Plug-in hybrids under the microscope

“Personally, I operate my hybrid vehicle with an inductive charging station and sometimes deliberately forget to refuel. During parking processes in my own environment, the range is ‘topped up’ automatically and without additional actions, and the vehicle is also climate-controlled. This gives me a gain in comfort and I actually have no range issues in daily operation.

If you want to avoid clever mobility, you standardize a charging plug, for example, and even make it mandatory. It does not surprise me that PHEVs are not used electrically more often in private and business consumption. After all, this would involve additional effort. However, if these vehicles were charged inductively and automatically, the statistics would be quite different.

Therefore, in my opinion, range is not an issue. The real problem lies in the charging process and the central topic of ‘usability’. All future drive and associated energy storage concepts will be determined by practical usability. If the application on the vehicle side is simple, the topic of range loses its significance. Simplifying the operation and use of a networked vehicle should be the basic prerequisite for alternative drive concepts.”

This is one of the core competencies of AUDIO MOBIL Elektronik GmbH, which deals with usability as such, but also with its validation.