ALL HAVE TO HAVE ONE
THE EV CHIC IN EVERY FAMILY
Nearly every carmaker on the planet is now adding at least one electric vehicle model to meet climate change targets. A Ford engineer recently stated that within just a few years, consumers would not be deciding between gas and electric vehicles, but choosing which EV to buy.
Sounds like the goal.
Now imagine everyone drives an EV or rides an electric bus or train, and all those delivery vehicles are no longer pumping out carbon emissions, either. Oh, and we also build out national charging station infrastructures.
There are downsides to this scenario. What about all those batteries?
They have long been the big challenge. Lithium-ion tech demands lots of power and threatens the depletion of that finite resource. Scaling up requires a breakthrough in power storage tech.
And charging infrastructure? Not happening fast enough!
An alternative could be those electric roads we’ve been talking about, letting us top off on the go with wireless charging.
A study in Sweden found that piggybacking dynamic charging onto home charging could mean passenger car batteries that are 70% smaller. And, to keep people moving across typical travel patterns, only a quarter of its roads would need to be electrified.
Wireless charging is fairly simple. Inductive charging coils and electromagnetic transmitters buried beneath the pavement conduct electricity through a magnetic field to a vehicle equipped with a receiver coil. Power-management hubs along the roadside complete the system.
Two ways to accomplish wireless charging:
Dynamic charging on those electric roads juices up vehicles while they are being driven. The roads remain accessible to all vehicles. They are safe. People and animals can walk on it without getting zapped.
Static systems work when vehicles are parked over a charging pad; the same tech as phone chargers. They are promised to be just as safe, even when in charging mode. The frequencies they operate at are far below the radio frequencies our bodies constantly tolerate.
Companies are popping up with static charging solutions that are easy to sell to businesses, cities, and individuals for home garages.
Dynamic charging industry leader, Electreon, which is piloting projects globally, has a plan that sort of combines the two. It is focusing on making a bigger, faster, more cost-effective impact, leaning into optimal charging places and fleets. Truck and bus depots, taxi stands, even intersections where vehicles wait at traffic lights, sucking up power faster as they remain stationary, could be the best approach with current technology.
For fleet operators, this can be an end run around taking vehicles out of service for charging, translating to better service and higher revenues.
Mass transit is another end run; getting people to use a technology they don’t trust by taking out the part where they need to be convinced.
But the big prize will still be those charging corridors. Long hauls on the open road, whether it's trucking or passenger cars, is where range anxiety is a legit fear, and that’s where the value can show up.
