Comments on: Future Prius PHEV May Have Wireless Charging

By: Wayne Williamson

Wayne Williamson — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 21:27:00 +0000

I like this option for people living in condos or apartments…or even for me where I park on my driveway. Give me something that doesn’t cost a ton, is weather proof, and saves time…..

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 17:47:00 +0000

I’d like to see some cost estimates for wiring, say, a five mile stretch every 25 miles.

I’d bet people would be content with paying some fairly high charging costs if it allowed them to skip buying more expensive batteries. Even if they paid 40 cents per kWh that would still be less expensive than driving an average MPG car with $3.59/gallon gas.

By: Jason Willhite

Jason Willhite — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 16:49:00 +0000

Bob, I agree. I do think it’s easy for consumers to have range anxiety when it comes to electric vehicles, even though the data shows that a common driver’s everyday needs could be met with ~100 mile range EV. I think the wireless charging via the road on highways and interstates could really alleviate the long distance range anxiety.
I was pleased when reading about the Gumi public transportation about how they were able to build it using only a small percentage of the road to be used for charging. I was thinking about here in Arkansas, we’re redoing most of I-40 (the largest highway through the state) and I was thinking, “Shucks, in a perfect world we could add the inductive charging into the highway project taking place right now and have one of the few major highways in Arkansas be ready to go…”. Alas, we don’t live in a perfect world

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 16:31:00 +0000

It’s something worth a serious consideration. The Gumi system requires 5% to 15% of the road to be wired. Cables buried 8″ under the road surface.

If we continued with the ~100 mile range EVs we’re now producing and used inductive charging on major travel routes we’d have the problem solved.

Let me stick on a graph that shows how few days we drive more than the range of today’s EVs.

No big batteries to purchase or haul around. No stopping to charge.

By: Jason Willhite

Jason Willhite — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 14:55:00 +0000

I thought the same thing, but resonant induction charging (similar to the way the South Koreans are doing this for bus transportation system in Gumi) could solve the range issue. Imagine well marked roads and highways having built-in resonant induction charging systems that charge your car while you drive. Essentially your car is being fueld while you drive it. This may sound far-fetched, but there are numerous areas in Asia, Europe and even in McAllen, Texas that are already using this to fuel electric vehicles. With a setup like this, batteries would merely exist in the car to transport the car between resonant induction charging systems.

By: Omega Centauri

Omega Centauri — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 14:22:00 +0000

Wireless bleh. Bigger battery more range is what I want.