Method and system of billing for charging a vehicle battery leveraging a pre-arranged payment method

Abstract

A method and system provided for a single-action with which the customer places an order and receives goods by the single action of connecting an electrical vehicle (EV) to a charging station according to the business terms associated with this invention, the affiliated organizations that purchase or support the operation of the invention participate in a business “franchise” operation whereby all affiliated organizations increase their revenues as the volume of EV charging events increases.

What is claims is: 
     
         1 . A method, comprising:
 in a remote billing transaction service, maintaining purchaser-specific and vendor-specific billing information used for remote billing of charging operations by electric vehicles of a plurality of purchasers with charge stations of a plurality of vendors;   registering in the remote billing transaction service a unique vehicle client identifier for an electric vehicle, including mapping the unique vehicle client identifier to a first purchaser among the plurality of purchasers that is further mapped to a billing account in the remote billing transaction service;   registering in the remote billing transaction service a unique charge station identifier for a charge station, including mapping the unique charge station identifier to a first vendor among the plurality of vendors in the remote billing transaction service;   receiving, in the remote billing transaction service, billing data for assessing fees for a charging operation performed with the electric vehicle from the charging station, including receiving the unique vehicle client identifier for the electric vehicle and the unique charge station identifier for the charge station; and   attempting to complete a billing transaction for the charging operation using the received billing data, unique vehicle client identifier for the electric vehicle, and unique charge station identifier for the charge station, including:
 attempting to bill the billing account for the first purchaser for the charging operation; and 
 in response to a determination of insufficient funds when attempting to bill the billing account for the first purchaser for the charging operation, revoking the unique vehicle client identifier and/or notifying the electric vehicle that service is disabled. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the charging operation is a first charging operation, the billing transaction is a first billing transaction, the unique vehicle client identifier is a first unique vehicle client identifier, the billing account is a first billing account, the billing data is first billing data, and the electrical vehicle is a first electric vehicle, the method further comprising:
 registering in the remote billing transaction service a second unique vehicle client identifier for a second electric vehicle, including mapping the second unique vehicle client identifier to a second purchaser among the plurality of purchasers that is further mapped to a second billing account in the remote billing transaction service;   receiving, in the remote billing transaction service, second billing data for assessing fees for a second charging operation performed with a second electric vehicle from the charging station, including receiving the second unique vehicle client identifier for the second electric vehicle and the unique charge station identifier for the charge station; and   attempting to complete a second billing transaction for the second charging operation using the received second billing data, second unique vehicle client identifier for the second electric vehicle, and unique charge station identifier for the charge station, including:
 attempting to bill the second billing account for the second purchaser for the second charging operation; and 
 in response to successful billing of the second billing account for the second purchaser for the second charging operation, issuing a payment to the first vendor and/or a manufacturer of the second electrical vehicle for the second charging operation. 
   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein issuing the payment to the first vendor and/or the manufacturer of the second electric vehicle for the second charging operation includes issuing the payment to the first vendor. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein issuing the payment to the first vendor and/or the manufacturer of the second electrical vehicle for the second charging operation includes issuing the payment to the manufacturer of the second electric vehicle. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein attempting to bill the second billing account includes billing an amount to the second billing account that includes a service fee in addition to a cost for the first charging operation. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein attempting to bill the second billing account is performed for a plurality of charging operations performed during a pre-arranged billing period. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein attempting to complete the billing transaction for the charging operation using the received billing data, unique vehicle client identifier for the electric vehicle, and unique charge station identifier for the charge station includes revoking a public key for the electric vehicle. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein attempting to complete the billing transaction for the charging operation using the received billing data, unique vehicle client identifier for the electric vehicle, and unique charge station identifier for the charge station includes revoking the unique vehicle client identifier. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein attempting to complete the billing transaction for the charging operation using the received billing data, unique vehicle client identifier for the electric vehicle, and unique charge station identifier for the charge station includes notifying the electric vehicle that service is disabled. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the billing data for assessing fees for the charging operation performed with the electric vehicle from the charging station includes receiving a billing information packet related to the charging operation including the unique vehicle client identifier and the unique charge station identifier. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the billing data for assessing fees for the charging operation performed with the electric vehicle from the charging station and attempting to complete the billing transaction are performed in response to a single-action being performed, wherein the single-action includes establishment of a physical connection between the electric vehicle and the charging station by a user of the electric vehicle. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the single-action initiates performance of the charging operation without any subsequent action of the user. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 in the electric vehicle, detecting establishment of the physical connection between the electric vehicle and the charging station; and   in the electric vehicle, and in response to detecting the establishment of the physical connection between the electric vehicle and the charging station:
 receiving the unique charge station identifier from the charging station; and 
 determining that the charging station is compliant with the remote billing transaction service by checking the received unique charge station identifier. 
   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 in the electrical vehicle, and in response to the charging station being compliant with the remote billing transaction service, initiating a validation procedure between the electric vehicle and the charging station, wherein initiating the validation procedure includes, in the electric vehicle, exchanging public key information with the charging station;   in response to the validation procedure being successful, performing the charging operation to charge the electric vehicle from the charging station; and   initiating the billing transaction for the charging operation.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein initiating the billing transaction for the charging operation includes:
 storing the billing data associated with the charging operation in the electric vehicle; and   communicating the billing data to the remote billing transaction service.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein communicating the billing data to the remote billing transaction service is performed over a network connection between the electric vehicle and the remote billing transaction service. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the charging operation is performed while no network connection is established between the electric vehicle and the remote billing transaction service, the method further comprising:
 in the electric vehicle, storing the billing data for the charging operation in the electric vehicle; and   communicating the billing data from the electric vehicle to the remote billing transaction service after the physical connection between the electric vehicle and the charging station has been disconnected and after a network connection has been established between the electric vehicle and the remote billing transaction service.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein storing the billing data for the charging operation in the electric vehicle is performed when the electric vehicle is at a first location where network connectivity between the electric vehicle and the remote billing transaction service is unavailable, and communicating the billing data from the electric vehicle to the remote billing transaction service is performed when the electric vehicle is at a second location where network connectivity is available between the electric vehicle and the remote billing transaction service. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising, in the electric vehicle, receiving data for the charging station communicated from the remote billing transaction service and updating the charging station with the received data while the physical connection is established between the electric vehicle and the charging station. 
     
     
         20 . A remote vehicle billing transaction service, comprising:
 a data storage medium configured to maintain purchaser-specific and vendor-specific billing information used for remote billing of charging operations by electric vehicles of a plurality of purchasers with charge stations of a plurality of vendors; and   a server system coupled to the data storage medium and configured to:
 register a unique vehicle client identifier for an electric vehicle, including mapping the unique vehicle client identifier to a first purchaser among the plurality of purchasers that is further mapped to a billing account in the remote billing transaction service; 
 register a unique charge station identifier for a charge station, including mapping the unique charge station identifier to a first vendor among the plurality of vendors in the remote billing transaction service; 
 receive billing data for assessing fees for a charging operation performed with the electric vehicle from the charging station, including receiving the unique vehicle client identifier for the electric vehicle and the unique charge station identifier for the charge station; and 
 attempt to complete a billing transaction for the charging operation using the received billing data, unique vehicle client identifier for the electric vehicle, and unique charge station identifier for the charge station, wherein the server system is configured to attempt to complete the billing transaction by:
 attempting to bill the billing account for the first purchaser for the charging operation; and 
 in response to a determination of insufficient funds when attempting to bill the billing account for the first purchaser for the charging operation, revoking the unique vehicle client identifier and/or notifying the electric vehicle that service is disabled.