Electric cars have come a long way in the past 15 years. For so long, electric cars have survived and even defeated the questions of efficiencies, power, and battery lives, thanks to Tesla and other innovative car manufacturers. The only thing that is still a problem is – Infrastructure.
Companies like Tesla, Ford, GM, etc. are writing the bright future of electrical cars. Despite the increasing demand, which for sure is going increase by multifold, the infrastructure is lacking.
According to QZ, electric car manufacturers needs to take the number of charging points at least equal, if not more, to number of gas stations in the country. Stations with fast chargers are too few and too far between.
An electric car on average takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 or even 10 hours to charge fully depending on the place and type of charger. Less number of stations with fast charging also limits your charging options a lot and you will most probably find long queues at charging stations. The bottom line is, there are not enough chargers and there is not enough space to add more.
Solution? Ford’s new patent which discloses a wireless charger to keep electric cars hitting the roads from their parking slot. Also, it solves the problem of scarce charging stations to a great extent. The most impressive thing about Ford’s wireless charger is, as shown in patent, it will be totally underground. This will save a lot of space.
The wireless charger uses induction plates that can be embedded into ground. This will enable manufacturers to provide charging facilities almost anywhere a car can get parked. Be it parking lots or garages, you will be able to charge your car without caring about sockets.
Here’s an image from the patent showing how this system will work:
[Image: Ford’s wireless charger – 1]
As you can see the charger will be embedded into the ground and the induction plate will be able to adjust itself on the basis of vehicle clearance height. On the technical side, the patent also mentions adjustable charging power output for different car models.
This wireless charger will also negate the chances of forgetting to plug your car to charging socket. Cool. Isn’t it? With proliferation of electric cars, forgetting to plug your car overnight like we sometimes forget to charge our smartphone battery will be a common issue.
For smartphones, we’ve got power banks, for cars, wireless chargers like of Ford will cover us. With your garage having wireless charging, you will no longer have to worry about that.
