The battery system on an electrical vehicle can either charge– from regenerative braking or an external power supply– or release– powering the EV’s motor(s) or providing that power by means of so-called vehicle-to-load. As a guideline, it can’t do both at the same time, however General Motors has some ideas about that. The patent analysis website CarMoses found a current GM patent application for a system that can charging and releasing concurrently.

The patent explains a “charging system” with a set of charging ports. One is for drawing power from an external source, similar to every other EV. The 2nd charge port is linked to a bi-directional battery charger, and the battery management system has the ability to charge the battery pack from the very first port while likewise providing power from the 2nd port.

That 2nd port might be utilized to charge another battery, consisting of the battery of another EV, and the patent consists of an illustration of 3 EVs daisy-chained to each other.

The concept of 2 charge ports on an EV is not unprecedented; Porsche’s Taycan (and the associated Audi e-tron GT) have one on each side, and it’s a choice on the more recent PPE-based EVs from those brand names, if I’m not incorrect. I have no concept whether GM’s patent will reveal up on a production EV– vehicle business patent numerous more concepts than they ever get around to structure.

And I need to confess, I’m not totally sure what the usage case is beyond seeing for how long of an EV-centipede you might make by plugging one into another into another, and so on. I am fascinated.