The Future Of Electric Vehicle Charging: Innovations & Trends To Watch
Electric vehicle charging technology is changing so rapidly that keeping an eye on the future of EV charging has become as vital as the vehicles themselves. Large-scale EV adoption depends not only on accessible charging but also on technologically advanced charging.
Even with access to home charging, EV owners have to rely on public charging as well. It has been observed in US & China that as EV adoption increases, use of public charging stations grows exponentially.
Now lets have a look at some of the innovations & trends in the field of EV charging to look out for:
As EV adoption increases in India, significant efforts will be made to integrate clean, renewable energy to power the EV charging infrastructure. The use of renewable energy will help in drastically reducing the carbon footprint of vehicles.
Just like smartphones adopted wireless charging technology, electric vehicles are next in line. By deploying electromagnetic induction coils on roads & receivers underneath EVs, it is now possible to charge the EV without using a physical connection. It clears the road to charge the EV while it is being driven. Pilot programs around the world have shown the potential for the same by deploying coils under a segment of road that charge EVs that drive on top. This has tremendous potential for keeping EVs on road for much longer before they have to be stopped for recharging.
Multiple EV charging apps, memberships, RFID cards are a source of inconvenience to a lot of electric car owners. EV roaming attempts to solve this issue. With roaming, EV charging networks can communicate with each other and allow EV owners subscribed with one charging network to charge at another network in the same way mobile phone network roaming allows you to use your phone on different networks. EV roaming functionality has two execution paths:
Direct agreements between EV charging networks.
Universal adoption of the open charge point interface (OCPI). OCPI allows hardware & software of different charging networks to communicate & allow automated transactions between networks without pre-existing agreements.
Widespread adoption of smart charging approach, such as off-peak charging, green energy integration, etc will help optimize the use of energy resources, reduce dependence on fossil fuels and make EV charging more affordable. Smart charging will also make the power grid more efficient and integrate clean energy thereby increasing ecological benefits.
Kerbside (or Curbside) Charging:
There are many factors that shape the need for EV charging infrastructure and the type of charging infrastructure.
Kerbside pole-mounted EV chargers are more compact than large EV charging stations set-up at off-street parking areas. Curbside charging will substantially increase the number of locations where EV users can charge their vehicles. Mounting EV chargers on existing poles can save on installation costs. This type of EV charging is an upcoming arena for EV charger manufacturers & charge point operators (CPOs). Curbside chargers are less expensive that regular public EV charging stations as it saves up on real estate, hardware & installation costs.
The main aim of fast EV charging is to minimize vehicle downtime. At present, DC charging technology allows EVs to charge rapidly in around 15-45 minutes. Unfortunately, this isn’t fast enough when it comes to medium & heavy-duty EVs. Longer charging times & vehicle downtimes are big barriers to electric truck adoption. Currently, a long-haul electric truck takes around 4 hours while charging at today’s high-capacity DC EV charging stations.
But there is a solution to this. And it is known as Megawatt Charging System (MCS). Megawatt charging is the future of EV charging for heavy-duty EVs. It allows large commercial electric trucks to charge up to 80% in just a few minutes!
Longer times taken to charge EVs are a big irritant for EV owners, but there are multiple solutions being developed to deal with it. These promise to cut charging times, make owning an EV more convenient and most certainly, eradicate the headache of range anxiety.