Search Results

Electric cars can help cities solve air quality problems, but drivers who live in apartments have no convenient way to charge daily, absent the well-controlled private garages where most electric vehicles (EVs) are currently charged each night. Environmentally robust, hands-free, inductive chargers would be ideal, but energy efficiency suffers. We asked whether the precise parking alignment provided by self-driving cars could be used to provide convenient inductive charging with improved charging efficiencies. To answer this question, we split an inductor-inductor-capacitor (LLC) battery charger at the middle of the isolation transformer. The power factor correction, tank elements, and transformer primary windings are stationary, while the transformer secondary, rectifiers, and battery control logic are on the vehicle. The transformer is assembled each time the EV parks.