Israel-based company Zooz Power will use its flywheel technology to charge electric rental cars at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport.
Formerly known as chakrasZooz recently announced a memorandum of understanding with an unnamed car rental company to pilot flywheel energy charging at LaGuardia starting Q2 2023.
The partner rental company “operates thousands of car rental websites in more than 100 countries,” Zooz said in a press release, adding that more sites will be reviewed after review. A year-long pilot program in New York was a success.
Kinetic energy storage system based on Chakratec flywheel for EV charging, grid balance
The technology is a form of kinetic energy storage that relies on spinning giant flywheels to store energy instead of batteries. Flywheels rotate in the box, where they are suspended in a vacuum. An electric motor “spins” each flywheel to an ideal speed, then acts as a generator when the flywheel “spins down”, using that energy to charge the electric vehicle.
This technology helps to reduce the maximum load on the grid, while allowing higher charging power. And as the company said before, the flywheel can be placed in some places where batteries should not be used, such as inside or underground. That’s especially relevant for car rental sites, where grid constraints can limit the deployment of conventional charging infrastructure, Zooz claims.
Hybrid technology based on flywheel derived from the race—and moved to a few prototypes—but it promises much more in permanent settings.
Kinetic energy storage system based on Chakratec flywheel for EV charging, grid balance
Battery Booster Charger is an increasingly popular choice for locations where high grid upgrades are not possible, allowing fast charging from existing low voltage service. And the charging networks have discovered that it allows more flexible for fast charging location.
Zooz didn’t say which rental company was involved, but Hertz announced its intention to have tens of thousands of electric vehicles in its fleet from Tesla, GM, Polestar and perhaps others. And BP has been announced as a partner of help maintain charging electric car rental.
