Toyota Industries has proposed the1.9kW Pure Electric Vehicle (PEV) and Plug In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) charging station shown below.
Source Toyota
The proposed station also incorporates 8.4kWh of lithium battery-based energy storage and it interconnects to the local power grid. Pike Research has studied the potential for stations such as these and it has concluded that it will be a long time before such systems actually pay for themselves. However, there are many sources of funds for such facilities because car companies such as Nissan find them essential to their promotion of pure electric cars and government subsidies, development grants and tax breaks abound.
The public are particularly keen on the long awaited plug in hybrid cars, not least because the electric fuel is no more than one quarter of the cost of gasoline. Mild hybrids that give much less pollution than a conventional vehicle and sometimes better miles per gallon are really an interim stage as we await plug ins with practicable range. Some early plug ins only give 12 miles or so all electric range which is not very useful. Some of these cars harvest sunshine using photovoltaics on the roof but that usually only drives accessories. If directed to traction current roof photovoltaics only adds a few miles range. One day, the new transparent photovoltaics will be put all over the car and it will generate far more electricity - maybe ten times more.
Top image source: egmCarTech
For more read Printed and Thin Film Photovoltaics and Batteries
