Free to fold, can be carried with the car

The Guangzhou Auto Show is not the first appearance of a collapsible solar charging umbrella. It first came to the fore in Volvo's "Switch to Pure Energy" design competition, and was subsequently named one of the top 25 best inventions of 2013 by the US "Time Magazine."

Alvin Huang said that the structure of the collapsible solar charging umbrella is composed of “carbon fiber pipe rack + flexible photovoltaic film”. In actual work, fiber-shaped embedded photovoltaic panels can collect outdoor lighting in large quantities to charge vehicles. Alvin Huang said that the charging umbrella is very flexible to set up and dismantle. After training, ordinary users can complete the construction in about 45 minutes and can be disassembled and folded.

In addition, Alvin Huang is proud of the design of the collapsible solar charging umbrella. In his opinion, the biggest design breakthrough of the charging umbrella is to subvert the single square design of traditional solar panels. Alvin Huang said that the folding solar charging umbrella is more like an artwork in the eyes of him and his team. In order to facilitate folding, they also use a digitally designed mesh fabric to bend the support rod into a continuous curved surface form.

Charging system, portable equipment

At the Volvo New Energy booth in Hall 12.1, we can see a S60L plug-in hybrid car parked under a collapsible battery umbrella. According to Alvin Huang, this is a new possibility for mobile charging of electric vehicles in the future in addition to charging piles. In the future, electric vehicles may no longer need to look for charging facilities. The charging system can be equipped with vehicles.

Alvin Huang said that the collapsible battery umbrella can be folded into a small tent bag. When the user uses it, he can put it into the trunk of the vehicle and reach the destination and then assemble it to form an area of ​​36 square meters and 3 meters. The high solar pavilion can not only charge the electric car, but also effectively prevent the vehicle from being exposed to the sun.

However, the collapsible charging umbrella is still in the conceptual stage, and Volvo has not disclosed the time when the charging equipment may enter the market. In Volvo's view, the significance of the collapsible charging umbrella is more reflected in its own attitude towards electric vehicle development and its technical reserves.

However, despite its design, the folding umbrella still has its own limitations.

First of all, according to Volvo, the current charging efficiency of the collapsible battery umbrella is not very high. For example, it takes approximately 12 hours to charge the S60L plug-in hybrid vehicle. If it is a pure electric vehicle, the charging time will be further increased. long. Of course, rainy days must not be used.

Secondly, we can find from Volvo's official video that there is more than one person needed to assemble a collapsible charging umbrella. That is to say, ordinary users will face assembly difficulties when they actually use it. After all, the professional level of users Not necessarily a trained assembly technician. In addition, a 36-square-meter open space is also a luxury for Chinese users.

Alvin Huang said that in the future, they will further optimize the design of the collapsible charging umbrella, mainly in the convenience of assembly, the area of ​​the product, and the improvement of the charging efficiency. Alvin Huang believes that the current overall development of electric vehicles is still not mature. After several years of industrial maturity, their optimized charging solutions will be released.