There were two important announcements for empowering autos and electric vehicles of the future at the Geneva Motor Show. There may be tires that collect energy to recharge cars and electric cars from Nissan that will give energy back to the grid, solving two common electric car problems.
A Good Year for Powerful Tires
Goodyear at the Geneva Motor Show gives a glimpse of car tires in the future and how important tires are to technological advances in cars. One of the major problems of electric cars is range anxiety. We’ve heard countless stories of people worried that they won’t get home or to their destination because a charging station is not nearby. When we reviewed the Chevy Volt, there was no range anxiety because it has a back-up engine, however, charging stations even in a big city like Los Angeles are scarce.
Goodyear’s concept tired named “BHO3” can charge the batteries of electric cars by transforming the heat generated by the rolling tire into electrical energy.
This tire generates electricity from materials in the tire that capture and transform the energy created by heat when the tire flexes as it rolls on the pavement while driving. The tire is made of material that optimizes the tire’s electricity generation capabilities as well as its rolling resistance.
Tires affect many aspects of a car, its ride, gas mileage and even life of the vehicle. If you are driving around with bad tires it can cause an accident and be dangerous.
Nissan Gives Back to Electric Cars and Grid
On the other side of the electric car problem is that EVs can be expensive to buy. Nissan announced at the Geneva Motor Show its support of mass-market vehicle-to-grid (V2G) system selling power back to utility grids.
Nissan is working with Endesa to deliver a V2G system in Europe and to give a second life to EV batteries.
This V2G technology will allow two-way charging, allowing the car can take electricity from the grid when needed, but also sell energy from the car batteries to the back to grid.
Nissan predicts that the EV user will not only decide when and where they want to charge their EV but how best they spend and re-sell the energy stored in their EV.
Making an electric car that gets paid for giving electric energy may reduce costs of operating EVs drastically, thus giving an incentive for more EV sales.