Electrical vehicles were certainly among the hot topics at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. For its part, Chevrolet introduced an affordable electric vehicle for the masses called the Bolt EV (Fig. 1); this is an all-electric vehicle priced close to $30,000 (after federal tax credits), and will go into production at the end of 2016.
The Bolt EV offers an estimated range of more than 200 miles per charge, and it comes with a 240-V charging unit that will recharge the batteries in about nine hours (faster than with a regular 120-V outlet). In terms of safety features, it comes with advanced driver assistance, a rear mirror camera, and a virtual bird’s-eye view of the vehicle.
Related to electrical vehicles, there was another trending technology present at CES2016: Qualcomm Halo, a wireless electrical vehicle charger (WEVC). Its technology is based on resonant magnetic inductive wireless energy transfer over a wide air gap. Qualcomm envisions roadways embedded with wireless charging technology; that may sound like something from a sci-fi movie, but I can’t wait to see it happen.