Project description
Robot to charge your electric car
Sales of electric cars are on the rise in Europe. They are key selling points: no noise, zero pollution, better acceleration and significantly cheaper running costs. Range anxiety (what the driver feels when the battery charge is low), however, remains a barrier for purchasing an electric car. The Italian start-up DazeTechnology has developed an autonomous conductive charging system, DazePlug, for electric vehicles to automate recharge, and the EU-funded DazePlug project will take this technology to the industrial stage. DazePlug system includes a robotic connector, which is connected to an electrical power supply network. An on-board device is installed under the car and directly connected to the vehicle’s battery. The off-board robot automatically reaches the plug and connects itself to the vehicle once the parking is completed.
Objective
Daze Technology, an Italian high-tech start-up, has developed DazePlug, the first totally autonomous conductive charging system for Electric Vehicles (EV) to automate EV recharge. EV are the future of mobility and 2022 is expected to represent an important turning point for electric mobility, as the price of EV is forecasted to be on par with the price of their combustion engine counterparts. Studies by Deloitte, PwC and McKinsey have pointed out that there are two basic issues that are keeping a share of customers away from the adoption of EV: 1) the “range anxiety”, which basically reflects in the question “Will I manage to reach my destination and come back?”;2) the “User Experience”, which deals with the complexity of the charging operations. We all know how to refuel our combustion engine cars, but charging an electric vehicle is a completely different story. Despite the wider availability of public charging stations, 90% of users are adopting and will still adopt home charging. However, who had the chance to perform manual EV charging knows that the cable is bulky and heavy and to avoid accidents the driver must be sure that the cable is dry and not coiled before starting the charge. Besides, once finished, the cable must be unplugged and stored safely. DazePlug solves this problem through a robotic connector, placed on the ground and connected to an electrical power supply network, and an on-board device installed under the car and directly connected to the vehicle’s battery. The off-board robot automatically reaches the plug and connects itself to the vehicle once the parking is completed, allowing the complete automation of the charging process through a simple plug&play socket kit, dramatically enhancing the user experience. This EIC Accelerator project will allow Daze to take the technology to the industrial stage, cooperating with a prominent OEM (Maserati), an energy utility (Engie) and a TIER-1 supplier (Zollner).
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Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
24126 Bergamo Bg
Italy
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.