Battery Powered Electric Trolley Charges Without a Cord

Upcoming electric vehicles are a hot topic with discussions including range, price, availability, infrastructure and more. A common topic of discussion that continually surfaces regarding electric vehicles centers on recharging the battery system. Many worry that recharging a battery is a time consuming process that can only take place at your home during the overnight hours. If this was the case, electric vehicles would be limited in range to the amount of charge sustained overnight. But what if there was another way to charge the vehicle while driving down the road?

What if you could charge a vehicle without the plug, away from home, while in motion? This has been discussed on several occasions and has even been displayed in small settings, but real-world application has been limited, until now.

The Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has installed an underground charging system that is capable of charging a trolley while it is in motion. The system is currently in use at an area zoo. KAIST refers to the in-ground charger and trolley as an online electric vehicle. The trolley is utilized to carry zoo patrons around the grounds without resorting to using a polluting gasoline or diesel powered trolley and without having to install unsightly, overhead power cables.

The system is actually quite simple. At pre-determined underground points cables are buried. The cables span only a short portion of the route. They allow the trolley to charge through inductive charging. The cables can either deliver a charge to the battery system or send power directly to the trolley's electric motors to propel the people mover down the road.

There are several advantages to the buried cable setup. The buried cables eliminate the use of unsightly overhead cables. They also prevent the need for additional cables at a later point. This is achieved by ferrying all electric vehicles over the the in-ground chargers as needed throughout their day of use. Vehicles do not have to stay on a cable route and can vary from the route as needed. Finally, the use of in-ground cable charging allows the battery size of the vehicle to be significantly smaller since it is charged countless time throughout the day.

As you can guess, application of this technology to city streets and highways would certainly be costly and difficult, but this type of charging technology is both feasible and ready for real world use. Ready for real-world use and feasible for real-world use are two entirely different things, but the online electric vehicle system is capable of enhancing the range of electric vehicles in the future.

Source: Edmunds.com