Electric Vehicles, Range Anxiety & Effective Technology Solutions
The electric car market has experienced significant advancements over the past decade. However, despite these advancements the issue of range anxiety is still plaguing the market. Range anxiety which is the fear of becoming stranded due to a dead battery, was one of the main factors holding back electric vehicle adoption in 2016.
The solution to the problem of range anxiety is three-fold. Firstly, in the form of increasing the number and availability of charging stations. Secondly, in the form of increasing battery capacity for electric vehicles. Lastly and perhaps just as important is the development of technology that enables hybrid vehicles to significantly reduce energy drain thereby allowing the vehicles to travel farther on just one charge. Many automotive manufacturers have made great advancements in the secondary area. Tesla's new Model 3 for example is capable of travelling up to 310 miles (499km) on a single charge. While Tesla’s progress is good, the indicated range is for ideal (non-winter) conditions and most other manufactures are struggling to offer electric cars that have good battery range for an affordable price.
There are currently three ways to increase the range of electric vehicles. Firstly, increasing battery capacity. Secondly, including alternative power generation such as solar panels and regenerative braking. Thirdly, decreasing power consumption/increasing power efficiency. In today’s electric vehicle market the first two options are the most costly. The third option if addressed correctly can facilitate greater sales in this sector. Moving forward, if an automotive manufacturer wishes to sell a significant amount of electric or hybrid-vehicles (whether it be affordable or not), they will have to mainly rely on manufacturing a vehicle that consumes as little power as possible to provide the maximum range. The vehicle may be affordable and/or sexy, but what everyday consumers will really want to know is how far will this car go on one charge and not only on ideal (non-wintery) roads.
Sensor Technology Solutions:
Podium Automotive is a company that specializes in state of the art sensor technology. Podium understands hybrid, electric, and autonomous vehicles and has developed an ice & snow sensor technology that will effectively assist vehicles cut down on energy drain. From fully autonomous heated side-mirrors to rear defroster systems, the technology can turn on the respective heating systems upon the commencement of frozen accretion and immediately turn off when the precipitation is gone saving significant amounts of energy and allowing vehicles to reach their full mileage potential. The sensor technology can further be applied for fully autonomous wiper systems, heated wiper pads and heated windshields. This cost effective internationally patented technology allows vehicles to accurately determine when autonomous snow removal or de-icing systems require activation, providing additional hands-free convenience for drivers. The technology can be applied to: hybrid, electric, semi or fully autonomous vehicles as well as gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles. Implementing the sensor technology allows for better power efficiency in winter weather thus increasing vehicle range and mobility.
There are currently no industry sensors that directly detect ice accretion. Existing technology to turn on heating functions is temperature based and not necessarily reliable given the fact that temperature does not necessitate frozen winter precipitation. In fact, more often than not our winter temperature is below 32F /0C which means that vehicles are utilizing energy to heat a surface even if there is no frozen precipitation present.
Podium has further developed a rain intensity sensor that can allow for vehicles to autonomously activate and deactivate windshield wipers when needed and at the correct precise intensity. This internationally patented sensor is inexpensive, very small in comparison to existing rain sensors on the market and made from off the shelf components. It does not pose any false positives, and provides added autonomous and hands-free convenience for drivers. Until batteries have a much higher capacity and are significantly more affordable, it is technologies such as these that will help open the electric and hybrid vehicle market to the mainstream.
