7 years ago, Tesla released a video of a charger prototype for the Model S, a robot snake if you like that would navigate its way to align with the charging port on the vehicle and connect to charge the car without human intervention.
Now Volkswagen has teamed up with CAMS which stands for “Charging-as-a Mobile Service” who aims to build the VW charging infrastructure in China.
CAMS provides best-in-class charging solutions including making charging reservations via mobile apps and electronically unlocking your parking lot over the air when reaching the destination to create a convenient and seamless charging experience and reduce consumers’ range anxiety – a key success factor for the electric car.
In just 3 years, the CAMS team rolled out a widespread charging network of 7,000+ charging points and 760 supercharging stations around point-of-interests like shopping malls and office buildings in 100 key cities. With inter-city charging pathways between metropoles and popular tourist destinations that enable our customers to enjoy longer worry-free electrified travels.
It is expected that by 2025, most Chinese cities will have 300kW charging options, shortening the charging time.
What’s really interesting is a new Robotic charging option, designed to simplify the charging experience for customers, leaving the charging to the automated charging robot.
Former CEO of Volkswagen Group ChinaFormer CEO of Volkswagen Group China, Stephan Wöllenstein said: “I’m also excited to see more value-added services such as valet charging in CAMS’ pipeline. These innovative services will surely be widely appreciated by our tech-savvy Chinese customers.”
As of today, over 600,000 BEV owners have become CAMS customers through 2.6 million charges. The number will grow as we continue to strategically scale the infrastructure.
By 2025, CAMS plans to build over 17,000 charging points, aiming to ensure a charging station is accessible within 5 km from any point in a city where CAMS’ charging services are fully deployed.
It is hard to describe the solution as elegant, with a large lidar sensor bolted to the top of it, but if it’s effective and fast, this is probably not important.
