Patent attributes
An electric vehicle that has: a DC power supply; an inverter; an inverter control circuit; a smoothing capacitor that is connected between input terminals of the inverter; a discharge circuit that discharges the smoothing capacitor; a control power supply that supplies electric power to the inverter control circuit; a holding capacitor that stores the electric power supplied from the control power supply and supplies the electric power to the inverter control circuit; and a collision detector that detects a collision of the vehicle. The collision detector transmits a first signal and a second signal that follows the first signal when detecting the collision. The inverter control circuit stops supplying the electric power to a switching element drive circuit when receiving the first signal. The inverter control circuit discharges the smoothing capacitor when receiving the second signal.