We are used to charge our two-wheelers and cars with fuel when our tank runs empty on roads. But electric vehicles should be charged when electricity is available, and should have a charge sufficient to make the projected next trip.
Dr. Bob Hoekstra, Former CEO of PhilipsWe charge the vehicle when we are parked somewhere. That can be in the cinema, or at work, or the shopping centre, and most likely during the daytime, as the major renewable resource, solar, is only available during the day.
What this shows is that the paradigm changes: as we cannot download a "tank" with 600 km capacity in a few minutes we need to plan ahead, or accept long travel intermissions.
When electric vehicles are discussed, we often assume that they replace our current cars. And that is how electric vehicles are introduced in many cities, to replace the polluting gas engines with non-polluting electric vehicles (the pollution is shifted to the electricity generation plant).
The structural issue we are addressing with electric vehicles is that we replace fossil fuels with renewable resources and improve the engine efficiency by using electric motors. This is crucial as a large part of energy we consume as a citizen, employee or as a business, is during transport of people and goods.
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Hence we have to rethink our infrastructure to match electric vehicles with renewable energy. Those two are the future.
We can still consider storing electric energy and fast charging of electric vehicles when on the road. But it is doubtful that this is a permanent solution. The real breakthrough comes when we design an infrastructure for charging cars when they are standing still (which is most of the time for most vehicles).
The current approach is to design vehicle management systems, mostly for commercial systems that deliver goods in inner cities, without pollution. A route planning is to be made with stops planned for loading new parcels and new energy.
In later stages the charging will be made dependent of the supply side. Cars of employees or shopping mall visitors are charged during operating hours, based on availability of solar or wind energy. Parking garages will have solar power plants.
Charging stations on the roads will be with McDonald's and other roadside facilities, for emergency situations only. Our comfort will depend on IT systems, that are forecasting our route and our planned "parking", and availability of renewable energy and make sure we are charged, for the next stop.
(Dr. Bob Hoekstra, former CEO of Philips, is a physicist. During his seven-year tenure as CEO of the Philips Innovation Campus, he contributed to the development of the IT industry in Bangalore. Living in The Netherlands, he now helps Dutch companies leverage India to their advantage. And has gone back to school to study philosophy)
(The views expressed by the author are his own and not of CIOL)