Volkswagen is on a mission to put the Dieselgate mess firmly behind it and become a class-leader in battery-powered cars.
But VW knows that making EVs like the new ID.3 is only half the battle. Creating a charging infrastructure capable of dealing with a massive glut of newly-electrified cars in pretty short order is crucial, and Volkswagen thinks its new charging robots could accelerate that process.
While you can install a 7kW charger at your house for around £1000, it can cost almost £500k to install brace of 150kW rapid chargers at an office complex or housing development.
And things are particularly tricky when you’re talking about adapting existing structures, like multi-storey car parks. Which is where the VW charging robots come in.
They work likes this: you enter the car park and either use an app to request that your vehicle is charged while you’re away, or the car makes the request itself using Car-to-X communication.
The message is received by a robot stationed alongside a number of mobile charging pods in a designated area of the car park. The robot tows one of these pods to your car, flips the charging port cover open and attaches the charging cable from the pod.
It leaves the pod to charged your car and returns to the charging base to collect another pod for the next car.
The project is the work of Volkswagen Group Components, the arm of VW responsible for producing the parts – everything from engines to seats to battery cells – that go into the various cars in the Volkswagen Group.
According to Thomas Schmall, CEO of Volkswagen Group Components, the flexible quick-charging station has already been trialled in multiple locations and will be launched to market in early 2021.
Schmall said the robotised system ‘enables the operators of parking bays and underground car parks to quickly and simply “electrify” every parking space using the mobile charging robot. This reduces any construction work needed, at the same time reducing the potential cost.’
Keyword: Volkswagen EV charging robots coming to a car park near you