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Feature: Power


Tis summer saw the spotlight turn on Paris as it hosted the Smart and


Cable-Free How next-generation Wireless Charging can support Smart City Mobility


By Igor Spinella, CEO and Founder, Eggtronic


E


lectric and autonomous vehicles are playing a crucial role in the emerging smart cities. As part of the transport network, electric cars and robotaxis help reduce city local smog and pollution, while electric bike and scooter fleets are helping migrate people to active transport. Similarly, logistics


services are moving towards autonomous vehicles and drones, and even city maintenance is starting to be managed through such automated systems. Here, Igor Spinella, Eggtronic’s CEO, explains that extending wireless charging to higher power applications is key to supporting these mobility infrastructures.


18 November 2024 www.electronicsworld.co.uk


Olympics. In the run up to the Games, much was made of the Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s initiatives to make the city less car centric and more pedestrian/bike focused. And the rise of electric car sharing fleets, such as Turo and Zipcar, are helping reduce the number of private ICE vehicles on city roads…and with it, local pollution. While the move to autonomous taxis is helping to further reduce car dependency, elsewhere many cities are supporting fleets of electric bikes and scooters (light electric vehicles or LEVs). According to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 170 cities – from Seattle to Miami – have implemented LEV rental schemes to help swap from the car for short journeys, with roughly 9000 charging stations installed across these cities to date. And the US is not alone, with market forecasts predicting 40 million LEVs will have shipped globally between 2019 and 2026. But it’s not just commuters. Logistics is a key area for reducing


pollution and traffic, with cities like Toronto and New York creating smart freight management plans that seek to prevent residential deliveries adding (to cite New York’s report) 68 per cent more freight to the city’s “already-constrained transportation network” by 2045. Among the biggest logistics firms is Amazon, which is seeking


to shiſt many smaller/lighter parcel deliveries from trucks to autonomous drones (UAVs), with deliveries already taking place in Lockeford, California and College Station, Texas. At the same time, autonomous delivery robots are another potential game changer in cities, as they can help with food and parcel deliveries. Finally, smart city planners are also turning to electric and


autonomous vehicles to undertake maintenance tasks and free man hours and budget to use elsewhere. For example, companies such as Boschung have developed autonomous street sweeping vehicles, and the City of Edinburgh, Scotland, has undertaken trials in partnership with Husqvarna for autonomous mowers in a city park, school and cemetery. While the adoption of electric vehicles is still controversial


for long distances (mainly because of the problems related with battery size, weight, charging time, availability and efficiency of fast chargers) there is no doubt that cities, where electricity comes from a strong renewable energy source, can be improved significantly thanks to electric vehicles, robots and drones.


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