Autonomous robot charges your electric car while you shop or work

PARIS: French company Mob-Energy, which specialises in recharging solutions for electric vehicles, presents Charles, a perfectly autonomous robot capable of recharging any car in a given space, such as a parking lot.

To launch Charles, Mob-Energy has teamed up with Mercedes-Benz France, which provides it with entire packs of second-life batteries which are integrated into the robot.

These internal batteries allow it to store several doses of energy, enough to recharge up to three cars at each intervention.

To operate, Charles does not require any specific reorganisation of a parking area, for example.

In practice, it recharges itself on a base installed on the site and then connects to cars in an automated way.

It does so by hooking up to an intermediary connection module, available on the parking lot free of charge, and to be connected to the car by the driver before they leave.

Drivers make a charging request from a mobile application, and Charles then prioritises his round according to each user's needs. Charles is designed to charge both cars (plug-in hybrids or fully electric models) and two-wheelers, so long as they all use the same connection module.

Each robot can serve any vehicle located on the same level, up to a limit of 20 per day for the moment.

Note that it is compatible with both regular and fast charging (50kW), again depending on the vehicle served. This autonomous and intelligent robot is currently deployed in a few parking lots dedicated to professional fleets or car-sharing services.

Mercedes is not the only manufacturer investing in innovative and practical charging solutions.

Volkswagen has already presented a similar concept, but it has not yet been publicly deployed.

And, still with the aim of simplifying charging, the car manufacturer Ford is testing a fully automated electric charging station, allowing drivers to recharge their vehicles with minimal effort. This is mainly aimed at elderly drivers or those with disabilities.