General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCar Charging Smart Roads--The future of transportation
Inductive charging, replenishing electric battery power wirelessly, is an idea that could completely wipe out concerns about range anxiety and improve efficiency and performance levels for electric vehicles.
The technology, or at least the theory behind it, is relatively old. Youre looking back at Maxwells equations of electromagnetism; its really fundamental physics, explained physicist Laurie Winkless. Its about the connection between electricity and magnetism and [how you] can switch one with the other and you can use that in some ways. Its quite old, in theory anyway, [but] doing it practically is quite new.
The idea has been taken up by technology giants around the world. Smartphones and electric toothbrushes can be charged by simply placing them on a charging pad, but for EVs, inductive charging built into roads could be even more useful.
Qualcomm, the wireless telecommunications provider, has put the inductive charging theory into a practical solution for charging EVs with its Halo charging pads. But it wants to take the solution further: by putting the Halo plates into the road and charging EVs on the move. The vision of the technology and our ultimate goal is the idea that you have a charging lane on motorway, said Graeme Davison, vice president of technology at Qualcomm.
You pull into that charging lane with your car and you get off 200 miles later with exactly the same amount of charge, if not more perhaps, than you pulled on and youve got no range anxiety whatsoever and youve got an EV that does everything we want.
Before getting to that stage Qualcomms idea is to demonstrate inductive charging by getting a fleet of electric taxis that replenish their batteries from charging plates as they move slowly through taxi ranks.
Then you continue the development of that process and start putting the infrastructure in the roads and junctions and red lights, explained Davison, so that as you approach the junction and you slow down, you start charging the vehicle whilst youre sat at the junction. You also charge the vehicle as you accelerate through the junction and pull away which is quite often the worst situation for the battery because you have to give more energy per velocity to get the car going.
https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2015/08/electric-vehicles-inductive-charging-extends-the-range/
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,862 posts)if an animal or human wanders onto the charging plates?
I do like the idea of electric cars, but since I periodically make drives that are well beyond the range of such vehicles, I'm not about to purchase one any time soon.
Of course, it will be a very, very long time before such roads are actually in place. And I'll be willing to bet that they will mostly be in densely populated areas, where people are simply not going long distances to begin with.
MicaelS
(8,747 posts)Induction does not use any direct contact.
You drive over induction coils on a daily basis when you go through a traffic light.
Google electromatic induction.
CaptainTruth
(6,594 posts)Therefore the electromagnetic field strength is low. Not enough to transfer any meaningful amount of energy to a vehicle sitting above them.
To charge EV batteries the field strength would have to be much higher. I would expect the EVs to have charging coils mounted underneath. Passengers & vehicle contents would be subjected to greater EM fields, but field strength decreases with the inverse square of the distance from the source, so the amplitude decreases fairly quickly.
LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,586 posts)customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)but wouldn't a "charging lane" have pretty massive efficiency losses? And how much would it cost per mile?
Bayard
(22,105 posts)Cars, and public transportation/buses. They are also using the same technology for parking spots. You can drive as far as you want to if you're continually recharging.
Big investment in infrastructure, jobs, and abating climate change. Its a viable and much-needed technology.
elocs
(22,586 posts)Hey, I thought we were supposed to have flying cars by now! What ever happened to that?
trev
(1,480 posts)... or will all lanes be converted? Because if the former, I can see a situation arising that would be much worse than current HOV problems.
Regardless, I'll never see this in my lifetime.
Duppers
(28,125 posts)Has eliminated another excuse for Americans not to buy electric. I imagine it'll be awhile before this country moves forward and can afford this technology.
lpbk2713
(42,760 posts)But have they considered how it would effect people with pacemakers or other electronic devices?
Codeine
(25,586 posts)I know some kinds of stove tops are dangerous for them, and require the user maintain a couple feet between the element and the pacemaker.
Im confident it will be considered and safety measures implemented, but a valid concern for sure.