When Trains Charge Electric Cars

Armin Buchroithner ( left ) and Peter Brunnhofer were part of the project RailCharge. Image Source: Lunghammer - TU Graz By Falko Schoklitsch - If you want to drive long distances with an electric car, you have to think about charging stops. TU Graz's RailCharge project hands over the charging process to the tracks and thus solves several problems. Range remains one of the Achilles heels in electro-mobility. Those who drive long distances usually cannot avoid one or even several charging stops. And that takes time. But what if, during the charging stop, you cover a large part of the distance, arrive near your destination with a fully charged car and are able to cover the last few kilometres rested and without a worried look at the charge level? And what if, at the same time, a few more problems of electro-mobility were solved - for example, the problem of increased load on the power grid due to increasing numbers of electric cars? The RailCharge project at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) is dealing with precisely this possibility.