Wireless Charging for Electric Cars

[Jimmm]

Interesting article here. http://www.techradar.com/news/car-tech/you-ll-be-a...

Does anybody still not believe that electric cars are the future of motoring?

[ikarl]

Expect hundreds of posts now about how it won't work because......<insert one of many reasons>

[Bullett]

They could work for a lot of people a lot of the time.
Just not for longer journeys.
Or people without a driveway.

I'd seriously consider a Tesla or similar but because of point A I'd also need a petrol.

Wireless seems a bit of gimmick to me. I would have thought some form of automatic coupling/de-coupling would be easier, cheaper and safer.

[kambites]

I think they'r ethe future of the vast majority of motoring. I don't think they're the future of all of it.

[Bill]

It seems ironic to make a supposedly efficient vehicle charge less efficiently.

[Debaser]

I can imagine owning an electric car in the future. I'd have something with a petrol engine for longer journeys but I can imagine bombing around locally in something quick, electric and RWD.

Milton Keynes has electric buses that use wireless charging technology.

[ging84]

it's a gimmick, the difficulty of having to get out of your car and plug a cable into it is not one of the main things holding back electric vehicles

[phPaddy]

Was chatting to a bloke recently who is working on a future project for something similar, wireless charging and the batteries are capillary charged, so instead of charging a whole bank or group of batteries, the capillary technology means each individualcell or a small group of individual cells within each battery are charged as such, much quicker to charge.

The hope is the wireless technology becomes widespread, so when you park at the shop its charging, work car park etc, sounds good, would still have a smoker but wouldnt be afraid of having electric in the future if things progress.

[anonymous-user]

I'm not sure that wireless charging for passenger cars is really THAT useful?

For the following reasons:

1) It does reduce overall system efficiency

2) It add significant expense to both the vehicle and the charging infrastructure

3) As battery tech and capacity increases, charging will require greater power density and take longer (for example, Tesla Supercharger system delivers 120kW of charging power! the biggest wireless system is just 20kW...)

4) Standardising a charging system and architecture will take a while and be complex (look how long it took to standardise (not!) just the charger plug!

5) Most electric cars will get charged at home, overnight. Will owners opt to pay more money just to save the "hassle" of plugging in their car? For consumer goods used "continuously" like your mobile phone, having instant access to small top up charge events is potentially useful, but for a car, that is parked for hrs at a time, less so.

It is currently technologically possible to refuel a conventional ICE car "handsfree", and yet we still use the same old system of a pump, hose, dispensing nozzle, and filler cap as was pretty much used on the first cars ever made......

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 21st August 20:13

[Inertiatic]

Have being looking at electric shuttle buses for work. Induction charging is high on the list as it will simplify and tidy the process massively and less risk of not getting caught on low charge.

But for a house? Nicety rather than anything else I suspect at this stage

[98elise]

ging84 said:

it's a gimmick, the difficulty of having to get out of your car and plug a cable into it is not one of the main things holding back electric vehicles

Agreed the model s need charging as often as a petrol car needs petrol, only you don't need to go to a special site to do it.

[98elise]

The Crack Fox said:

For the vast majority of motorists, they just don't work.

Could you expand on that? They would work for the vast majority of people I know. The average driver does 30 miles per day. The tesla model s does 250-300 on one charge. Each generation of tesla gets better and cheaper (their next car will be 30k).

Even if we stick with fossil fuels as the main energy source, the next generation of all cars will be an electric drive train.

Edited by 98elise on Friday 22 August 07:06

[fatboy b]

Jimmm said:

Interesting article here. http://www.techradar.com/news/car-tech/you-ll-be-a...

Does anybody still not believe that electric cars are the future of motoring?

Yep.

[GroundEffect]

The charging rate is the limiting factor with wireless charging.

[JiggyJaggy]

So I parked an i8 in Westfield the on the weekend while going to the cinema with Mrs JJ. Every space but one of the approx 8 electric bays was filled with a non-electric car. What is the post in offering them if non-electric cars can park there on top of the other 1000's of spaces in the car park? Completely defeats the purpose and hence was not able to charge the car.

Anyone else had this issue?

[Gary29]

I've got an idea, exchangeable battery packs, so if you're running low on electricity you can stop at a fuel station (currently known as petrol stations) and swap your battery pack for a charged one for a small fee (akin to paying for petrol currently)

Of course it would mean need the major manufacturers to agree on a standard battery pack type, but clearly having to wait around for a car to charge up is just not practical.

[996TT02]

Gary29 said:

I've got an idea, exchangeable battery packs, so if you're running low on electricity you can stop at a fuel station (currently known as petrol stations) and swap your battery pack for a charged one for a small fee (akin to paying for petrol currently)

Of course it would mean need the major manufacturers to agree on a standard battery pack type, but clearly having to wait around for a car to charge up is just not practical.

Ummm, except the battery packs are so massive and heavy they are engineered as part of the car.

[Snappy89]

996TT02 said:

Gary29 said:

I've got an idea, exchangeable battery packs, so if you're running low on electricity you can stop at a fuel station (currently known as petrol stations) and swap your battery pack for a charged one for a small fee (akin to paying for petrol currently)

Of course it would mean need the major manufacturers to agree on a standard battery pack type, but clearly having to wait around for a car to charge up is just not practical.

Ummm, except the battery packs are so massive and heavy they are engineered as part of the car.

Tesla have already showcased such technology. They managed to autonomously change batteries on nearly 3 Model S cars in the time it took to fill an A6 I believe it was.

[Dodsy]

Tesla already have this, I remember seeing the launch where it could change your empty battery for a full one in less time than it took to fill a conventional car with petrol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5V0vL3nnHY

[xRIEx]

Gary29 said:

I've got an idea, exchangeable battery packs, so if you're running low on electricity you can stop at a fuel station (currently known as petrol stations) and swap your battery pack for a charged one for a small fee (akin to paying for petrol currently)

Of course it would mean need the major manufacturers to agree on a standard battery pack type, but clearly having to wait around for a car to charge up is just not practical.

That's been mentioned many times as a solution, but I'm not sure it would even be necessary - it's still thinking about refuelling from a ICE point of view.

A petrol or diesel car may be filled up, say, once or twice a week depending on the driver's usage (maybe more, maybe less); when the car is not in use and parked at home or at work or in a car park it retains the same amount of fuel it had when the engine was switched off. Petrol/diesel are not available at home so petrol stations are its lifeblood, and we visit one usually while conducting a journey somewhere else.

An electric car is fundamentally different; the supply network is already in place and when we get home, get to work (for an increasing number of offices) or use some public car parks, we can plug the car in, do whatever we are there to do and return to a fully refuelled car.

The battery range of the Tesla Model S is 265 miles (the Model 3 is going to be about the same, they reckon), meaning you could very nearly make Land's End to John O'Groats with just two stops. As a driver I'd need more than two stops for that journey (it's a 13 hour journey with no traffic, according to Google). If service stations have fast recharge points (and many do), grab a coffee, go to the toilet, browse whatever book offers are in WHSmiths, relax a bit and you're ready to go again. I think I'd probably have to take 3 stops at the least on that journey, possibly 4, so even if I want to leave before the charge is completely replenished, it just needs to be sufficient to make the next stint.

Just thinking about it, my Jag would possibly need two fuel stops for nearly 850 miles; it could maybe make it on two tanks of fuel with very careful driving, but it'd be running on fumes midway and at the end to do so.