At the recharging station an extremely short wait is needed to attach the recharging unit. The batteries are recharged on the fly, and at the next station an even shorter period is needed to discard the recharging unit, and continue on.

[edited] Forgot to say the most important part: The charging unit is an auxiliary battery with higher voltage than the in car battery. It passes the energy to the original battery.
-- pashute, Jul 19 2011

Mobile Fuel Stations This (battery) idea is technology enabler for that (fuel) one [pashute, Jul 22 2011]

yahbut...

I think you're gonna have to explain what a "recharging unit" is.
-- FlyingToaster, Jul 19 2011


Oh, the "recharging station" is an auxiliary battery that you hook onto your electric car so it can recharge the main battery while you drive?
-- DIYMatt, Jul 19 2011


If you're going to stop at a recharging station and do physical stuff (attach 'recharging unit'), you may as well just swap out the depleted batteries for a fresh, charged set. Less farting around, good to go.
You just need to create a 'Standard' size/position/mechanism so all vehicles can use the same system; which would be the most difficult part.
-- neutrinos_shadow, Jul 20 2011


[shadow], But this will work without changing anything. One stop you add it (with a bit of hassle) the next you drop it (no hassle).

Its a different solution and perhaps a better one than swapping the depleted batteries for fresh ones - with each car having a different size, and shape and whatever...

The best part of it is the next stage, where there are no stations at all and this really done "on the fly" connecting a trailer to your EV (this would work better for a bus or truck)

Anyway: I love this idea, and call on my friends to please remove the bones, and give me sugarless croissants (did I spell that correctly?).
-- pashute, Jul 21 2011


Higher voltage batteries wouldn't be necessary (electronic charging from any voltage is fairly efficient these days.)

But you'll run into lots of difficulties with energy density (i.e. how big and how heavy will the "recharging unit" be? Presumably at least as large and heavy as the batteries you're trying to recharge.)

And trailer or not, you're going to be moving twice the battery mass with no additional energy available.

In the extreme case, a huge trailer with 10x the energy of the original batteries would be sure to recharge the batteries while at rest, but be impractical to be towed by the motor of the car (which was presumably optimally sized to propel the car, not (car + huge trailer.)

Sorry, my fishbone remains.
-- csea, Jul 21 2011


It's a novel paradigm, workable or not; here have a croissant.
-- FlyingToaster, Jul 22 2011


Got me thinking: Can a countercurrent exchange mechanism be used for rapid recharging?
-- pashute, Jul 22 2011


a. The trailer can be self propelling.

b. No: Voltage is the issue, therefore not necessarily larger than the recharged bat.

c. Many stations would make for a system like the Persian mail system (or pony express) so no expensive long distance batteries are needed. In that case of course the recharge must have at least enough energy till the next change and a bit more.

Get it?

d. Flying: Thanks!!
-- pashute, Jul 22 2011



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