Companies like ZipCharge and SparkCharge are developing transportable devices including a battery and a charger for electric vehicles, enough to fill the battery a little to avoid breakdown where the terminals are lacking.
On the sidelines of COP26, the company ZipCharge presented the Go, a portable charger for electric vehicles. This device that looks like a small suitcase, with its wheels and telescopic handle, can be connected to a car to recharge the battery anywhere and anytime, which can be very practical if you do not have access to a terminal.
A few backup watts to take with you
The ZipCharge Go is an NMC (lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt) accumulator with two-way AC-DC charger with a net capacity of 4 kWh providing a charging power of 7.2 kW. Depending on the vehicle on which it is used, it can therefore save up to thirty kilometers of range in as many minutes of charging. Its state and certain functions are controlled via a mobile application, and the device embeds an artificial intelligence capable of optimizing its operation and submitting suggestions to its user according to the latter’s uses. The Go must be marketed at the end of 2022 for direct sale as well as for rental.
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On-demand charging is growing in the USA
Similar to ZipCharge’s Go, SparkCharge’s Roadie takes the more utilitarian form of an angular case with handles. Already available in three American cities (Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles), it is offered on demand, by appointment. An employee of the company goes to the place chosen by the customer to load the latter’s vehicle. Several packs are available with capacities up to 14 kWh depending on the number of modules. Each module delivers 3.5 kWh and charges at a power of 20 kW. The company announces the possibility of being able to recover up to 15 miles (approximately 24 km) in just 15 minutes. The cost of this mobile fast charger is billed at $ 25 per month.
Useful where infrastructure is lacking …
Both the ZipCharge Go and the SparkCharge Roadie are compact enough to fit in the trunk of many cars, and their weight of around 25kg makes them transportable. However, their relatively low capacity compared to the tens of kWh of traction batteries reserves them for back-up use.
This type of device could be useful for apartment dwellers who do not have easy access to a socket or as an insurance against battery failure, allowing to travel the few kilometers necessary to reach the nearest terminal when the we run out of juice. The good old jerrycan may have found its successor.
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