VW new mobile charging robots let you refuel while in a parking lot

MANILA: Searching for charging stations for your EV is about to come to an end. Volkswagen Group Components just previewed their mobile charging robots that will find its way to your car autonomously so you can park and charge at the same time.

According to Mark Möller, Head of Development at Volkswagen Group Components, via a press release, “the mobile charging robot will spark a revolution when it comes to charging in different parking facilities, such as multistory car parks, parking spaces and underground car parks because we bring the charging infrastructure to the car and not the other way around. With this, we are making almost every car park electric, without any complex individual infrastructural measures.”

How it works

The concept behind Volkswagen’s charging robot is to reverse the norm—rather than looking for a charging port, the charging port will find your car. The whole process begins with an app or car-to-x communication. After making the request, the charging robot will then proceed to find your Electric Vehicle. The robot is fitted with cameras,

laser scanners and ultrasonic sensors which will allow the robot to move freely in the parking space and navigate itself to recognize obstacles on its own. With these systems fitted on the mobile bot, “even the well-known problem of a charging station being blocked by another vehicle will no longer exist with our concept. You simply choose any parking space as usual. You can leave the rest to our electronic helper.”

The VW charging robot prototype will tug a trailer also known as a battery wagon that carries a mobile energy storage device that the robot will connect to the EV. When fully charged, the battery wagon can have a load of 25 kWh, and the bot can move several of these wagons at the same time.

When the mobile robot reached the EV, it is fully capable to control the vehicle to be charged—from opening the charging socket flap to connecting the plug to decoupling—the whole process will be carried out by the bot autonomously, without the need for human intervention.

The mobile energy storage device can deliver DC quick charging with up to 50 kW on the vehicle. Depending on the size of the parking area or car park, several charging robots can be deployed at the same time so that more EVs can be attended to.

But for now, the concept is still a “visionary prototype, which can be made into reality quite quickly, if the general conditions are right,” said Möller. But it does give an alternative on charging infrastructure.

Especially since the constructional work and overhead costs required for Volkswagen’s mobile charging robot prototypes are considerably lower as compared to traditional charging infrastructure.

The future of EVs in PH

The worst-case scenario for EV owners is to have a low charge and not find a charging station on time. That’s why hybrid is still the best option amongst Filipinos because, for one, our country still do not have the infrastructure where we could go and charge our cars and second,

because if you get stuck in Metro traffic, there’s that fear of losing power at the middle of EDSA or C5. And not to mention, the infrastructure and costs of building charging ports especially that we are an archipelagic country. But with VW’s new mobile charging robot prototypes, these deterrents will soon be eliminated and EV can have a budding place in our local auto industry.

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