Tesla isn’t the only car maker with grand visions of EV charging robots. Volkswagen has created a prototype charging robot that would navigate to your car in the parking garage, saving you the trouble of hunting for a coveted (and likely rare) EV charging spot.
The robot that can autonomously charge your electric car without the need for any human interaction — you just summon it to your vehicle via an app.
They can simultaneously charge multiple vehicles inside the same parking garage by hooking up a mobile battery pack to each car and then retrieving the pack once the car is charged.
Each battery pack can hold about 25 kWh and can top up the battery of a vehicle at a rate of 50 kW. In theory, anyways — as of right now, the robot and its “battery wagon” buddy don’t actually exist.
It’s a visionary prototype, which can be made into reality quite quickly, if the general conditions are right.
Volkswagen hasn’t announced any dates for realizing its vision, but the benefits are clear:-
- it could eliminate the need for dedicated parking spots outfitted with electric car chargers.
- with this, Volkswagen will be making almost every car park- electric, without any complex individual infrastructural measures.
The constructional work as well as the costs for the assembly of the charging infrastructure can be reduced considerably through the use of the robots.
Reference- Volkswagen website, Futurism, engadget website