Published November 22, 2012
By Philippe Crowe
The idea of having a trailer behind one’s EV in order to increase the vehicle’s range is not new, but ebuggy’s idea and satellite navigation solutions for doing it are being rewarded.
The ebuggy e-mobility project has won the Hessen region's European Satellite Navigation Competition 2012.
The award is sponsored by such high-profile organizations as the European Space Agency, the European GNSS Agency (GSA), the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), and Nokia.
ebuggy's business plan is to offer EV drivers unlimited range when traveling on highways by hitching up battery trailers at the company’s planned network of ebuggy relay stations, and exchanging them at regular intervals.
The company has developed a satellite navigation system in order to manage the future trailer fleet, monitoring and controling the movement of the fleet in real time.
The general concept is that an ebuggy battery trailer can be hitched up at an ebuggy relay station and the journey continued using the energy from the ebuggy, exchanging trailers whenever necessary during longer journeys. On arrival close to the destination area, the ebuggy is dropped off again at the final service station.
"ebuggy allows the automotive industry to build reasonably priced electric vehicles with a smaller battery, because ebuggy is available for longer distances," says Dr. Manfred Baumgärtner, Managing Director of ebuggy GmbH.
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The company said its first ebuggy prototype was constructed with the support of Germany's Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) and project partners such as the Fraunhofer Institut IPA and Stuttgart University. ebuggy proudly stated the concept works perfectly.
As it stands today, ebuggy GmbH is the operating company for the ebuggy mobility concept. It will develop the ebuggy battery trailer and relay stations for series-production readiness and develop the international ebuggy network with subsidiaries.
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