Each day brings many new technologies and ideas and with them, many important questions. Electromobility is exactly one of these fields full of mysterious questions and uncommon requirements.
One of the problems of electromobility is the range of vehicles powered by electricity, respectively, the capacity of the batteries and consequently the charging speed of the cars. The number of charging stations is constantly getting higher. Yet, electromobility pioneers are experiencing disrespecting the marking of the charging places for their cars and not only in their circle. This sign means that an electric car can be parked in the charging space. But it also means that it should be an electric car that is being charged. It is not a reserved parking space for "rich people" driving electric cars, but a regular synonym for a spot at the fuel dispenser at a gas station. Imagine you are in a regular car, you are running out of fuel and your favorite gas station is closed. You drive another 70 km and the fear starts to set in that you will not make it. Almost on the last deci of the fuel, you reach the petrol station and there is a parked car without a driver at the fuel dispenser. Pioneers of electromobility experience a similar story regularly in shopping centers.
In cooperation with ELEXIM, an authorized supplier and specialist in charging stations, SECTRON is developing solutions for charging station operators. It includes also a parking sensor built into the car park as part of the charging racks. By parking the car at the station, the sensor is activated and sends the information about the space being occupied. If the charging of the car is not activated by a certain time, the charging station informs the founder or operator of the parking spot. In the case of a shopping center, the car owner is then asked to park the car elsewhere, or other less popular measures (such as calling a towing service) can be used.
The parking sensor is based on the detection of metal objects that affect the earth's geomagnetic field. Due to the interference of this field, the sensor is able to recognize the occupancy of the parking spot. The combination of a parking sensor with a charging station is suitable for all forms of parking houses or public car parks. Thanks to this sensor, it can also send information about the number of occupied spots, e.g. to the information board at the entrance of the parking house.
This whole system works with cloud application. The vision for the future is the possibility of connecting a car park, for example, with a mobile application specializing in the listing of charging stations for electric cars and extending the function by the possibility to reserve the charging station at a specific location at a specific time. If the application knows about your car and battery status, it will also be able to estimate your booking time. If you have your location activated, it will regulate your arrival time by itself and can meanwhile handle another owner of the electric car in case of traffic problems. Reservations can be free or paid. Forfeited bookings may be charged by making a payment by card or with a mobile application. The whole system is very agile and can be adapted to the requirements of the charging station operator. For more information, please contact SECTRON's sales department colleagues.
