Many companies are working on improving the recharge rates of batteries (without causing explosions). Last month Japanese bus maker Hino Motors began testing a hybrid bus that links Haneda Airport's first, second and international terminals three times in the morning and again in the afternoon, covering a distance of about 4.2 kilometers. It's doing it with a plugless plug-in hybrid.
The bus's charging mchanism is a wireless technology, giving it a larger range on battery-only power. Autobloggreen reported that it recharges its lithium ion batteries using an electromagnetic inductive charging mechanism. A coil on the bottom of the bus aligns with one embedded in concrete. And the magic happens.
While this is certainly more expeditious than plugging a bus into an AC outlet, how efficient is it? The company hasn't provided details about charging times or--more importantly--the amount of energy lost in the transfer. Energy is lost in any kind of transfer--even through a plug-in cord. Could some bright physicist out there make a guess about the efficiency of this kind of recharging technology?
After all, aggregate emissions won't be reduced if filthy coal-powered electric plants are having to spew emissions to supply a lot of electricity that simply gets squandered for a speedy recharge.
Sources: Carectomy.com, Asahi, Autobloggreen
Photo: Creative Commons
