Amsterdam, January sixth, 2023 – We’re already a couple of days into the new year. A new year… means all sorts of new things. Not only will we decide on New Year’s resolutions for 2023, there will also be a lot of new changes coming our way in 2023 when it comes to cars! New cars on the market, new inventions, new laws and regulations. We can’t predict the future, but we did already list a couple of things you can expect this year as an electric driver. To finish with; the new inventions we can expect this year.
New inventions
Not only EV’s and their technology get updated on a regular basis. New developments are made at lightning speed when it comes to innovations for EV charging. The more people make the change to electric driving; the more charging stations are needed, and the more efficiënt we need them to be. Here’s a couple of inventions that are being tested at the moment.
Streetlight or charging station?
Why not both? In the city of London, they are giving streetlights a secondary feature. A technology has been developed that transforms streetlights into charging stations within the blink of an eye. They’ve recently started testing these new charging streetlights in two London neighborhoods.
Charge while you drive
In Sweden, they’re currently testing a time-saving solution; charging your car while you’re driving it. A two kilometer spanning area of the highway has been opened up for electric cars with a contact arm. These can connect with a rail that has been integrated into the road, and can be extracted at wish. The rail in the road has been grounded, and only supplies electricity when the sensors detect an EV driving on it.
Recycled (charging) stations
The infamous yellow ANWB (roadside assistance) emergency telephones along highways: who doesn’t know them? With the arrival of mobile phones, the internet, and the many helpful apps that exist these days, these telephones have become completely unnecessary. Around 3300 of them still adorn our country, and for a while the ANWB has been looking for a sustainable purpose for this nostalgic piece of heritage. Nowadays, a part of the emergency telephones is being converted into charging stations. The past meets the future!
Medical charging stations
Not too long ago, they installed the first medical charging station in the city of Delft. This is a charging station to which a defibrillator (AED) has been connected. While these are still being tested, it could save a lot of lives if every charging station in The Netherlands would be outfitted with an AED. In The Netherlands, about 80.000 ADE’s are installed in buildings that are not accessible on a 24/7 basis. Charging stations are almost always accessible, both during nighttime and on weekends. With this, emergency responders could arrive at the scene with an AED way quicker.
Helping robot hand
Every EV driver is used to the charging stations along the highways. Here, you really do still have to get out of your cozy, comfortably warm car to connect that charging cable. If it’s up to robot manufacturer Kuka, this will soon be a thing of the past. In the future, robots will lend a helping hand with all sorts of tasks; including charging your EV. The only thing you will still need to do as a driver, is parking your car on a special charging parking spot. The rest will be completely taken care of!
