Mobile EV Chargers Could Solve Some Infrastructure Problems
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A recent article at Bloomberg gives us a possible solution for some sticky and hard-to-solve EV charging problems. You see, EV infrastructure is expensive to install, especially at large corporate job mills and multi-family apartment clusters. Ultimately, it’s a question of whether to bring the car to the infrastructure or to bring the infrastructure to the car. Or, decide whether to deal with cost or inconvenience.
But, there’s another way around this: EV chargers that can move easily and cheaply. And, there are multiple companies actively pursuing this option.
For one, Lightning eMotors, a company more well-known for electric van conversions, is building a whopper of an EV charging station. It comes in at almost 10,000 pounds, and can be rolled into parking lots because it’s built into a trailer.
The more normal solution would be something smaller that charges only one car instead of four: little battery robots. This technology showed up in Star Wars in the form of the “gonk” droids, which were basically walking batteries that were smart enough to plug themselves in and charge things. Some companies are making robots that can wheel themselves into parking spaces and even plug themselves into the cars that need some juice.
A variety of other options exist. Batteries built into vehicles that can go rescue a stranded EV, modular portable battery packs that can be stacked up and rolled out to a car, and a variety of other things.
The big question is whether these charging solutions are temporary or permanent. For some places, these portable charging stations are a temporary solution to fill gaps that will eventually be solved. Parking lots will eventually have more chargers. Homes and businesses will eventually have EV charging as the norm. So, many of these gap-fillers will not have a purpose.
But, some of them are probably around for the long-haul, and they may become even more common and plentiful. If it were me, I’d bet on the vehicle-borne charging stations that can save stranded EVs. Even as plentiful as gas stations are, people still run out of gas from time to time. Tow trucks don’t tow them to a gas station because they can simply pour in another gallon or two so the driver can get to the next town. You can bet EV drivers will do that long into the future unless wireless road charging or on-board fusion reactors become a real thing.
On the other hand, we should never underestimate the power of good ol’ fashioned foot-dragging. Some business owners, apartment management companies, and employers may never jump on the EV train. It might be penny-pinching. It might be politics. It might just be fear of the unknown or fear of anything new. Hell, some people just like to be a pain in the ass, right?
Whatever their reasoning, the availability of this kind of a solution, combined with future innovations like better solar panels, faster charging away from such hellscape lots, and other things we can’t predict today will help use navigate around the slowpokes, cheapskates, and haters.
Featured image by Lightning eMotors.
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