Most of the charging systems I have seen for electric cars involve a pedestal and a fuel pump like hose that connects to the car the same way you fuel a petroleum powered car. It would seem to make much more sense to have a plate that slides under the car like a floor jack or installed in the ground the size of a manhole cover. Then drive over the top of it and park. Lower a short magnetic inductive charging cable from the bottom of the car. When contact is made, the connection magnetizes and electric current can then flow into battery. When finished, the magnetic connection should end and the cable retracts back up into the vehicle. This would be much simpler, easier to maintain, and much much cheaper than this: Watch Tesla's Creepy Automatic Charger Connect To A Car
This would be very simple for supercharging stations to install in the pavement. For home garage charging, a plate a few inches tall and the size of a manhole cover could simply be laid upon the garage floor, not requiring any change to the concrete floor. Simply pull into your garage and go inside. Your car should be smart enough to know it is parked over a charging plate. Grocery stores should be able to easily enable parking spaces by running cables from a supercharger to plates installed in parking spaces, generating revenue from charging your car while you shop. Very little infrastructure should have to change.
As far as safety goes, install a heavy insulator around the outside edge of the plate. An option is that the charging plate could have a sensor installed that signals the plate to raise an inch or so, causing any standing fluids to drain off the sides and separating any contact to surface fluid. I would imagine this would be as safe as a side panel mounted charging port would be in any rain conditions. In fact, likely much safer since the vehicle itself would provide a natural barrier from anything getting close enough to connect with the energized plate. Another option is to have a small ramp that the tires of the car drive up onto and the mass of the vehicle then puts downward pressure on a mechanical lever, pushing the plate upward toward the bottom of the car.
It would be convenient to standardize the location of the charging cable to be easy to reference for the driver such as front center between the front wheels or near the driver side door. A marker would be easy to use that indicates the driver has pulled far enough forward. And if cars are driving themselves they should be able to find and position themselves much more easily this way than using some pedestal mounted charging station.
Come on Mr Elon Musk! Solid state batteries are coming! Make it effortless to charge all our future EV’s!
This would be very simple for supercharging stations to install in the pavement. For home garage charging, a plate a few inches tall and the size of a manhole cover could simply be laid upon the garage floor, not requiring any change to the concrete floor. Simply pull into your garage and go inside. Your car should be smart enough to know it is parked over a charging plate. Grocery stores should be able to easily enable parking spaces by running cables from a supercharger to plates installed in parking spaces, generating revenue from charging your car while you shop. Very little infrastructure should have to change.
As far as safety goes, install a heavy insulator around the outside edge of the plate. An option is that the charging plate could have a sensor installed that signals the plate to raise an inch or so, causing any standing fluids to drain off the sides and separating any contact to surface fluid. I would imagine this would be as safe as a side panel mounted charging port would be in any rain conditions. In fact, likely much safer since the vehicle itself would provide a natural barrier from anything getting close enough to connect with the energized plate. Another option is to have a small ramp that the tires of the car drive up onto and the mass of the vehicle then puts downward pressure on a mechanical lever, pushing the plate upward toward the bottom of the car.
It would be convenient to standardize the location of the charging cable to be easy to reference for the driver such as front center between the front wheels or near the driver side door. A marker would be easy to use that indicates the driver has pulled far enough forward. And if cars are driving themselves they should be able to find and position themselves much more easily this way than using some pedestal mounted charging station.
Come on Mr Elon Musk! Solid state batteries are coming! Make it effortless to charge all our future EV’s!
