http://www.fastcoexist.com/3052149/this-autonomous-ev-charger-lets-you-park-and-walk-away
Price is a bit steep ;-)
Price is a bit steep ;-)
fromport said:
4EVEREV said:Other variations of this exist and it is inefficient so if you like to loose even more power while charging then this is perfect. Not to mention the higher the ground clearance the worse it gets.
smkettner said:Looks inductive to me. The magnet just elevates for better efficiency.
fromport said:smkettner said:Looks inductive to me. The magnet just elevates for better efficiency.
from the text in the article
It extends an arm that attaches to a unit underneath the vehicle. There, it charges using a conductive charging method: metal touching metal.
4EVEREV said:Sounds like vaporware since it is not even available yet. I also would not want that thing on my garage floor. Anytime the promo video is animation it seems very fund raising like.
smkettner said:Yes it looks like it is conducting the induction. Need multiple contacts vs a flat disk as shown.
We will know more once it is actually available.
fromport said:So it is a complete J1772 like implementation.
You could just hook it up in parallel in your car with the current J1772 inlet.
Up to 13kW
4EVEREV said:fromport said:So it is a complete J1772 like implementation.
You could just hook it up in parallel in your car with the current J1772 inlet.
Up to 13kW
Grumpy? No I just have seen plenty of these products that are not shipping but just looking to raise money to build or tool which shows they are not ready for market. Regardless of how it connects it would need to be very well built to be reliable and durable and even a $1500 unit seem low cost for a launch. Additionally, how practical is it to have a big lump on the garage floor you can trip over? The car also needs to be relatively close to the unit restricting parking options for some to a specific area. To me plugging in is not that difficult and better than something that would get in the way and could break down . I don't see these devices to be practical for mass use unless they are flush mounted and very reliable. Since it is not a proven or available product at this point then it's a neat concept not a neat product available to purchase and it sounds like they may be testing prototypes not production units. UL listing this will be quite an expensive task as well because it needs to meet a variant of the EVSE standards plus it resides on the floor. Good luck to them as it's a costly product and they should be charging more as it will be for a select market that would pay more if it worked reliably.