Are we moving closer to once-a-week charging?
It’s said Electric Cars have low range, but this might be a fantasy we don’t need to solve with bigger batteries.
If you’re concerned about how we’re all going to switch over to electric vehicles by 2030, I believe these two significant developments in EV technology will reassure you that electric cars can be the future.
Like any new technology that appears for the first time, there will always be seeds of doubt in people’s minds — sown there by myths and misgivings. Any new product’s practicality and longevity will raise concerns, particularly when it becomes one of the largest spends outside of buying or renting a home.
Accepting change always starts with the pioneers — the first of us willing to try out a product — if all seems to be going well, then the next wave of buyers steps in — and so on. But sometimes, there comes a point where an invisible barrier to progress makes its unwelcome presence felt. Further adoption beyond the pioneers to reach a critical mass is hindered by a small flaw in the user experience. We therefore shouldn’t ignore the elephant in the room, that charging speeds and convenience of charging needs to match or be better than the way we fuel our combustion cars. We need to break through this invisible ceiling to bring in the most significant wave of new customers, those who are waiting on the side-lines for EVs to work similarly to fuel cars.
But what if this invisible barrier is a fantasy? What if charging concerns are a problem that doesn’t really exist? EV pioneers have tested charging habits for the last 8-years, and it turns out that not everyone who drives their car will do more than 100-miles a day. But for the rest of us that haven’t bought an EV yet, we seem to want them to do 500-miles. Or put another way: when you purchased your combustion car, you probably preferred it over other models because it had 400bhp or could do 155mph. Only you never use all that power or take it to its top speed. So why would you need an EV with 500-miles of range if you’re never going to use all that if you could recharge once or twice a week?
So, can two new tech solutions for electric cars convince the waiting “you go first” crowd to nod their heads in approval at 300mi range EVs and begin buying on-mass before our 2030 deadline? Let me try to assure you that there is a silver lining here for anyone still doubtful about it.
Wireless charging
We are all familiar with wireless charging since mobile phone brands introduced it for an easier, cable-free charging experience. What if we could do the same for electric cars? And I don’t mean just at home in your garage or driveway.
What if EVs could wirelessly charge whilst parked up on the street using inductive charging technology buried under the road surface? The technology has been around for quite a few years now, and can be as much as over 90% efficient*. Magnetic resonance charging can deliver the same charging speeds as conventional charging methods and can charge through concrete, water, and ice. It does away with the need for charging cables and the need to find an empty bay at a charging station, which may be in use or blocked (ICE’d).
Wireless charging does not require physical contact or accurate alignment; this means that as long as you can park at the side of the road, your car will receive its electrons. This makes a remarkable change for anyone concerned about taking their vehicle to a designated charger location and having to wait an hour for the process to complete: this would be perfect around neighbourhoods that had no off-street parking, such as terraces and apartments. Just park and lock up.
There is no safety risk to charging this way. The magnetic frequencies are lower than mobile phones and Bluetooth devices, and alignment would be within the distance to the kerb or parking either way round anywhere along the street. Your car’s software would tell you when your EV had begun its charge, and an app will take care of the cost.
There’s also the ability to bi-directional charge, otherwise known as Vehicle to Grid (V2G). If fully charged EVs parked along the same street, which have been there for a few days, give up some of their power to help ease the load for empty EVs arriving, this could make charging cheaper for those sharing their electrons and make the street more power-efficient.
Now let’s add in the second most significant innovation:
You don’t need a big battery
You may not know it, but EVs to date have run on a 400+ Volt system, making the kilowatt (kW) rating they can charge to generally max out around 150kW.
150kW chargers, or Super Chargers, deliver large amounts of power for eligible 400V systems hard-wired to absorb electrons this quickly. Not all EVs can do this as it requires the right onboard DC system, battery architecture and thermal management. Long Range or Performance model Tesla’s, with the latest firmware, can charge up to 250kW on V3 Super Chargers, making them an obvious and very popular choice.
But now there are 350kW Ultra Rapid chargers available for these hungry new 800 Volt EVs. This means charging from 10% to 80% capacity can be as little as 18-minutes*. Any 300-mile battery would regain 240-miles range. Or if you need a top-up just to get you home, 5-minutes will give you 60-miles.
But these new 800V EVs will be expensive, right? It’s only the Porsche Taycan and Audi eTron GT that have this, I hear you say.
Fear not — Manufacturers are beginning to make family electric cars with the 800V system. Here are three that will come to market very soon:
• Hyundai Ioniq 5 (delivery summer 2021),
• Kia’s EV6 and GT-line (Oct 2021), GT (Oct 2022)
• Possibly Fisker Ocean (2023)
• and future General Motors’ EVs
Over time the 800V system will become de-facto for all-electric cars. Legacy manufacturers may seem slow with their R&D, but they understand the need for electric cars to charge faster, over the need to larger batteries, for their mass adoption to work. 2021 to 2030 will be a time of the greatest change in transport history since the horse-drawn carriage.
The combination of recharging this quickly at a 350kW station or parking in your street over a wireless road surface will hopefully make owning an EV easier to run than a fuel car. And this is just the point: making EVs effortless is the goal. It will attract the next wave of buyers, which is the largest group of all EV owners that have yet to come on board. It’s the largest consumer base left to be convinced that EVs are right for them. We don’t need bigger batteries; we need faster charging or wireless charging. Now with 9-years left, to see these technologies implemented (and we’ve come a long way in 6-years), our daily-drive cars can hit a critical mass, making our towns and cities cleaner and quieter to enjoy for everyone.
*https://insideevs.com/news/340478/120-kw-wireless-charging-proves-97-efficient/
Written by James Ellis-Brown
Co-founder of Electric Together
https://app.electrictogether.com/james
