Volvo rigged a California highway so that cars passing over it will charge their XC90 T8 Twin Engine. Sneaky sneaky.
One of the sticking points of cars that run on electric power are getting the actual electricity into the batteries. Electricity still costs money, and more importantly, it takes a fair bit longer to charge than it is to refuel at the pumps.
And they have to come from somewhere, and the reality is it’s not always solar farms and windmills. Pollution is involved. But Volvo have found a particularly creative way to promote their new top-end plug-in hybrid SUV.
Volvo’s highway experiment uses tubes that run along the underside of the specially built patch of highway. These tubes are filled with water, which are then pressurised when a car drives over it, turning a turbine that in-turn results in electricity.
When a driver drives along, effectively donating some charge to the XC90 on display nearby, a big screen lights up, thanking the driver of the ‘black Audi’ for example. It’s a fun idea.
These surfaces bend quite a bit to allow for the water pressurisation, so we can’t imagine them being a viable alternative to a smooth road.
Volvo’s new XC90 – with its T8 Twin Engine - is quite a desirable car, and not just because it of its looks. Its 234kW four-cylinder turbocharged engine is augmented with an electric motor to provide more power and an all-electric short commute (up to 40km)
What we don’t know was how many cars were required to drive along the rigged patch of highway to produce enough charge to fill the XC90’s batteries.
At 9.2kWh, the XC90’s battery pack is quite small compared to the fully electric vehicles. One wonders if this kind of highways can generate enough energy to power a car with a much larger battery pack. If so, how much water-filled roads would be needed?
