
The idea of futuristic electric cars being able to charge without having to plug them in may not be too far off. The Matrix Charging project, funded by the European Union, is proposing a method of charging which involves parking the car over a Matrix Charger pad (MC pad). The vehicle would house a Matrix Charger connector (MC connector), and when the user parks the car over the pad, the connector will initiate a secure wireless connection that will begin charging the vehicle. The user will make all payments through a customized blockchain that secures the transaction to reduce the risk to both the consumer and the company itself. The combination of blockchain technology with wireless charging technology opens the doors to a much more stable operation for electric vehicles around the world.
Offering Better Charging Technology
The existing technology for electric cars comes from battery packs that rely on an adapter for recharging from a primary source. However, the concern for electric vehicles has always been that their batteries limit their range of travel. Addressing this situation has produced hybrid vehicles that charge based on their motion, braking, or through a dedicated engine that still burns fossil fuels or employs a fuel cell to recharge the battery. Wireless charging technology has been one of the methods that manufacturers have been looking into to increase the range of electric cars and allow for better peace of mind for owners.
Project coordinator Easelink intends to test the technology in a living lab located in southeast Austria to work out potential issues with the hardware. By combining the charging system with an automated payment system, the company hopes to promote more seamless interactions with customers. Ideally, consumers would find parking spots marked as equipped with a charging pad, then on parking, their vehicles would be topped up, and their range increased the maximum depending on how long they’re parked there. The public’s perception of electric cars as having a limited range of movement impacts on the broad adoption of the technology. By incorporating the wireless charging capability into vehicles, the company hopes to bring about a change in that assumption of how electric cars perform.