In recent years, there are beginning to prevail electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles which include devices such as motors and batteries and which travel by driving the motors, using power accumulated in the batteries. Electric vehicles need to have their batteries to be charged by external feeding devices, and even in the case of hybrid vehicles, there are plug-in hybrid vehicles that allow their batteries to be charged by external feeding devices. In a vehicle whose battery is charged from outside, a plug of a charging cable connected to an external feeding device is coupled to a connector device of a charging port provided in the vehicle, and power is supplied from the feeding device to the battery of the vehicle via the charging cable, whereby the battery is charged.
Patent Literature 1 proposes an electric vehicle charging connector in which a DC power receiving portion and an AC power receiving portion are collectively provided to form an integrated structure. In the electric vehicle charging connector, the DC power receiving portion and the AC power receiving portion, which are defined from each other, are arranged in a power receiving connector of a single structure, and a first cap for openably closing the entirety of the open end of the power receiving connector, and a second cap for openably closing a through hole formed through a portion of the first cap corresponding to the AC power receiving portion, are provided.
On the other hand, in the case of charging a battery of a vehicle by a feeding device, a communication function is required that allows transmission and reception of information for controlling the charge and information for managing the amount of charge, accounting, etc. between the vehicle and the feeding device.
Patent Literature 2 proposes a power system in which a plurality of electric vehicles and a supply management device perform power line communication with each other, and in which the plurality of electric vehicles each configured to be able to supply AC power can supply AC power to a common power consuming unit. In this power system, each of the plurality of vehicles having received a supply start instruction through power line communication transmits an identifier to other vehicles, one of the vehicles is determined as a master, and notification that the vehicle is the master is transmitted to other vehicles. The master vehicle generates an AC voltage in accordance with its own period, and other vehicles each generate an AC voltage synchronized with that of the master vehicle, whereby the plurality of vehicles start supplying power to a power load in a cooperative manner.