This is already being developed for testing in Michigan of all places.
You need to read (or re-read) the article, as it mentions that potential.
Roads are already expensive. How much will it cost to add charging hardware?
News story about mini elec bus. Bus guy said it charges in <4hrs? Uh, so? Charges during day? When people want to ride? I suppose a naysayer would say how can you use bus if battery is depleted? He said it worked fine in cold weather. So, I guess he was speaking to range anxiety?
No, only teslas are scrapped for damage. Avg repair is $15,000.
I disagree. EVs cost more that ICE cars currently but that doesn’t account for the difference in insurance rates. Repair costs are the other component.
So what I am hearing is that the same cities that can’t keep roads from falling apart with potholes etc are now going to be putting high current charging infostructures in these same roads and keep them perfect??? Great, now I can imagine grandma walking the dog and trip and fall in a pothole and get electrocuted or something…
Actually I could envision a toll booth for electrics. Drive through with you transponder and have 15 cents a mile deducted from your account. It could actually work and make sense if you didn’t have to stop overnight every 200 miles to recharge. But the same old question is why? And the answer is always the same for the last 50 years. We will all die in 5, 10, 20 years otherwise. I think Tesla had this idea though back about 1905.
True…
To each his own, If you desire a EV and want to own one then I think you should be the one that has to impart pay for any and all uses of it including special roads required for charging, and if you don’t ever plan on buying an EV then you should not have to pay for the use of it road/charging wise… But I guess that is not how the government work…
Just like the city building a new stadium for X sport, everyone has to pay their share of it even if they will never in anyway use it…
I haven’t heard of any city lately building a new drag strip and making tax payers pay for it… But life goes on… lol
Minnesota is adding over 2000 employees to an already bloated work force. All the while dot is crying about needing more road funds. But interesting how they never look at an intersection without concluding an expensive round about is needed. Stop signs don’t work anymore. Gotta keep the land acquisition folks busy. Man there are so many ways to cut expenses and prioritize it’s just mind blowing. I’m like a dog on a leash. Couldn’t wait to start.
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lol … reminds me of a street-tree story in these parts, happened some years ago. A small palm tree, maybe 12 foot tall, planted on city property, had a few dead fronds (big leaves), the tipsof which were 5 1/2 feet above the ground. Code says – fire reasons – they have to be 6 feet above ground. Common sense says they send a city worker and prune the affected fronds. About an hour’s work. No, this would make too much sense. Instead they send two workers, working a full day, and cut down the palm tree! Then grind the stump!
“Wireless Charging” results in a 20% to 60% loss of energy in the transfer…you pay for 100 watts but only get 80 to 40 watts…acceptable for a cell phone, but a horrifically wasteful idea for EV’s.
Here’s a better idea from Toyota, a hybrid EV with a Hydrogen Fuel Cell to charge the battery while driving…can’t wait to see Toyota pull this off.
Another Israeli company actually had a good idea that died. EV batteries would be rented, not owned by the driver. You pay a monthly fee that allows you to hot swap the battery at “battery stations” across town. You drive onto a platform and the battery is swapped out in just a few minutes. You get a freshly charged battery (you pay for the charge) and never have to worry about paying to replace the battery as that’s all a part of rental fee.
My city just spent $950,000 installing a set of stop lights at an intersection where a stop sign has worked fine for the last 50 years. Absolutely ridiculous waste of money in addition to energy wasted stopping 10 cars to let 1 car make a right turn.
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It is called Toyota Mirai, available in California since 2016.
Toyota has been working on Hydrogen Fuel cells for years. There are already hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicles on the road today. It’s not considered a hybrid. It’s a fuel cell. Not too many hydrogen fuel refilling stations. Even though hydrogen is extremely abundant element on earth, most of it is bonded with another element (like Oxygen to create Water). This makes it difficult and costly to extract hydrogen and put in tanks.
Alternative Fuels Data Center: Hydrogen Production and Distribution (energy.gov)
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I’ve been predicting this for some time and mentioned it a few times on this site. As you noted, there are always losses in conversion. However, we have been using air core transformers to bridge across high voltage insulating barriers for several years now. Without going into too much detail and exposing IP, there are ways to increase efficiency and account for manufacturing tolerance in alignment and still achieve >95% efficiency.
But you’re right, charging for power delivery at the source will have a slight increase in cost versus what is actually delivered to the vehicle. Then there are losses in the path to the battery itself. Most of this is transparent to the consumer. Tough comparison to make as the state of charge varies so apples to apples comparison is difficult. Probably not a huge difference per charge and it is far more convenient…
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A Tesla won’t let you drive if the car is plugged in, as opposed, as you note, to an ICE car.
Most EV owners charge to 80% for routine use and maybe to 90% for long trips with limited chargers. Lower charging is said to prolong the battery life (and saves time).
While charging, you do NOT have to turn off things like heat or A/C. In a Tesla, you can watch Youtube or movies while you wait.
Tesla recommends charging the LFP battery to 100% at least once per week.
Using a supercharger to achieve 80% from about 10% can be done in about 20 minutes. I could sit in my car with the AC on and listen to the radio without significantly impacting charging. The last time I charged was with a 50 kW charger at a local shopping center. I went from about 25% to 99% in a little less than an hour then spent another 20 minutes waiting in the car with radio and AC on to get the last 1%. Didn’t happen until I shut the car down completely, and then it was almost immediate.
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That level of efficiency can be achieved only when the equipment is operated at 100% rated power continuously. The efficiency drops considerably as the actual power is below 100% rated. If power is applied to the primary side when the secondary is not attached to a load, then the losses are very high, sometimes as much as 50% of the total losses at 100% power. That is why most transformers are iron core, to reduce the core losses, aka no load losses.
This would be an issue for wireless charging at home. If the homeowner does not turn off the charger when not in use, they will have very large electric bills from the no load losses of the charger.
It would be possible for the equipment to detect when the vehicle is there and switch to very low voltage when the vehicle is either not there or is fully charged. Some exciting voltage will be needed in that case for detection, but a very low exciting voltage would minimize losses.
Almost a mil for a red light? wow! But I hear you. I live in a rural area near what was a two lane highway that in my county didn’t have much traffic. However there was one intersection with a state road that averaged one life lost per year. Eventually they put up a blinking light, yellow for the thru traffic on the highway and red for the state road which had stop signs.
For three years, no lives were lost. Then someone decided that the blinking light was not needed so it was removed. Three lives lost in two accidents within a short time after removal. Panic ensued at TDOT and the intersection was change to a four way stop with a blinking red light. No lives lost but many drivers unhappy with the 4 way stop.
So what does TDOT do, they make a relatively low use use two lane highway into a divided 4 lane highway with added left turn lanes at that intersection and install traffic lights with dedicated left turn lights. One of those left turn lanes always detects a vehicle, whether there is one there or not and subsequently turned that left arrow on for the full 45 seconds, then shortened the cycle at all the other directions to the minimum 15 seconds. This went on for many years despite numerous complaints. It was finally fixed about a year ago by simply turning off the left turn lights and allowing left turns on the regular green light. Traffic is still light so it is not a problem.
And the real kicker, the county to our south, this highway is still two lane but has a LOT more traffic. Our section was made 4 lane when Obama was first elected, the county to the south with the big city finally widened their section of the highway out to the surrounding communities in their county about three years ago because of congestion, but there is still a three mile stretch of 2 lane to the county line, which is OK as there isn’t that much traffic.