Electric vehicles here to stay. AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye
A German auto engineering company is working on a project that just might solve the world's oil problems. IAV Automotive Engineering has secured a patent for their electric vehicle (EV) wireless road-charging system.
Conceptually, roads would be fitted with electrical conductors that create magnetic fields, which charge your battery powered vehicle as you drive. Radio chips would identify your vehicle and bill you appropriately. The conductors are resistant to both weather and mechanical wear.
This system eliminates many of the common difficulties and headaches associated with EVs. It extends the range of an EV to virtually limitless, and there is no need for long charging times or battery exchanges. The IAV system is completely cordless and can even charge an EV while it's parked.
This type of technology isn't exactly brand new. Engineers at Nissan created a wireless garage charger, and The US Department of Defense has been funding similar research at the University of California at Berkeley, where automated EV busses move along set tracks. IAV has focused their research on charging at high speeds, such as on a highway, and using regular roads with free moving EVs. IAV is also working on optimizing industrial electrical motors, making them lighter, cheaper, and more energy efficient.
The conductors embedded in roadways are equipped with sensors that only activate them when a vehicle is present. They also use precisely controlled frequencies of alternating current. This ensures a high efficiency electricity transfer to and from circuits in the road and the vehicle. Test results at IAV show a 90% efficiency transfer. "In model tests, our system is already functioning perfectly", says Wilfried Neitschke, who is the Head of Technology Monitoring at IAV. The test system is built to 1/28 scale, however IAV is planning construction of a demo-road section and a full scale test track. IAV says that EV road-charging technology should be commercially available within 3 years.
For more info: www.iav.com/us/index.php
Comments
This is GREAT i would like it to be now not in the future ! I hope yhe OIL lOBY dosent crush this company ! EV RULES ! ELECTRIC CARS + SOLAR POWER = FREEDOM !
I wonder if they put mice into the 1/28th scale cars and counted how many cancerous tumors were created by the magnetic fields.
Awesome. How long do you have to drive on one of these to fully charge a battery? I could see tollbooths having a 'charging' lane.
Wow, life-sized SLOT-CARS (without the slot, that is)
Why did the chicken cross the road? ... Eddy Currents
yeah, endless range as long as you drive in a figure 8 and keep your metal nub in the groove...plus you can't even steer. I had one of those when i was a kid, gas cars are better.
James you do realize that where you are right now is in the middle of a giant magnetic field? Been living there your whole life. Life on earth has been thriving in this magnetic field for millions of years. Now what it might do to electronics is another story.
@Constantin - You realize that they will be charging for this service. Hence the microchip that will bill you accordingly. Solar Power and Electric cars do not equal freedom. It only equals gouging from someone else. When will people learn that nothing is free. You have to pay for the solar panels, pay for the maintenance, pay for the replacement. Notice a trend here? Sounds like your freedom still makes you a slave to the man! Sorry to dash dreams of a utopian tree-hugging society that runs on baby smiles and unicorn farts.
- In any event pretty cool system.
Ugh...all the children who think that "if we only have electric cars and solar panels everything will be perfect!" Solar CANNOT produce enough electricity and it all still has to be PAID FOR! This may reduce the need for oil (good) but it will increase the need for coal; the electricity has to come from somewhere and you fools oppose nuclear energy and wind/solar CANNOT produce enough on their own. Also, now we have to tear-up and re-pave highways to add these conductors to the roads and we won't be able to afford that since we have to give the looters "free" healthcare and Congress wants yet another stimulus package to pay off their freinds.
I mean honestly why cant we all just sit back and realize that things are changing and they wont install crazy things into our highways that will give us all cancer. They also will never give us anything for free. And its just aweful that people are trying to get equal rights and equal treatment(please note scarcasm). That fact has nothing to do with people developing new technology to inprove the world around us, weather it works or not its a step foward.
>chris pontius says:
>yeah, endless range as long as you drive in a figure 8 and keep >your metal nub in the groove...plus you can't even steer. I had >one of those when i was a kid, gas cars are better.
I'm pretty sure it works more like the PowerMat or Touchstone charging devices that phones are using, and less like a slot car.
Of course it would have to be paid for. IT IS A SERVICE!!! Just like gas, water, healthcare, ect. We have to freedom to pick what service we want to buy.
Well lets get some facts out of the way...Batteries are bad for the environment, solar cells arent efficient enough yet, electrical grids are susceptible to natural disasters, and if you electrify the roads you create a whole new set of headaches for powerplants, infrastructure, and natural disasters. I just want some cheap nuclear electric and a decent turbo-bio-diesel electric hybrid.
If it puts enough power into the car to charge the battery it would also be able to pull the car along the road directly. So you've offloaded the entire drive system, batteries, motors, the works, into the road, freeing up the car for bags of passengers and shopping. Now that's a thought! Yippppeeee!
This is something I've been wanting for years, the best news should be that the cars don't have to be pint sized go carts.
There's no reason not to refit a 1959 Buick with electric drive and an inductive pickup.
wireless charging system is only the first half. If you added the solar road then you really complete the full circle. Because solar road not only can charge your vehicle but also supply entire USA energy needs without using a drop of oil. No more plowing snow if you add the deice system. Road will last longer and improve traffics by using smart passenger cars and smart mini cargo truck that control by computer!
if you can able bto do that
1.the cost of the project and maintainance cost is high
2.if you save to use or maintained that is done only by labours who is surely well know about that one so salary is noted one pls remember these things to develop them
wish you all the best to do perfect manne.heartly thanks for this opportunity
this is a fast world who aalways need more than 24hrs per day but your designing is a across 60kmh so pls try to increse their capablity if u do that one money is doesn't a matter so pls try to do these things in our project with my best wishes
External combustion..... see Cyclone's external combustion generators/engines at cyclonepower.com.
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