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Volkswagen's Mobile Charging Robot Turns From Vision to Prototype Reality

Almost one year ago, Volkswagen Group Components – a subsidiary of the German carmaker – presented its vision of a world that was free from a looming struggle: the quest to find a free charging station port for electric cars. The answer was an amazingly simple one: a mobile charging robot that could drive itself autonomously to one’s EV.
Volkswagen Mobile Charging Robot prototype 12 photos
Photo: Volkswagen News / YouTube
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Back then, Volkswagen’s unnamed innovation was just a vision. It involved the use of a charging robot (one that looked extremely cute thanks to its built-in “eyes”) and a host of mobile charging stations that could be moved around by the former as needed.

The plan was to have the robot started remotely by the user via an app or embedded V2X communication - remember how the Golf 8 series has the technology for safety reasons and the ID.3 and upcoming ID.4 also have it on board?

Then, the mobile charging robot would just tow a trailer housing the mobile energy storage device and drive itself to the vehicle in need of assistance. There, it would communicate with the vehicle and handle the entire process of juicing up (from opening the flap to connecting the charging cable and decoupling it) without human intervention.

VW’s idea had genius potential in it; in a nutshell, it involves bringing the charging infrastructure to the car and not the other way round. But the problem with this is it was just a vision, not a reality. While others were faster to act upon it, Volkswagen has now turned its mobile charging robot into a reality, albeit still in prototype form.

The company decided to share a first glimpse of the real prototypes in a video (embedded below) posted to its YouTube channel, explaining that it might even act on setting up a viable commercial solution “over the next few years.”

The prototypes even come with the first intended target - restricted parking areas, such as underground lots. It’s an obvious choice as the robot’s job would be facilitated by the lesser amount of traffic and area mapping would be an easy task. We even catch a glimpse of its obvious partners, the MEB-based VW ID.3 and the upcoming ID.4 EV crossover.

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About the author: Aurel Niculescu
Aurel Niculescu profile photo

Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution.
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