Photo: Nomadic Power
Some bad planning on the driver’s part can result in a case of range anxiety even if the car uses a regular internal combustion engine, but these situations are indeed harder to come by than the constant threat you feel in an electric car the moment you leave the relative safety provided by the city.
Running out of juice, regardless of its nature, is both embarrassing and also pretty time-consuming. You’re left calling for road assistance which will dispatch a car to refuel your vehicle, but that will take a while. For an electric car, it’s even more complicated than that and so it all usually ends with the car being taken on a platform.
But there’s a German startup company called Nomadic Power that might offer a solution to this problem. This enterprise has come up with a mobile battery that can recharge an electric car in around 20 minutes, making such unfortunate events less costly for the driver while also allowing them to continue their journey with a fresh pack of batteries.
This technology could be employed in a number of ways, but Nomadic Power CEO, Manfred Baumgärtner, is currently focusing on one in particular. He thinks that building a fixed public charging infrastructure would be excessively expensive, so a mobile charging service that brings the electric current wherever your car is makes more sense to him.
It’s not just cars stranded on the road that could benefit from his solution, but also large companies with a lot of employees who use EVs. Having a few of these mobile batteries lying around in the parking lot could make sure that everyone gets their share of electricity when all the permanent charging stations are taken.
Having a mobile battery also opens up another possibility that would increase the range of an EV considerably: towing the battery pack like a trailer and charging the car on the go. The best part would be that a depleted battery trailer could be dropped off at a special station, and a new, fully-charged one could be picked up, essentially allowing electric cars to be driven just like ICE-powered ones (minus the trailer).
Fortune reports that Nomadic Power has just received a two-million euros grant from the European Commission that will allow the company to build six of these mobile chargers, and test them in the field. With the number of EVs on the rise, this solution might soon prove to be very useful, but the really attractive proposition is that of the swappable trailer batteries. Sadly, it’s not on the Nomadic Power’s list of priorities, but maybe another company could come up with a similar system.
But there’s a German startup company called Nomadic Power that might offer a solution to this problem. This enterprise has come up with a mobile battery that can recharge an electric car in around 20 minutes, making such unfortunate events less costly for the driver while also allowing them to continue their journey with a fresh pack of batteries.
This technology could be employed in a number of ways, but Nomadic Power CEO, Manfred Baumgärtner, is currently focusing on one in particular. He thinks that building a fixed public charging infrastructure would be excessively expensive, so a mobile charging service that brings the electric current wherever your car is makes more sense to him.
It’s not just cars stranded on the road that could benefit from his solution, but also large companies with a lot of employees who use EVs. Having a few of these mobile batteries lying around in the parking lot could make sure that everyone gets their share of electricity when all the permanent charging stations are taken.
Having a mobile battery also opens up another possibility that would increase the range of an EV considerably: towing the battery pack like a trailer and charging the car on the go. The best part would be that a depleted battery trailer could be dropped off at a special station, and a new, fully-charged one could be picked up, essentially allowing electric cars to be driven just like ICE-powered ones (minus the trailer).
Fortune reports that Nomadic Power has just received a two-million euros grant from the European Commission that will allow the company to build six of these mobile chargers, and test them in the field. With the number of EVs on the rise, this solution might soon prove to be very useful, but the really attractive proposition is that of the swappable trailer batteries. Sadly, it’s not on the Nomadic Power’s list of priorities, but maybe another company could come up with a similar system.
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