+charger&hl=en&sa=X&ei=w4MWUsLgL5SihgesvoDYAw&ved=0CEIQ6AEwAgIt looks as if they use the inverter in the controller as a rectifier and the windings in the motor are just used to provide inductance for smoothing the AC. In this case how are they stepping the voltage down? Apparently the onboard charger will automatically adjust its current draw depending on the power source available but I can't find any information on how its done. Perhaps it gradually increases the load and looks for voltage droop?
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Topic: Renault's Chameleon Charger (Read 1735 times)