Founder Satyajit Patwardhan Founded 2010 | Headquarters Fremont Type Privately held company | |
Industry Electric vehicle infrastructure Key people Aditi Patwardhan (Operations)
Satyajit
Patwardhan (CTO)) Products conductive charging system Owner Green Dot Transportation Website www.green-dot-charging.com | ||
CrossCharge is a device for charging electric vehicles (EV) without driver intervention, using conductive charging. CrossCharge is the world’s first conductive charging system for an electric vehicle. It connects potentially any EV car battery to the electrical power source while the driver walks away; a true park and walk system. The system consists of two halves (or rather, two bars referred as crossbars) – one installed on the vehicle and one installed on the floor of a garage or in a parking lot. The automated ground unit detects the car above it and brings the two pieces together instigating an electric current to flow into the cross point of vehicle side bar, charging the EV. As the vehicle is parked over the charger, the device remains seamlessly connected to the vehicle and brings it to fully charged state – ready for the next use. Some major benefits include maximizing user convenience to promote EV adoption. In addition, the device in particular has passed all safety regulations and thus is the safest hands-free charger to be available on the market. CrossCharge is expected to be available in the spring of 2013.
Contents
Background
Charging through conduction is based on the age-old technology of metal to metal connection. The technology involves contact between a charged object and a neutral object. In contrast to induction, where the charged object is brought near but never contacted to the object being charged, conduction charging involves making the physical connection of the charged object to the neutral object. Because charging by conduction involves contact, it is often called charging by contact and has the least transfer loss.
CrossCharge by GreenDot Transportation claims to be the world’s first conductive hands-free charging system for electric vehicles, it is a product of Green Dot Transportation, founded in 2010 [United States Patent Application 20090011616].
Technology
The charger represents a new generation of clean energy (how is the electricity generated?) possibilities towards maximizing user satisfaction and convenience, the cornerstone for wide-scale adoption of electric vehicles. The EV industry is trying to develop an “inductive” charging solution. However, this approach has inherent issues of safety and efficiency due to accompanying stay magnetic fields. Up to 25% energy can be lost – potentially creating a hazard for pace makers and heating of ferromagnetic structures in the vicinity.
The conductive approach GreenDot has taken provides following benefits to the EV owners: