1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a car power source apparatus provided with heaters to increase the temperature of the driving battery that powers the electric drive motor of a vehicle, such as an automobile, when temperatures are low.
2. Background Art
When temperatures become extremely low, battery output decreases and sufficient performance cannot be obtained. Consequently, when a hybrid car is used in a frigid location and the temperature of the driving battery becomes low, sufficient battery performance cannot be output when beginning to move or accelerate the car. A hybrid car is designed to normally run on both an engine and an electric motor. If performance of the driving battery decreases and power from the motor is insufficient, the hybrid car cannot operate normally. This drawback can be resolved by warming-up (heating) the battery. To realize this, the present applicant developed a power source apparatus which warms-up rechargeable batteries via heaters (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 2003-223938).
The power source apparatus disclosed in this patent publication is provided with a driving battery comprising a plurality of rechargeable batteries, and a heating plate, with heaters mounted on it, to warm-up (heat) the rechargeable batteries of the driving battery. The heating plate is disposed in close proximity to the rechargeable batteries to allow efficient heating of those rechargeable batteries. Electric current is passed through the heating plate heaters of this power source apparatus to heat the heaters via Joule heating. Many heaters are disposed in close proximity to many rechargeable batteries to heat those batteries.