Mass-produced electric cars can’t charge themselves for one simple reason: the technology doesn't exist. Progress has been made towards self-charging electric cars, but it is still in its infancy. This means it is still very expensive.
On top of this, the infrastructure doesn’t exist to support self-charging cars and there are no Governments driving the idea forwards.
However, scientists are making developments in this field. While it is not possible yet, electric cars may be able to charge themselves in the future.
According to the second law of thermodynamics, energy always flows from a higher state to a lower state, meaning it cannot flow upwards without an external force.
The electric motor in an EV uses the energy to move the car, and it cannot generate enough energy to recharge the battery by itself, which is why we must plug our electric vehicles into a powersource.
Yes, regenerative braking technically counts as self-charging. However, it is nowhere near effective enough to fully recharge an electric car.
Regenerative braking relies on drivers lifting their foot off the accelerator or pressing the brake pedal often enough to capture kinetic energy and store it in the battery. If you often drive in the city or at low speeds, you can extend your car’s range quite a bit using regenerative braking. On the flip side, if you usually drive on the motorway, it is much harder to extend the range of your EV.
Most importantly, regenerative braking only captures some of the energy, not all of it. It is not effective enough to create a true self-charging electric car.
There are currently several theories on how to create a self-charging electric car. Here are some of the most popular:
In 2019, VW Group proposed the concept of mobile charging robots to charge and communicate with electric cars. These would be installed in car parks and drivers could summon and control them via an app. After that, the robots would control your vehicle and charge it as needed.
This idea is still in the prototype stage but VW group seem to be moving forward with the scheme. However, there are still huge issues with the technology and the infrastructure to overcome, (as mentioned earlier). However, this idea would revolutionise EV charging if VW can make it work.
Electric cars use the same lithium-ion batteries as smartphones, so the concept of wireless charging is certainly possible. In fact, there are certain products currently available that can charge an EV this way.
This form of self-charging uses electromagnetic induction. This involves passing an electric current (captured and stored in the battery) through a pair of coils. One of these coils would sit in the charging unit and act as the transmitter and the other would sit on your car and act as the receiver.
A wireless charger can be installed in a garage or on the road surface and charge an EV effectively. Unfortunately, this technology is also going to take a long time to develop and roll out.
This involves attaching a generator and alternator to the wheels of electric cars. Wind turbine technology would power these to keep EVs zero-emissions vehicles.
Unfortunately, this technology would be heavy and expensive. EV batteries already make them heavier than a petrol or diesel car, and attaching a generator to each wheel is only going to make that worse. On top of that, the technology still needs a lot of expensive Research & Development which would increase the cost of electric cars.
Solar panels are probably the best option for a self-charging electric car. In fact, this technology already exists in a road-legal car!
The Lightyear 0 was a working solar-powered electric car created by a team of Dutch developers.
The developers claim that the Lightyear 0 can travel 388 miles on a fully-charged battery. They also say it can the solar panels mean it can go several months without charging - up to 1,000km! (621 miles).
However, production was shortlived, as it was only produced for less than a year - in January 2023 the company halted productions. Lightyear are now focusing their efforts on Lightyear 2, due to start production in 2025 and have a much lower and accessible price point.
While the Lightyear proves that solar panels can create a self-charging electric car, the technology still has several issues.
It is very untested. The long-term ability of a solar-powered self-charging car is still unclear.
It doesn’t charge the car very quickly. Lightyear claims that their solar panels will give you 12km (7 miles) range for every hour of charging. This is helpful if you only make short journeys, but not so much if you drive a long way each day.
It is currently very expensive. Prices for the Lightyear 0 started from €297,500 (£249,394.77). Plans for a much more affordable Lightyear Two model are in the works, but are still some way off.
Only one company has invested in the technology. The Lightyear 0 is the only example of a solar-powered, self-charging EV. What’s more, Lightyear are still a start-up that are reliant on outside investment to even bring the car to market.
The technology is developing rapidly, so we're likely to see more self-charging electric cars in the future. However, there are still political and scientific barriers to overcome.
The scientific theories we mentioned above aren't that practical. This means there are still plenty of problems to overcome. For example, solar power doesn’t charge a car very fast and generators aren't effective because they can’t capture all the kinetic energy. The worst issues lie with the wind turbine theory.
This is fundamentally flawed because wind turbines would be too heavy and create far too much drag. This will slow the car down, meaning it needs more power to move in the first place. The only way to solve this would be to add more wind turbines, creating a 'vicious circle'.
However, scientific breakthroughs happen every day. While there are no viable options for a self-charging electric car in January 2024, that doesn’t mean that the picture won’t have completely changed within the next couple of years.
Simply put, no Government is investing in self-charging electric cars. They need strong political support and investment during the development process and no one is prepared to give this yet. This is mainly due to the potential environmental impacts of electric cars.
More importantly, there are huge infrastructure issues. Our society is not set up to accommodate self-charging cars and the logistics to get to that point are complex and challenging.
Until these attitudes change and we get the significant breakthroughs we need to make self-charging cars affordable and effective, we won’t see any more any time soon.
It isn't much of a problem, as proven by the growing market share of electric cars. Drivers aren't being put off by the lack of self-charging. They are buying into the concept because of the benefits of EVs.
On top of that, EV charging is much faster than it was a few years ago. On average, fast charging points allow drivers to charge their batteries from 0% to 80% in 30 minutes. You can find these at many UK service stations and car parks. There are over 53,000 public charging points currently installed and that number is always growing.
You can even charge an electric car at home overnight. This allows you to take advantage of low electricity prices and make charge your car as efficiently as possible.
What’s more, the average range of an electric car is now over 200 miles. This should be more than enough to deal with your daily or even weekly commute.
In short, a self-charging electric car would be nice, but it isn't a big deal right now. There are more pressing challenges to overcome first.
We're not going to see a self-charging electric car anytime soon. If an electric car is right for you and you're planning to make the switch in 2024, we recommend that you do so.
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