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(Elbil24): – Our goal is that everyone should be able to move around freely. Right now, filling up a petrol/diesel car or charging an electric car is a challenge for some drivers. With the robot charging station, this becomes easier, says research engineer Birger Fricke at Ford Europe’s Research and Innovation Center.
Although most people find charging the electric car to be a simple task, the challenge is clearly greater for the elderly and people with mobility challenges and impaired functioning.
For that reason, Ford is currently testing a robotic charging station with automatic charging solutions for electric cars. The robot charging station is part of a larger research project and will make the charging experience much easier.
In the same vein, Ford is now developing fully automated charging for self-driving cars.
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The charging cable is replaced
Ford explains how the new charging solution should work: When the robot charging station is activated, a cover opens and the charging arm finds its way to the charging connector itself. This happens with the help of a small camera.
Via the FordPass app, participants in the pilot project can monitor their charging status. When charging is finished, it disconnects from the car and returns to its initial position.
The robot charging station has been specially developed at the University of Dortmund in Germany and will in future be installed both in disabled spaces, car parks and in private homes.
The technology could also support faster charging of electric cars in the future, according to Ford.
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– I stopped filling the tank
One of the central figures in Ford’s new charging project is Angela Aben. She works in communications at Ford Europe and is a wheelchair user.
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The project is naturally warmly welcomed by her.
– I stopped filling up the tank of my car several years ago. My husband does that for me. It was simply too demanding, says Aben – and adds:
– With the robotic charging station, in the future I will no longer need to depend on others to get this done, says Aben.
The new home chargers allow the current to go both ways.
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In the long term, the idea is that the charging process will be fully automated, with minimal or no involvement from the driver.
The driver must be able to send his self-driving car to the charging station and then call it back when charging is complete.
The robot charging station project is part of Ford’s electrification plan. A follow-up project with the fast charging network IONITY will look at how the robotic charging station can be further improved.
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Ford is not the first to look at new and different charging solutions. Most famous for this is probably the Chinese electric car manufacturer Nio, which is betting heavily on battery replacement as an alternative to traditional charging.
The system is simple. You simply roll the car into a battery replacement station, and then robots take care of the actual replacement of the battery, which is easily accessible from the underside of the car.
In a press release from the end of 2021, Nio stated that 150 successful battery exchanges had been carried out at the battery exchange station in Lier. This is the first of its kind outside of China.
The average time per battery change should be just under five minutes. Then the empty battery has been replaced with a fully charged one, and you can continue driving. Read more here:
The grip that can remove the charging queues
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