A few decades ago, when the world had much cleaner air to breathe and an abundance of fossil fuels, the idea of electric vehicles was a fictional idea. Now that the impending energy crisis is visible at the distant horizon, this is no longer true. The past few years have seen a boom in the design and manufacture of electrically powered vehicles. Electric cars are a product of that transformation, that is available to the common man to use for daily commutation.
With all the talk about how electric vehicles are the future of transport, there are some questions that come to mind.
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Electric Vehicle, how do they work?
An Electric Vehicle (EV) uses an electric motor to generate rotary movement, which in turn uses electrical energy stored in rechargeable batteries. Since there is no consumption of fossil fuels like petrol or diesel, tailpipe emissions are absent.
| GOOD THING ABOUT EVS | BAD THING ABOUT EVS |
|---|---|
| Electricity is cheaper and more easily available than fossil fuel | Limited battery range – An EV with a fully charged battery would not be able to cover the same distance as a vehicle with a full tank of fuel and a fair mileage |
| Low maintenance – EVs generate less heat and have fewer moving parts | Lack of charging stations – As the concept is still new, many countries are yet to implement charging stations for electric vehicles across cities and highways. |
| Less internal wear and tear | They take a long time to charge – As of today, filling a full tank of fuel is much faster than a charging a full battery. |
| Cheap running maintenance | Expensive – Electric Vehicles cost you higher than traditional combustion based vehicles. |
| Environment-friendly – There is no combustion of any fuels for energy, no exhaust vents, and no pollutants emitted. | |
A future where your electric car can travel long distances without having to take frequent charging breaks. A future where all the taxis in your city were electric, that ceaselessly transport passengers to their destinations without having to deal with low batteries. A future where energy can be transmitted into these cars wirelessly, as they are riding over the roads. This is where the disadvantages end.
Truly autonomous electric cars can be in service for longer durations without stopping, thus reducing the number of vehicles needed to meet passenger demand. These EVs can also afford to be fitted with smaller batteries as they are being charged wirelessly over short and regular distances. Smaller batteries mean lower cost of electric vehicles.
Realistically, charging EVs using medium-range Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) via near-field electromagnetic coupling is a concept that is still in a very rudimentary state. Various performance, cost, and safety challenges need to be overcome before this vision can be realized.
How does electric vehicle wireless charging work?
Electric vehicle wireless charring would be similar to how we wirelessly charge smart phones today, however for cars the setup needs to be much bigger. The concept is same for a smart phone and car, with a minute difference, the smart phone is placed on the wireless charging pad where as there is a few inches of distance between the car receiver and transmitter.
Inductive Charging technology is been used here, where in the magnetic field is developed between conducting coils and the power is transferred from one magnetic coil (transmitter) in the charger to a second magnetic coil (receiver) fitted below the car. Like we have to align the smart phone at the right spot on the pad, similarly the car receiver needs to be aligned properly with the transmitter.
The companies like PLUGLESS POWER are revolutionizing the way the electric vehicles wireless charging technology using inductive charging. Tesla Model S, Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt and BMW i3 are the worlds electric vehicle inductive charging manufacturers. Not only that Chevrolet and Kia have installed Qi charging technology in the car to get your mobile charged.
Wireless charge EVs on the fly
Qualcomm Technologies, successfully tested to charge the battery for an Electric Car while its moving at an high speed.
As per the study done by Tony Seba and backed by Stanford University, the prediction is by 2030 there will be no fossil fuel vehicle on the road.
The technology developed by Qualcomm to charge the EV while it is moving is called Qualcomm Halo. Imagin an EV on an high speed highway can get its battery recharged at the same speed or a slow moving passenger bus refuels its battery as it move slowly to the destination or a taxi in rush hour can juice up the battery while moving on the busy streets of NYC. All theses hypnotical scenarios can actually be practically achieved with the Qualcomm Halo dynamic electric vehicle charging (DEVC).
Read more about DEVC here.
Conclusion
Most people usually dismiss wireless charging as a gimmick as it’s not really necessary to charge your phone wirelessly. Similarly, hopping out of your EV and plugging in into a charging station only takes a few seconds. But wireless charging does help reduce some of the currently existing cons in the domain of electrical vehicles.
Whether its everyday commuter cars or luxury electric sedans, both the industry and customers agree that one among the few barriers that are slowing EV adoption is the hassle of cords.
One doesn’t need an a strong insight to see the benefits of the system that could be for the future of EVs. Future vehicle’s batteries will be charged automatically and constantly. The EV charging system adapted in the different corners of the world will revolutionize road transportation.
The credit goes to the great visionary scientist, Tesla, who showed to the world that the electricity transmission do not need wires. And the adaptations of this concept by man kind will show environment friendly transportation in coming future.