[jupitermoon]

Quite interesting. The one thing I worry about is the actual arm...it seems the weak point of the design seems to be the arm. The people treat chargers around here I'm not so sure it would last very long.

 

[Mcgsp]

It does a nice work around from other systems as well a nice work around when ICE vehicles occupy EV spots.. However from the brochure and the demonstration I do not see a cord with the unit. It would appear to me that it would be redundant to use one's EVSE unit but would need a special cord carried by the EV user to utilize the unit. Unit charges from 3.7, 11 and 22 kW.

I too would worry about the arm, especially EV owners leaving it down and another car running driving right into it. Maybe the arm itself should have red led lights on it to warn vehicle owners, which could give a better chance for limiting cars running into it.

 

[jsmay311]

In case you don't want to watch a 10 minute youtube video:

The basic idea of a roof-mounted charger seems like a good one. But I don't understand the lack of cable. Do all EV owners in Europe carry around a Mennekes extension cable of some sort?

 

[Norton]

They filled that room to announce this???

A truly revolutionary advancement in plugging in!!

How have I logged 30k miles in less than 2 yrs driving my BEV without this gizmonic?
All this time I've been stepping 3 ft from the door of my car to grab the charge cord handle and plugging it into the charge port which is even closer to the charger.

 

[jsmay311]

A truly revolutionary advancement in plugging in!!

How have I logged 30k miles in less than 2 yrs driving my BEV without this gizmonic?
All this time I've been stepping 3 ft from the door of my car to grab the charge cord handle and plugging it into the charge port which is even closer to the charger.

It's for public parking garages, not home garages.

 

[MTN Ranger]

In case you don't want to watch a 10 minute youtube video:


The basic idea of a roof-mounted charger seems like a good one. But I don't understand the lack of cable. Do all EV owners in Europe carry around a Mennekes extension cable of some sort?

Yes, the Mennekes standard in Europe uses a user provided cable.

 

[calebh2002]

Honestly, I think that its a brilliant idea of supplying my own cord at public stations. It would cut down on theft potential, and make being ICEd a lot easier to workaround.

 

[KNI]

Honestly, I think that its a brilliant idea of supplying my own cord at public stations. It would cut down on theft potential, and make being ICEd a lot easier to workaround.

It sounds good until you think it over.

Compare to filling the gas tank with your own hose. The service station provides the pump, but you have to provide the hose.

In practice it was a requirement made by Germany who is protecting it's own interest of Mennekes licensing fees. Instead of having one license fee per charger, they now get three. One for the charger outlet, second for the cable inlet and third for the cable outlet. at 30$ per piece, it cashes roughly 100$ for Mennekes from whom the German government can grab 25$ as tax.

And standard wall outlet has been removed from most of the charging stations since people were using those for campers and block heaters.

Pure business logic.

 

[colchiro]

It'll last until the first kid tries to climb it.

 

[llninja]

Honestly, I think that its a brilliant idea of supplying my own cord at public stations. It would cut down on theft potential, and make being ICEd a lot easier to workaround.

But theft of cables between the charger and the car will go up. With high copper prices, these will disappear unless you have a way of locking them up.

Though the concept of being able to reach 4 vehicles at once seems nice, it will only entice rage wars when someone unplugs your car to charge theirs. Imagine getting "iced" by 3 other EVs. A better solution is a mechanism where up to 4 cars plug in simultaneously and the charging is split evenly to cars as they are able to accept the current. So if 4 Tesla's pull up, they all draw evenly sharing the maximum current of the source. If one leaves and a volt pulls up, then the volt gets 16A and the Tesla's pull the remaining evenly (20-40A each). When a battery is full, it drops out and the remaining current is split amongst the remaining.