Tesla owners potentially interested in a wireless home EV charging system will be happy to hear that Evatran’s efforts to bring such a system to market appear to be moving forward. The company recently sent an email to EV Obsession and CleanTechnica with two “sneak peek” photos of the upcoming Plugless product.
The 7.2 kilowatt (kW) Plugless Vehicle Adapter possesses dimensions of around 16″ x 33.5″ x 1″, according to the email. The pictures are of the portion of the system installed underneath the Tesla Model S that receives the inductive charge.
Image Credits: Evatran/Plugless
This I feel is the way to go with charging, now can it be done dynamically as well in the static situation?
The installation once done to a parking area should be maintenance free and avoid the clutter of cables for plug in charging.
If it is being used for bus transportation there is no reason not to use it for cars.
The main question is efficiency. The reason for tesla to not opt for induction where not because they weren’t aware about it. It was simply determined to not be viable as it waste so much energy.
It’s about 88% efficient. Not great but not terrible either.
Actually it is terrible. That’s about 10% wasted. In the power levels which a tesla can charge (120kwh) that’s substantial. And furthermore that’s wasted in forms which can be directly harmful for the surrounding. I would not recommend this thing….
Static = yes, dynamic (ie: driving) = no. The reason driving doesn’t work all that well is due to the large amount of energy needed to sustain driving speeds. Please there’s road work, installation and power lines cost that makes it prohibitive.
Inductive, stationary charging is the way to go.
There was an article which went into dynamic where a dedicated lane for a short distance some few kilometers was the idea.
Cost no doubt is a problem.
It takes between 20 to 30kWh to drive a car at ~60 MPH down a flat road. Over the distance of the electric road, coils will come every few meters and it’s unlikely that it can delivery that much power to sustain that speed – let alone any battery charging. Setting that issue aside, now multiply that power requirement by however many vehicles can fit along that road and we’re talking an insane amount of power to be delivered.
If someone insists in doing this, I would say they better make those few km on a down slope some a hill and enjoy the free regen ride. A bit less crazy than coils in the road would be to install an overhead power line like those used by trolleys. Even installing a mechanical tow system of sorts like those in roller coasters would be more effective.