Volkswagen's mobile EV charging stations to appear in 2019

[Shawn Knight]

The big picture: Figuring out the logistics of away-from-home battery charging is arguably just as important as mastering the vehicle itself. Volkswagen's mobile battery stations make a lot of sense on paper, but will that success translate to the real world?

Electric vehicles are poised to overtake their combustion engine counterparts in the not-too-distant future. As companies like Tesla have already demonstrated, a key cog in the successful transition to electric vehicles is the installation of a network of chargers that allow drivers to top off their batteries when out and about.

Tesla has elected to tackle the issue through permanent Supercharger installations but Volkswagen is taking a slightly different approach.

The German automaker recently offered a first glimpse of its mobile charging stations. Akin to power banks for smartphones, these mobile stations afford several benefits over permanent solutions.

For example, cities could use them to gauge the most suitable locations for chargers before investing in a more permanent solution. They could also come in handy at events like concerts, football games or other gatherings that attract a lot of people. An app (or the Internet) can be used to locate nearby stations, we’re told.

Each charging station offers a total battery storage capacity of 360 kWh and can charge up to 15 EVs. Up to four vehicles can be charged at once: two via DC and two via AC. Thanks to quick charging technology, Volkswagen says the charging process takes just 17 minutes on average.

Volkswagen intends to pilot its quick charging stations in its hometown as early as the first half of 2019 before expanding to other cities the following year.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/78034-volkswagen-mobile-ev-charging-stations-appear-2019.html

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Could be an effective contributor to maintaining load shifting and balance. Neat.

 

[Misagt]

This is a horrible idea. The fact is unless there are some great improvements in battery tech. If you assume these are still running on lith-ion batteries, then these will be hugely wasteful. The manufacturing cost and damage to the environment greatly out weigh any benefit that might come from using electricity over Chemical fuels.

 

[psycros]

This is a horrible idea. The fact is unless there are some great improvements in battery tech. If you assume these are still running on lith-ion batteries, then these will be hugely wasteful. The manufacturing cost and damage to the environment greatly out weigh any benefit that might come from using electricity over Chemical fuels.

Yes, but most of that production pollution will be in China, which (like most developing nations) has gotten a near-total exemption on every multinational agreement meant to curb pollution or Co2 emissions. I know the latter is meaningless since industrial Co2 has almost nothing to do with climate change but the water and air pollution in China are at crisis level. But I guess that's OK so long as billionaires can make a buck and rich liberals can feel righteous driving around in their non-recyclable poisonmobiles. The latest rumors are that all the US car companies are planning to ship those spent batteries and other hazardous components back to Asia. I'm sure they'll be properly disposed of. Meanwhile, we could be running on hydrogen for pennies, but that's the problem - nobody will get rich off of it.

 

[Reachable]

The logical place to put charging stations is at all the gas stations. When you have this whole big infrastructure system that's been built up for decades, use it.

 

[Uncle Al]

In any case, it's a welcome trend as we sloooowly move towards electric vehicles ......