Slashdot Mirror
Inductive Charging For EVs To Be Tested In Berlin
cylonlover writes "The increasing availability of more practical electric vehicles has seen inductive charging technology attract the attention of those looking for for a cable-free way to charge EV batteries. German automakers are taking the opportunity to put inductive charging of EVs to a real-world test as part of the 'Effizienzhaus-Plus mit Elektromobilität' project. The project is a German government-backed initiative to build an energy-efficient house that generates more electricity than it consumes, with the surplus being fed back into the grid or used to charge the occupants' electric vehicles."
I don't care if its free to run, I still wouldn't be caught dead in it
I suppose when you only need a few watts of energy for a cellphone or something, I can understand the use of inductive charging. But if you lower your efficiency by a significant amount in a single step while charging a car (a few dozen kWh), and this is multiplied across a population of EV owning people, this is potentially adding a lot of unnecessary strain to the electric grid.
Is it so hard just to plug the dang thing in? We don't have tubeless fuel transfer do we?
Who's the idiot who decided to put 'inductive charging' and 'energy-efficient' in the same paragraph? If you're trying to be efficient, inductive charging is the LAST thing you want to do. If you really are that opposed to having to plug in, come up with some innovative solution using contacts embedded in the garage like cordless phone cradles. Or do something like bumper cars. Though I bet people wouldn't like the thought of having exposed high voltage contacts...but I'm sure they could figure out a way to make it safe. Hell, even a plug on the front of the car that drives into a receptacle. Inductive is just stupid.
Wikipedia cites an 86% efficiency for inductive charging. I would bet that efficiency is hurt as this scales up from a cell phone to a car. Other than helping to improve EV adoption by making it more convenient, why would we want such a system?
Given the current costs of an EV, plus the length of time it already takes to charge, it seems there are other areas of research that would be better focused on. This technology only makes an EV more expensive to own and would probably take longer to charge with. People seem to do just fine connecting a short, thick, clunky hose to their cars now.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductive_charging#Disadvantages)
As a RealGeek(tm), I'm fascinated by this report and its possibilities. But I wonder why fluffs like Facebook are valued billions more valuable than something useful like this. Not that there's anything wrong with Geeking to make said billions -- this is a criticism of the customer base.
The project is a German government-backed initiative to build an energy-efficient house that generates more electricity than it consumes
Problem, thermodynamics?
I rarely respond to comments. Also, don't ask for clarifications: a brain and Google are faster, believe me!
Who's 'Inductive'?
and
Why are they charging for EVs to be tested in Berlin?
People are too stupid to plug their cars in, I mean, connecting something to the car to make it go? It just baffles the mind! That's why we all fuel up by driving into a pool of petrol and letting osmosis take its course!
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
Yes, because charging from a cable has worked so well. Perhaps passers by might object to being bathed by high power microwaves. Give it up hippies. It is a fracking future.
an ill wind that blows no good
We are running out of Oil fast and you worry about CO2 pollutions. Building cars which requires a vast array of batteries which are built by yet another limited resource. An unsustainable solution to a problem that will be fixed shortly due to completion of the oil.
They should just build that stuff into the roads so we can drive our cars like bumper cars. Charge while you drive.
That is the real interesting part. Simply park your car in the required spot and the house can pull back electricity if needed, or even sell it back on the market if allowed (and at a higher price).
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
They're trying this out with some electric buses in Chattanooga, Tennessee: CARTA's electric buses to charge on the go
I can tell you the meaning of life,
but you have to promise not to laugh.
nissan leaf inductive charging pad is available as an extra here in japan.
just roll over it in the garage and go about your buisness...
Why don't they just embed the charging station in the ground? Electric car pulls into parking space, once turned off it lowers a contact panel to the ground and sends a few low voltage wake signals to the charging station. Charging station wakes up determines which of the small charging panels the wake signal came from and then begins to charge the battery. Heck if you wanted to get fancy you could even add more communication between the car and the charging station so the charging stations knows what the charge rate for the car is so you can have the inevitable 50 different cars with 50 different specs on the charge rate and they would all work. The only problem I can really foresee is the charging panels getting dirty, something flammable getting caught between the contact panels and the issue of rain, but a room full of engineers should be able to solve these problems, or at least make the idea more complicated for no reason what so ever.
I like the idea of the "smart cards" idea, but just to change it imagine major roads with inductance grids under the road, the car charges as you drive (sort of like a bumpercar) and the amount you use on certain roads is collected by the smart card and then debited from your account. You still use the batteries to travel over roads that dont contain the grid.... but this does rely on Millions of $$$ being spent.. so the cost to charge your EV on such a system would be impractical... but the idea would fix/solve alot of problems...
2) It's cool.
Reasons not to do this:
1) 86% efficiency for a load of 10's of kW stinks. For 10kW input power, I get 8.6kW into the car. The missing 1.4kW heats the garage. Note that the efficiency could probably be improved, but this would cost more, and be bigger.
2) It will add a lot of cost. Are you willing to pay a couple of extra $k for this?
3) It has EMI and safety issues galore. You don't want to accidentally dump a few kilowatts into your kid's trike, or your lawn mower. This can be solved, but it will add cost, and even one mishap, or even an incident where a know-nothing jury pins the blame on the system (right or wrong), will cost millions.
This anonymous comment will probably never see the light of day, but I have to get it out here anyway - the GM-designed and built EV1 was inductively charged and it worked great.
Swap the batteries for goodness sake!
- make it easier to swap the batteries!
1) The phyisical process of changing batteries needs to be easier
2) The possible trade of poor quality batteries for good quality needs to be addressed
^ these are more organisation issues than technical. If you have an EV you can already set this up yourself for a regular long journey to work. You stow your batteries along the route with people who charge them for you for a fee.
Unfortunately, you have to own a number of sets of batteries because trading batteries right now afaik is unworkable. But it is possible for basic routes.
A blog I run for the wealth
86% is your typical switch-mode efficiency. Some reach in to the low 90's with synchronous rectification but the main thing is that all chargers have to translate voltages, ie: Plug-in versions do the inductive voltage translation internally.
Using superconductors for the inductor windings would improve it.
For God's sake, how hard can it be to install a RCD in the things, as soon as the current goes somewhere it shouldn't, it's shutdown and the dumb user the standing there until the garage guy comes out to help after seeing an error on his panel.
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2603836&cid=38587742
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2603836&cid=38587742
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2603836&cid=38587742