Charging

EVs and the infrastructure around them is still very new. For consumers, an EV might sound great, but it’s a lifestyle change that may require some added work outside of the vehicle purchase itself. I’ve been going through that learning curve myself.

Multirotor drones may one day be able recharge their batteries while out and about, instead of having to return to a charging station. They could do so via onboard ultra-thin solar cells, which have already been tested on a small quadcopter.

Battery life wouldn't be an issue for drones if they could just recharge on power lines as needed. That's exactly what an experimental new quadcopter can now do, allowing it to stay aloft pretty much indefinitely.

A new wireless EV charging pad can fill a car's battery as efficiently as a wired plug, at groundbreaking 100 kW power levels – unlocking the possibility of fast, efficient and super-convenient charging simply by parking in a designated spot.

For the last couple of years, Omid Sadeghpour has been working on a fold-out solar array for his Tesla Model Y, which he reckons can get him up to 20 miles of range per day without plugging in. Now he's moving to an improved Beta2 version.

Dutch ship builder Damen has announced an all-electric version of its 70-m-long hybrid service vessel designed to support offshore wind farm operations. And the company is aiming to charge the batteries direct from a wind turbine.

Renewable energy grids need lots of energy storage – and EVs plugged into charging stations represent a huge, city-wide battery just waiting to help out. The Dutch city of Utrecht is about to pioneer a clever way to kickstart two-way charging.

As news of the iPhone 15 jams up the airwaves, you can also take a trip back to 1984, aesthetically speaking, with this retro desktop hub that channels the questionable beauty of the Macintosh 128K, but offers much more user-friendly modern appeal.

Adoption of wireless charging has been fairly slow, but it could pick up if it worked over longer distances. Now Aalto University engineers have developed a new system that can allow more efficient wireless power transmission over longer distances.

As the number of EVs on our roads increases, so does the need for charger-accessible parking spots. Instead of having to create more EV-specific spots, parking garage operators could soon utilize Autev charging robots that come to people's cars.

Smartphone manufacturers have been steadily increasing fast-charging speeds of late, making full top-ups possible in minutes. The fastest to date has just been launched by Shenzhen's Realme, promising to take the battery to 100% in under 10 minutes.

Startup Skydio’s latest approach to self-charging drones involves affordable and compact base stations that can be deployed in a variety of settings, as it looks to put self-sufficient aircraft in the hands of more and more users.