by Eric Cohen
EV Drivers contact us daily to tell us why they want wireless charging. Ed Sweeney is one of them.
“Wireless charging is a convenience with our cell phones, but a necessity with cars,” commented Ed Sweeney. Sweeney, an early adopter of electric vehicles went on …
“My first Volt was a 2013 model. As soon as I heard of plugless charging, I ordered the system and had it installed. The 2013 Volt got 35 miles per charge as intended. But, with the plugless system I got two charged battery runs each day or more. I then purchased a 2019 Volt, the last of the product line, which gets 63 miles per charge. On a 220V plug-in charging system, it is ready to go again in only a few hours. Conceivably I could get 120 miles battery driving with WiTricity’s wireless charging system – basically doubling my current mileage.”
Ed’s history with electric cars extends back far earlier than his 2013 Volt – his fifth EV! “I had an early lead-acid Ford Escort. It maybe got 20 miles on a charge. It took a quarter mile to get up to 30 miles per hour and almost as much distance to stop. It was a heavy car – over 5000lbs! My next electric vehicle was a Ford Ranger from Ford Motor company. Although it took forever to charge on 115 volts, it was a marvelous truck with NiMh batteries. Unfortunately, the batteries died.”
“My love of everything electric expands beyond just cars and trucks. At one point in my career, I was Editor of American Aircraft Modeler magazine. During that time, I tried flying a small radio-controlled plane with nickel-cadmium batteries. There was no charger back in the sixties, so I paralleled the NiCad set with a car battery – and it worked! I got about 45 seconds of flight power and, since I was in Washington, D.C., I would fly these simple, quiet models on the Mall. No one ever objected. Try doing that today! My love of flight continued, which led to bigger models. In 2000, I built a special-purpose radio-controlled aerobatic model to fly in the FAI Electric World championships. I won!
“A bit of nostalgia, but back to cars. The Chevrolet Volt is a world-class pioneering vehicle and I still love it. In my opinion, wireless charging is the future. All gas stations should be renamed “Energy Station” and offer EV charging – particularly wireless. Better yet, just have wireless opportunities all around town so I don’t have to go somewhere to charge my vehicle. How easy it would be to simply charge throughout the day while running errands or eating out – without having to worry about plugging in. Just park and charge. I really want it.”
