Dynamic Electric Vehicle Charging
Charging San Francisco
The Future of San Francisco
You’re driving your electric car; your journey takes more than a 100 miles. Your car stops and there isn’t a charging station in sight. You have nowhere to turn to except for a towing company. Now, you’re not only late to your important meeting, but you just took a chunk of money out of your paycheck. Now, imagine being able to charge your car while driving. Imagine a city powered by roads. It can happen today to your city. It can happen to San Francisco.
What is Dynamic Electric Vehicle Charging?
San Francisco’s booming electric car market is the perfect setting for Dynamic Electric Vehicle Charging roads. Implementing roads that can charge the battery of electric cars while they drive has the potential to revolutionize our city. These roads are safe, easy to install, and have tremendous benefits to both the city and the consumers. Electric cars are the future and investing in infrastructure that supports these movements will be an excellent use of money for the city.
Unlike cables that have varying height differences, thus making it hard for cars and trucks to pass safely, the charging occurs underground and is virtually indestructible. This ensures safety for all vehicles to pass.The technology used is similar to wireless phone charging. It is imperative to control when and how the coil underground produces a magnetic field to ensure that normal cars in addition to electric cars can pass on the road. We currently hold the technology to produce such results.
Why San Francisco?
The Following Shows a CNN Perspective on this Technology
Economic and Consumer Benefits
Economic Benefits
Implementing this project to install wireless charging EV roads will stimulate San Francisco's economy in a multitude of ways. There are both long term and short term impacts.
This project is expected to provide a substantial number of jobs to our citizens according to a feasibility report conducted by Highways England.
- The initial amount of Dynamic EV Charging equipment needed will stimulate the manufacturing supply chain. (Highways England)
- Installation of the equipment on both the roads and vehicles will create labor intensive jobs based in the city. (Highways England)
- In addition, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment growth is expected due to expansion of the industry and greater need for batteries and charging technologies. Since this project is expected to promote and expand the electric vehicle industry, jobs are expected to increase for scientific researchers, chemists, materials scientists, and engineers. (gov.uk, Bureau of Labor Statistics)
The convenience of having charging-while-driving technologies will be an incentive for more consumers to invest in electric vehicles. The growth of the EV industry stimulates the economy according to an article published by IEEE. Here is the article for additional information/reference: http://tec.ieee.org/vehicles/six-ways-electric-vehicles-stimulating-economy/
- According to the feasibility report conducted by Highways England, 70% of citizens surveyed either agreed or strongly agreed that more people would buy and/or use electric vehicles if dynamic EV charging was available. (Highways England).
- Right now, according to an article by the NY Times, there is roughly one public charger for every ten vehicles, and this lack of available public charging deters consumers from investing in electric cars. Wireless EV charging roads offers a solution to this problem. (NY Times).
- If more consumers are willing to invest in electric vehicles, automobile companies could be pushed to become more competitive both price and technology wise according to an article published by Dell. (Dell)
Lastly, there are ten start up electric vehicle companies based right here in San Francisco. If we encourage this project, these companies will have more opportunity and incentive to grow. You can find this list of companies on the Electric Vehicle Startups website. Here is the link: http://sanfrancisco.startups-list.com/startups/electric_vehicles
California has always been a huge proponent of electric vehicles. It is a developing market that stimulates the economy, and policies like tax rebate incentives already favor its expansion. Implementation of these roads should be the next step in promoting EV growth in San Francisco. It creates incentive for more people to purchase these vehicles, creates jobs, promotes technology development, and is a step for the future of this industry.
Consumer Perspective
Consumer Benefits
- One of the main benefits of our roads is that they will save EV owners money. The most obvious aspect of this benefit from these roads is driving people away from being reliant on gasoline. According to the US Energy Information Admin. The average amount that Americans spent on gas from 2008-2014 was about $2400 per year, compared to $600 for the electricity to charge EV the same amount (U.S.).
- The availability of roads that can charge cars while driving will eliminate the need for a lot of in home and public charging stations. Spending hours charging at home can be expensive. Here is a link to a guide that goes into detail about charging electric cars and the costs that come with it : http://electriccarbuyer.com/guide
There are several reasons that people have not made the switch to EV. Electriccarbuyer.com says that one of the main reasons people are straying away from them is because they will need more range than the average 100 mile battery life (Electric). The use of our roads can help eliminate this “range anxiety”.
- If a driver needs to drive a lot in one day or make a trip across town, driving on our road will not only save him battery, it will charge it while driving, increasing the distance able to travel by a generous amount
Ever since modern electric cars hit the market in 2010 the numbers have skyrocketed. From about 52,000 cars sold in 2012, to almost 120,000 in 2014 as told by insideevs.com, the market is increasing every year (Monthly).
- In his paper published in the Journal of Science Policy and Governance, Prateek Bansal discusses that this rapid growth in the EV market is placing pressure on the electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Public charging stations are becoming severely congested, and the use of dynamic wireless charging would reduce the need for these charging stations (Bansal,12-14).
- In addition to charging stations, many stores and businesses are starting to add charging stations to their parking lot. The increase in EV on the road may result in not enough plug in parking spots available. With our technology, you could charge your car on the road, eliminating the need to park in these spots while in a store or wherever you may be.
Environmental Effects
It is essential that dynamic EV charging be implemented into the cities roadways because it can help reduce the impact that electric powered vehicles have on the environment.
Installation of dynamic EV charging in the roadways can be significant help for the environment due to the decrease in emissions that both conventional powered, and ev cars can produce.
Automobiles that run on conventional fuels have a much higher CO2 emission than their electric counter parts.
- Conventional vehicles during a 100-mile trip, would release 99lbs of CO2 compared to only 54 lbs. when driving an electric vehicle that same distance.
- While electric vehicles have zero tail pipe emissions, there is still an impact on the environment coming from the power plant that recharges these cars. For a car to go about 100 miles, it takes about 34 kwh of electricity. This can cost about 35 lbs. of coal or 500 cubic feet of natural gas.
San Francisco is a great place to take advantage of the higher efficiency of electric vehicles. Also, due to the high number of owners, plenty of use will get out of these roads
- The emissions of electric vehicles in the state of California are only 4000 lbs. of CO2 annually when compared to the national average of 8000 lbs.
- About half of the 330,000 electric cars in America reside in California, but only enough chargers in the state to accommodate 1 in 10 vehicles.
With the installation of dynamic EV charging roads, citizens would be more encouraged to make the switch from conventional vehicles to electric.
With more people switching their vehicles to electric power, they are helping decrease the emissions of CO2 in their city. With so many citizens making that switch, you can become a greener, more environmentally friendly community that can usher in awards and publicity for the city.
- One thing that has many potential buyers wary is the fact that additional expenses may be required. A car charging station can cost a user anywhere between 600-700 dollars, and can outweigh the environmental benefits for many potential buyers. The installation of these roads would eliminate the need to purchase a personal charging station at home and encourage buyers to make the switch.
- Awards by the UN such as the Green Star Award or the Champions of the Earth award can provide the city with positive publicity, grants, and an increase in tourism due to the high standard of living associated with eco-friendly.
Implementation
Installation
Works Cited
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