Soon, thousands of vending machines in Japan will be equipped to charge electric vehicles in a cost-cutting tie-up.
On Monday, a consortium of Japanese companies announced they would be partnering up to install 10,000 electric chargers at vending machine sites by the end of the year. Eventually, says vending machine manufacturer Forking Co., the machines themselves might incorporate the chargers. Forking currently owns over one million vending machines across Japan.
Whether you're in a Buddhist monastery or a botanical garden you're never far from a cold bottle of Pocari Sweat or Gokuri Apple. Soon Japanese drivers will never be far from a place to charge their EV, either. Forking Company, which oversees 1.2 million vending machines across Japan, is going to start working with Panasonic to deploy chargers for electric vehicles along with those machines. It's a potentially perfect solution, since these stations already having power and, often, connectivity. Over the next 12 months the plan is to deploy 10,000 such chargers.
The consortium includes Forking Co., a major vending machine operator, and Panasonic Electric Works which will develop and produce electric vehicle chargers with rivals.
Forking has business ties with companies which own a combined 1.2 million vending machines across Japan, or about a half of the national total, company official Reiko Kobayashi said.
Charging machines "will be installed where beverage vending machines already exist or together with new ones. There are various options," she said.
While such vending machines don’t resonate in the US as well as they do in Japan, the idea represents an interesting conversion of consumer choices and EV potential.
As plug-in vehicles will require a lot more charging compared to filling conventional vehicles with gasoline, making charging almost dynamic is the kind of approach that could simplify the process, while also increasing EV cost-effectiveness. For instance, with wireless plug-in charging capabilities, a plug-in vehicle driver in Japan could charge their plug-in without any effort doing something they’d do regardless of the kind of vehicle driven.
That kind of simplicity could be game-changing.
But batteries are going to continue to be too expensive for average consumers for many years, even decades, without considerable technological advances, advances that will probably require a technology beyond lithium according to the consensus. However, something like dynamic charging could enable electric cars to utilize much smaller battery packs, keeping vehicle costs more in line with conventional vehicles.
Looks like vending machines alone probably aren’t enough to create such dynamic charging, but they seem a step in the right direction, especially in dense cities like Tokyo, Japan.
On Monday, a consortium of Japanese companies announced they would be partnering up to install 10,000 electric chargers at vending machine sites by the end of the year. Eventually, says vending machine manufacturer Forking Co., the machines themselves might incorporate the chargers. Forking currently owns over one million vending machines across Japan.
Whether you're in a Buddhist monastery or a botanical garden you're never far from a cold bottle of Pocari Sweat or Gokuri Apple. Soon Japanese drivers will never be far from a place to charge their EV, either. Forking Company, which oversees 1.2 million vending machines across Japan, is going to start working with Panasonic to deploy chargers for electric vehicles along with those machines. It's a potentially perfect solution, since these stations already having power and, often, connectivity. Over the next 12 months the plan is to deploy 10,000 such chargers.
The consortium includes Forking Co., a major vending machine operator, and Panasonic Electric Works which will develop and produce electric vehicle chargers with rivals.
Forking has business ties with companies which own a combined 1.2 million vending machines across Japan, or about a half of the national total, company official Reiko Kobayashi said.
Charging machines "will be installed where beverage vending machines already exist or together with new ones. There are various options," she said.
While such vending machines don’t resonate in the US as well as they do in Japan, the idea represents an interesting conversion of consumer choices and EV potential.
As plug-in vehicles will require a lot more charging compared to filling conventional vehicles with gasoline, making charging almost dynamic is the kind of approach that could simplify the process, while also increasing EV cost-effectiveness. For instance, with wireless plug-in charging capabilities, a plug-in vehicle driver in Japan could charge their plug-in without any effort doing something they’d do regardless of the kind of vehicle driven.
That kind of simplicity could be game-changing.
But batteries are going to continue to be too expensive for average consumers for many years, even decades, without considerable technological advances, advances that will probably require a technology beyond lithium according to the consensus. However, something like dynamic charging could enable electric cars to utilize much smaller battery packs, keeping vehicle costs more in line with conventional vehicles.
Looks like vending machines alone probably aren’t enough to create such dynamic charging, but they seem a step in the right direction, especially in dense cities like Tokyo, Japan.
