chargeBIG: Charging Infrastructure for Electric Drive Vehicles

The chargeBIG project is a joint development effort with MAHLE Group and the Eliso company to create a new kind of charging infrastructure for electric drive vehicles. The resulting system is to be cost efficient, highly scalable, and will contribute to stable grid operations. The goal is the large scale electrification of parking garages by placing a charging option at every parking space of a parking garage as cheaply as possible.

Conventional technologies are very expensive and car park operators often decide against complete electrification. Instead, they install charging stations for electric cars only at a few designated spaces; with the disadvantage of finding that the charging station is often blocked by already fully charged vehicles.

Charging Infrastructure for all Parking Spaces

The vision of chargeBIG: In place of expensive components at a few parking spaces, the necessary technical components are combined at a central location and just one tower with a charging cable is needed for each parking space. In effect, the requirements at each parking space are reduced to a minimum. The centralized concept provides substantial savings, both in manufacturing costs as well as current maintenance expenses, with the benefit of low-cost electrification of as many parking spaces as possible.