Photo: Aiways
It was at the end of 2019 that German carmaker Volkswagen showed for the first time a concept of a mobile charging station that could autonomously drive up to parked electric cars and charge them while the owner is away.
But as the Germans are still contemplating the technology, the Chinese seem to have beaten them to it. Aiways, the Chinese company behind the tongue-twisting electric concept U6ion and the upcoming U5 electric SUV, introduced Carl this week, an autonomous robot that can be summoned and recharge electric cars while parked.
Aiways said it just received European and Chinese patents for both the robot itself and the charging method used, but failed to say when it is likely we’ll see it in parking lots.
Carl looks like a glorified vacuum cleaner. Its services will be requested by EV owners by means of a smartphone app. Once the order is placed, it will drive up to the car’s location using GPS and automatically plug itself into the car to charge it.
Carl is equipped with hardware that allows it to recharge electric cars with either 30 kWh or 60 kWh and should be compatible with any recognized charging standard. Its capabilities allow it to increase battery levels into an EV to 80 percent in under 50 minutes, Aiways says.
“Instead of drivers trying to find a charger, the charger will find them,” said in a statement Alex Klose, Vice President for Overseas Operations at Aiways.
“We want to make EV ownership as simple, easy and enjoyable as possible, and CARL provides a blueprint for how EVs can be charged in the future.”
No timeframe for the deployment of the robot was announced by Aiways, but our guess is it will take a long, long time. The same can be said about Volkswagen’s idea, but at least in this case we should see the start of a pilot program by the end of the year, but also the start of production for these machines.
Aiways said it just received European and Chinese patents for both the robot itself and the charging method used, but failed to say when it is likely we’ll see it in parking lots.
Carl looks like a glorified vacuum cleaner. Its services will be requested by EV owners by means of a smartphone app. Once the order is placed, it will drive up to the car’s location using GPS and automatically plug itself into the car to charge it.
Carl is equipped with hardware that allows it to recharge electric cars with either 30 kWh or 60 kWh and should be compatible with any recognized charging standard. Its capabilities allow it to increase battery levels into an EV to 80 percent in under 50 minutes, Aiways says.
“Instead of drivers trying to find a charger, the charger will find them,” said in a statement Alex Klose, Vice President for Overseas Operations at Aiways.
“We want to make EV ownership as simple, easy and enjoyable as possible, and CARL provides a blueprint for how EVs can be charged in the future.”
No timeframe for the deployment of the robot was announced by Aiways, but our guess is it will take a long, long time. The same can be said about Volkswagen’s idea, but at least in this case we should see the start of a pilot program by the end of the year, but also the start of production for these machines.
Google News