Parking Pad Promises Plugless Charging Convenience for Electric Vehicles
By John O'Dell August 4, 2010 Evatran Is Aiming Its Hands-Free System At Home and Commercial Markets
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Rebecca Hough sees the day when no one plugs in an EV - at least not at home.
The co-founder and marketing director of Evatran isn't banking on the demise of the rechargeable electric-drive vehicle, indeed, she'd like to see everyone driving EVs and what we now call plug-in hybrids.
She just hopes that her company's plugless charger - Evatran claims it is the world's first for automotive applications - catches on and that every garage with a rechargeable electric car also has an Evatran Plugless Power parking pad.
The system, which Hough and other members of her Virginia-based company were displaying at the recent Plug In 2010 conference in San Jose, Calif., is an induction charger that lets you "fill" your batteries without having to plug the car into anything.
Like an Electric Toothbrush Charger
Just park with the appropriate part of the car (the nose in this case) over the charging pad and left electromagnetic induction work its magic - just as it does with your electric toothbrush, but with a lot more power.
There are still a few bugs to be worked out - including shielding against heat incidents that could occur if stray metal got trapped between the car and the charging pad (it would be like metal in a microwave oven, but without the sparks) and - more importantly- how to get automakers to agree to install on their rechargeable vehicles the software and hardware required to make the Evatran system work.
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Plugless Power system uses tower or wall-mount unit and wireless parking pad that automatically aligns energy source with receiver mounted on vehicle.
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The company also still is working on optimizing the system to reduce the power loss that has always been an issue with induction charging. The old Magne Charge system used with the General Motors EV1 in California from 1996 to 2002 ran with a 14 percent power loss between the power source and the battery.
Evatran says it is now seeing a 20 percent loss but expects to get that down to 10 percent by the time the units are ready for market.
But Hough says the company isn't worried about the bugs - solutions are in sight - and is taking things in steps.
Step 1, which launches later this year, will be the sale of home charging units that do have a plug - tower or wall-mount Evatran Level II charging stations (240 volts, 32 amps) equipped with the new North American standard J1772 connector nozzle.
The streamlined, freestanding tower unit, available in December, is priced at $3,245 before installation and any applicable incentives; the wall-mount unit, on sale in January, is priced at $2,995.
Leaf, Volt Compatible
The units are compatible with both the Nissan Leaf EV and Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in hybrid (and converters can be obtained for other EVs, such as the Tesla Roadster and older Toyota RAV4s). EVs and PHEVs entering the U.S. market after January should all be compatible with the J1772 connector.
Step 2 will be the parking pad, which links wirelessly to the wall or tower units and is expected to be available by the middle of next year. Evatran will be asking customers to prepay $800 to reserve a unit.
Hough said the company, a clean-tech subsidiary of transformer manufacturer MTC Transformers, has been working on the Plugless Power system for the past 18 months.
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Evatran marketing director Rebecca Hough swaps business cards with potential client at Plug In 2010 conference.
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It's a spinoff of the parent company's transformer technology, essentially using a transformer that's been split in half - one section installed in the parking pad, the other on board the car.
Automaker Cooperation Critical
When the two are in close proximity, energy is transmitted from the pad into the battery pack through the vehicle's on-board charger - which must be equipped with the other half of the transformer and the software needed to enable the car to communicate with the charging station.
Automaker cooperation is needed to make the system work - the transformer and software isn't something you can pick up at your local auto parts store and install yourself on a Saturday, Hough says.
So the company is talking to automakers -Step 3 of the business plan - hoping to get them to allow the Plugless Power equipment to be installed by dealers as an option on cars like the Volt and Leaf.
"Ultimately, we'd hope the manufacturers would install the system at the factory as part of their overall charging equipment strategy," Hough said in a brief interview at the company's display in San Jose conference last week. Cars would then arrive at dealerships with both plug-in and plug-less charging capabilities.
She wouldn't say whether any deals have been done or are in the works.
Why Not Businesses?
Hough said that Plugless Power initially is targeting home users, but she didn't argue when we suggested that a business case might be made for eventually selling the units to retailers who wanted to use no-fuss electric charging to attract the anticipated growing cadre of rechargeable-vehicle drivers to their businesses.
In fact, a recently posted Evatran video (below) suggests that commercial applications are, indeed, a big part of the company's strategy.
Plugging in at home for an overnight recharge isn't much of a hassle, but having to wrestle a charging cord into place every time you park at a public charger - and then disconnect and store it when you depart - is just time-consuming enough to be annoying for brief stops.
If the idea behind so-called commercial "opportunity" charging is to provide consumers' EVs with short jolts of juice each time they are parked while the driver shosp - or dines, attends a movie, takes a walk in the park or visits city hall - then how much more rewarding would it be to provide a charging station that requires the consumer to do nothing except park in the proper spot?
Even payment for the power could be done wirelessly by equipping each vehicle with a special ID code transmitter that the plugless system would read. Charges for power could be deducted from a designated credit card, or added to the driver's residential utility bill.
Hands-free, Hassle-Free Charging
With no cords to connect or disconnect, drivers would get hassle-free charging time at each stop. A well-planned Saturday shopping route using parking lots or city streets equipped with Plugless Power systems could see a smart EV driver returning returning home with a more fully charged battery than her car had when she left the garage that morning.
And most EV and PHEV drivers would almost certainly prefer the coffee shops, dry cleaners, restaurants, hardware stores, markets, movie theaters, concert halls - and on and on and on - that offered plugless charging to those that didn't.
Who knows? The big problem someday might not be how to get automakers to install the systems, but how to get enough of them installed in parking spaces around the country to keep electric-drive vehicle owners from fighting for access.
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South Korea experiments with an induction-charged electric tram.
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