Patent attributes
Methods and systems are provided for an onboard charging system of an electric vehicle. In one example, the charging system includes a controller for an electric vehicle comprising a first DC energy storage device at a device voltage, a charging interface for interfacing with an external DC source of an external DC voltage, an electric machine including one or more inductive windings, a converter comprising at least two or more drive circuits operating in a first and in a second state, a first DC input and a second DC input to the converter, and a switching mechanism for selectively operating in a first state and in a second state operated by the controller, wherein in the first state the converter is responsive to drawing a drive current from the first DC energy storage device and applying current to at least one of the one or more inductive windings for moving the vehicle, and in the second state, the converter is responsive to drawing a load current from the charging interface and applying an energizing current to at least one of the one or more inductive windings for generating at least one of a regulated charging voltage for the DC energy storage device.