New Hands-Free Inductive Charging at Google

newenergy — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 03:54:37 +0000

Google makes innovative use of electric vehicles and charging stations. For employees, Google took an early lead in converting Toyota Prii (yep that’s the official plural of Prius) to be plug-in hybrids. Then Google installed beautiful solar covered parking including charge stations so that electric cars can be charged with sunlight.

At its headquarters, Google is now showing us how to charge hands-free. No plug. No cord. Using Evatran Plugless Power’s inductive charging system, one of Google’s maintenance short-range EVs parks in close proximity of the charger and charging begins. The Evatran unit is Level 2 (7.7 kW, 240V at 32A). The light EV was converted to use the inductive charging.

Google is also conducting other important pilots including testing the new Toyota Prius Plug-in, not a conversion, but the 2012 model from Toyota. Soon, Google will be testing the Honda Fit Electric and other plug-in cars. Several Google founders drive Tesla Roadsters. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are Stanford University grad student “drop-outs” as is Telsa CEO and Founder, Elon Musk. None regret the decision to change the world a priority over getting their PhDs.

Google is even approved by FERC to be an electric utility. Cloud services will be at the heart of the smart grid and smart charging. Early electric car drivers use Google Maps to find the nearest charging station. Will Google charge your electric cars?

Historically, inductive charging has been too inefficient, wasting valuable electricity and charging hours. Evatran thinks that they can get to 90 percent efficient; they’re not there yet. How does it work? A Plugless Power vehicle adapter is permanently mounted onto the vehicle. A fixed Plugless Power station, including both a floor-mounted parking block and a separate control tower, is installed in the garage or parking space.

Evatran states that its technology is safe. When the equipped vehicle pulls up to the parking space, the parking block automatically positions itself to align with the vehicle adapter and begins charging. With their electromagnetic induction, no actual flow of electricity occurs between the vehicle adapter and the parking block.

Will inductive charging catch-on? In the late 1990s, inductive charging competed with conductive. Multiple incompatible systems helped kill major electric car success. GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and all the automakers have devoted years working with utilities to have a common Level 2 J1772 smart charging standard. Now they are going thru the pain of trying to get consumers to install wall-mounted chargers, only to be frustrated with obsolete building codes, over worked city inspectors, and electric utility frontline employees who find reasons to say “No to EV charging.” Adding inductive charging would compound the issues.

Automakers are interested in proximity charging inside the car when we fill the cars with collegues or kids with their iPhones, Droids, iPads, games, and other mobile electronics. Powermat is not only receiving a $5 million investment from GM Ventures, Powermat will be offered in many 2012 GM cars to give customers proximity charging of mobile devices inside the car.

What about America’s 14 million fleet vehicles? Inductive charging could be a winner. Fleets can install their own systems without needing a universal standard. Think about taxis that wait in queues. Consider millions of delivery vehicles. Light utility vehicles are popular on university, government, and corporate campuses. These are also good candidates for inductive charging, as Google is demonstrating.

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Zero To Sixty In Under Four Seconds In An Electric Car

newenergy — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:47:01 +0000

Gregg Hall asked:

I bet you had to read that headline twice! I know, I couldn’t believe it myself. One of the biggest deterrents to buying an electric car for me has always been performance. Now we finally have someone with a vision for revolutionizing the industry that is doing what no one else has done to date, introduce an electric car that performs like a sports car.

The development of this cutting edge vehicle by Martin Eberhard is being bankrolled by high profile internet billionaires like the founders of Google and Paypal. This should tell you right away that this car is serious business.

The new batter powered car will be one of the quickest production cars available on the planet holding its own with the likes of Ferraris and Lamborghinis that cost five times what the new roadster will sell for. The name of the company is Tesla Motors, named for the Serbian inventor of the first AC powered motor.

The Tesla roadster gets its power from nearly 7,000 lithium-ion batteries, rechargeable of course. There is nothing special about the batteries either, they are the exact same batteries we use in our laptops. Besides going from 0 to sixty in under 4 seconds the vehicle has a top speed of over 130 mph and a range before recharging of 250 miles. The first model to be built will be a two seater roadster but they already have plans for a sedan as well. So what does it cost to run this car? You won’t believe it, less than two cents a mile! Say goodbye to high gas prices because this car uses ZERO gas.

Eberhard’s electrical engineering background is what has given him the knowledge used to build the first performance electric car. He says he got his inspiration to create the car from reading about other revolutionaries in the automotive industry, John DeLorean and Preston Tucker.

Tesla Motors has gone from a concept to a car that will be built in less than three years. The first cars are being built in a factory in England and will be available by summer of 2007. The price of the first cars is expected to be around $80,000. Considering the price of gas, that may soon be considered a bargain.

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New Hands-Free Inductive Charging at Google

Zero To Sixty In Under Four Seconds In An Electric Car