DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Nishimine et al., US pg. Pub. No. (2022/0041064) referred to hereinafter as Nishimine.
As per claim 1, Nishimine teaches a battery electric vehicle comprising: an electric motor configured to serve as a driving source for the battery electric vehicle (see at least Abstract, summary); a driving operation member configured to be used to drive the battery electric vehicle (see at least Abstract, summary, Para 12-13); a pseudo shifting operation member that imitates an operation member configured to be used to perform a shifting operation of a manual transmission internal combustion engine vehicle (see at least Abstract, summary, Para 40-42); a transmission mounted between the electric motor and a drive wheel and configured to allow a driver to manually switch between a gear ratio for normal use and a low-speed gear ratio (see at least Abstract, summary, Para 40-50, 61, figs. 3-4 and 6); and a control device configured to control a motion of the battery electric vehicle in response to an operation of the driving operation member according to an operation state of the pseudo shifting operation member and a gear ratio selected by the transmission (see at least Abstract, summary, Para 40-50, 61, figs. 3-4 and 6).
As per claim 2, Nishimine teaches a battery electric vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the transmission is a transfer case configured to select from four-wheel drive low gear, four-wheel drive high gear, and two-wheel drive high gear (see at least Abstract, summary, Para 40-50, 61, figs. 3-4 and 6).
As per claim 3, Nishimine teaches a battery electric vehicle according to claim 1, wherein: the driving operation member includes an accelerator pedal (see at least Abstract, summary, Para 40-50, 61, figs. 3-4 and 6); the pseudo shifting operation member includes a pseudo shifter imitating a shifter of a manual transmission (see at least Abstract, summary, Para 40-50, 61, figs. 3-4 and 6); and the control device is configured to change torque of the electric motor according to an amount of operation of the accelerator pedal, a shift position selected by operating the pseudo shifter, and the gear ratio selected by the transmission (see at least Abstract, summary, Para 40-50, 61, figs. 3-4 and 6).
As per claim 4, Nishimine teaches a battery electric vehicle according to claim 1, wherein: the driving operation member includes an accelerator pedal; the pseudo shifting operation member includes a pseudo shifter imitating a shifter of a manual transmission, and a pseudo clutch operation device imitating a clutch operation device; and the control device is configured to change torque of the electric motor according to an amount of operation of the accelerator pedal, a shift position selected by operating the pseudo shifter, an amount of operation of the pseudo clutch operation device, and the gear ratio selected by the transmission (see at least Abstract, summary, Para 40-50, 61, figs. 3-4 and 6).
As per claim 5, Nishimine teaches a battery electric vehicle according to claim 3, wherein: the pseudo shifter is configured to select from a plurality of shift positions (see at least Abstract, summary, Para 40-50, 61, figs. 3-4 and 6); the shift positions are assigned different virtual gear ratios; and the virtual gear ratios are set in such a manner that none of combinations of the virtual gear ratio and the gear ratio selected by the transmission have a same overall gear ratio, the overall gear ratio being obtained by multiplying the virtual gear ratio by the gear ratio of the transmission (see at least Abstract, summary, Para 40-50, 61, figs. 3-4 and 6).
As per claim 6, Nishimine teaches a battery electric vehicle according to claim 4, further comprising a sound generator configured to artificially generate a sound in a vehicle cabin, wherein the sound generator is configured to perform either or both of the following: increasing a sound pressure of the sound as the amount of operation of the pseudo clutch operation device increases, and increasing a frequency of the sound as the amount of operation of the pseudo clutch operation device increases (see at least Abstract, summary, Para 40-50, 61, figs. 3-4 and 6).
Conclusion
Please refer to from 892 for cited references.
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/MUSSA A SHAAWAT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3669