by Anna Staniszewska
Two weeks. Five countries. 4812 kilometers. Nearly 3000 miles. That’s a lot of driving – particularly in an electric vehicle – knowing that not all the roads and highways in countries like Spain or tiny Andorra are prepared for electrification. That was Jose Fonseca’s trip when he traveled from Zurich, Switzerland to his hometown of Vila do Conde in northern Portugal (including a slight detour to his father’s hometown of Sousel in the south of Portugal) and back to Zurich.
The best part of Jose’s trip – other than seeing his family? An exciting ride in his new stylish red Ford Mach-E, and the fact that the trip was guilt-free – with zero emissions.
Automotive Solutions for Long Road Trips
Jose is not our typical WiTricity Charger – the fans of wireless charging that we regularly feature in our blog. Rather, Jose is an embedded software engineer at WiTricity who works on developing our multiple-object detection systems, including foreign and living object detection. He grew up and studied in Portugal; when he finished his engineering degree, he moved to France and then Zurich where he joined WiTricity two years ago.
Jose has always had an interest in cars – particularly racing simulators and Formula One racing cars. Once the EU passed a resolution that new internal combustion engine cars can’t be sold starting in 2035, his interests quickly shifted over to electric vehicles. When choosing between a Tesla and Ford, he decided that “the Tesla is like buying a tablet with a car attached. But the Mach-E feels like I’m driving a car. And it’s more beautiful, too!”
Environmental Benefits of Wireless EV Charging
Jose finds the environmental benefits of driving an EV very important. “Driving my Mach-E, I didn’t have to think how much CO2 emissions the nearly 5K km (approximately 3000 miles) trip produced. Our cities, especially big ones, like in Spain or Portugal, are polluted, the air is heavy and lots of people get sick. I don’t want to contribute to that anymore. If we drive EVs, we can make our cities a bit more breathable and greener!”
Current Issues With Charging Electric Cars
Jose started working for WiTricity because he was interested in wireless charging. But now, after his Mach-E road trip and having to charge multiple times in shady places and deal with inconvenient, ugly cables, his excitement for wireless charging has risen even higher! “My main complaint about chargers (apart from them having ugly cables) is that some of them are placed in secluded locations, and most of them are not even properly marked as such – you only know they exist because your car or phone tells you.”
Jose is also excited about the cleanliness of wireless charging and the “power snacking” concept: “Imagine all the nasty cables coming in the next years with the evolving charging infrastructure! We will not have to face this problem if we charge our EVs wirelessly. Moreover, we will not have to think about a gas station or charging point as a target. We will just park and charge, wherever we need to be. Power snacking will be the solution!”
Looking Forward to Wireless Car Charging
For someone living in Europe, Jose appreciates wireless charging even more, since public chargers are often not equipped with cables, different from how public charging works in the United States. “I recently went to the grocery store and wanted to charge my EV at an AC charger in their parking lot. I had to go into my trunk, dig out the cable, plug it in, and swipe my credit card. Fifteen minutes later, the car had only charged three percent. And then I had to reverse the process. It’s not worth the effort. It would be so much easier to simply park and charge.”
I totally agree, Jose. There are so many reasons why wireless charging could make your life easier… and more beautiful, too!
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