A collection of institutions and companies, including Volvo Car Corporation, have collaborated together to create what they call project ELVIIS (Electric Vehicle Intelligent Infra Structure). The fruit of their labor will be a device that is fitted on-board to electric vehicles in which a driver can control, measure and pay for the electricity used to charge their engine-less cars. When the masterminds behind Ericsson, Göteborg Energi and the Viktoria Institute need a test vehicle, they turn to none other than the Volvo C30 Electric to make sure that ELVIIS will be more than ready for prime time.
“This smart technology for charging in any outlet, and paying automatically via your own electricity bill, is an excellent example of how we do everything to make the daily use easier for the customer,” said Lennart Stegland, Vice President of Electric Propulsion Systems at Volvo. “Our basic view is that the owner of an electric vehicle shouldn’t have to sacrifice any of the properties he or she expects from a luxury car.” When equipped with ELVIIS, that sacrifice shouldn’t happen. When an EV’s battery pack needs to be recharged, the integrated display shows various outlets via GPS. A driver than has the ability to pre-set the timing and charging amount remotely or by smartphone pairing. ELVIIS will be connected to a large area grid and thus will have the power to “call ahead” the charging scheme to optimize the process in both time and cost. Direct charging to a driver’s desired billing method is also an option.
Source: Volvo
