EV Charging Standards as Discussed at the Plug-In Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Conference
I’m spending the day in San Diego at the Plug-In Electric Vehicle Infrastructure USA 2012, meeting people, listening to talks, and doing an on-camera interview with industry guru Jon LeSage at Green Car Digest.
I just had an interesting conversation with the Qualcomm’s Senior Director of marketing, Joe Barrett, who told me about his company’s acquisition of the wireless (inductive) charging technology that they’re taking to market under the name “Halo.” I have to admit, Qualcomm really is in a good position to take this forward, given their size, and their success in establishing standards in a large and (vaguely) related industry: cellular telephony.
This really is a game of standards — a set of agreements that will enable utilities, OEMs, tier-one suppliers, and charger manufacturers to grow up and fit together seamlessly. We think of the EV industry as fairly well developed, with dozens of OEMs all rushing to market with EVs of various shapes, sizes, and price-points, yet there are so many issues that are a million miles from a clear resolution — and charging is one.
Obviously, it would be better for everyone if no one had to physically plug their cars in. And, because of that, I have every confidence that we’ll get to inductive charging eventually, perhaps including charging in the roadway, i.e., power delivered to vehicles in motion.
I hope I’m still on the planet to see it.
For fast charging, the high power required makes connecting the car quite challenging; it’s not the simple thing that one might expect considering the ease with which household appliances can be plugged it.
For high speed inductive charging, high frequencies would be required; the standard 60 Hz would not work since the parts would be far too big and heavy. However, although designing such a system would be challenging, it should be possible.
Battery exchange should not be ruled out. If manufactures could agree on only a few battery designs, it should be practical. Perhaps it would be easier if electric cars, instead of having one huge battery pack, had two or three smaller battery packs. Exchanging batteries would be much faster than charging them in the car.
It’s too soon to predict exactly what the rôle of electric cars will be. Cars with IC engines running on an artificial fuel is another possibility, and it’s also possible that both technologies could coexist.
Frank is right. Also, inductive charging cannot be as efficient as conductive (conventional) charging, and in many cases is *much* less efficient. There will always be a place for plugs.
To understand why, you can think of the cord as a wave-guide for inductive charging… since the power is delivered more accurately, it will be delivered more efficiently.
This is true, but these guys at Qualcomm Halo and Momentum Dynamics are really narrowing the efficiency gap.
Tom,
We can hope that inductive charging, although less efficient, can be made sufficiently efficient to be practical. If so, it would circumvent the challenges of designing a plug capable of carrying exceedingly high currents. Another solution might be to reduce the current requirements by using a much higher voltage, but that would also present challenges.
The potential of battery electric vehicles is such that I really hope that the various challenges will be overcome.