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  • Imagine it's the year 1900.

  • The horse and buggy still reign supreme as the choice mode

  • of transportation,

  • but a relative newcomer,

  • the automobile,

  • is about to become all the rage.

  • And so roads begin to pave and things

  • like gas stations and traffic lights appear,

  • and voila!

  • Everything looks different and probably smells a lot better,

  • too.

  • The transition from horse to horsepower ushered

  • in a complete infrastructural change that had ripples

  • through every sector imaginable

  • and made our modern world possible.

  • A century later,

  • are we on the cusp

  • of another transformation that of magnitude?

  • Today, the world pretty much agrees on the basic idea

  • that we need to get off fossil fuels and move

  • toward more sustainable solutions to our modern needs.

  • The transportation industry accounts for something

  • like 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

  • And that's one of the largest contributors

  • of pollution in the world.

  • But going electric is not a simple panacea

  • for the world's climate problem.

  • We need to understand that electric vehicle is very good

  • but the battery is not so green.

  • The more we consume electric vehicles,

  • the more we consume electricity

  • and electricity is powered

  • by polluted materials like natural gas or coal.

  • Just like going from 19th to 20th century mobility,

  • the very infrastructure we built our society

  • on may need to change.

  • And a lot of unresolved issues remain

  • before this shift goes into full gear.

  • For example...

  • There aren't enough lithium ion and cobalt resources

  • in the world today.

  • And the whole industry is centered on making sure

  • that there's no anxiety associated with the range.

  • Batteries don't grow on trees.

  • And for every mile you want to go,

  • they become heavier,

  • which then drains them faster,

  • forcing us to stop

  • and charge up again

  • and again

  • and again,

  • which of course takes up energy.

  • And so we're left with the ultimate riddle.

  • How can we move with the ease and freedom

  • that internal combustion offers

  • while successfully reducing our overall carbon footprint?

  • Israeli EV startup ElectReon is helping crack the code.

  • We don't need to remove the battery at all

  • but we need to reduce the size of the battery.

  • And this will create a green solution to all of us.

  • We took a step back and we looked at the shift

  • to electric vehicles in a more holistic way.

  • And we said okay,

  • what makes the most sense?

  • How can we create a charging solution where the vehicle

  • battery can be as small as it can possibly be?

  • When you think about battery capacity and battery density,

  • not every vehicle requires a huge battery.

  • Not every vehicle needs to travel hundreds of miles.

  • So ultimately,

  • the vision is to empower the transition

  • to electric vehicles in the most sustainable

  • and efficient way possible

  • whilst ultimately lowering the cost

  • of ownership of the vehicles for the owner.

  • And the existing solutions based

  • on plug-in charging will not do the shift alone.

  • So we believe

  • that wireless charging is the technology

  • that can help to accelerate the adoption

  • of electric vehicles.

  • Yes, you heard that right.

  • Car charging wirelessly.

  • Wireless charging is a way to transmit energy

  • from one coil

  • to the other coil without having hard connection

  • between the two.

  • While we're driving,

  • we can charge it

  • while we're waiting for passengers

  • inside the city.

  • We can charge it

  • while we are loading goods

  • at the loading dock.

  • So it means

  • that we can charge the vehicle almost

  • any time,

  • anywhere.

  • We don't need to carry a huge battery with us.

  • We can reduce the size of the battery

  • and we can transmit the energy almost all day long.

  • We have the copper coils that are installed

  • under the road,

  • under the roadway or wherever

  • it is that we're deploying that transfer energy

  • over the air to a receiver

  • that's installed directly

  • under the vehicle chassis.

  • Works on the exact same principle

  • as an electronic toothbrush,

  • or we're seeing a lot

  • of new generation wireless charging for iPhones.

  • There's no actual connection required between the two.

  • The energy is via the app.

  • Wireless charging is actually nothing new.

  • It's use has been around almost as long

  • as the discovery of electricity itself.

  • The principle is based

  • on Nikola Tesla discovery

  • more than 100 years ago.

  • Nikola Tesla,

  • was so ahead of his time

  • that his vision for wireless energy

  • transformation was buried by his competitor,

  • Thomas Edison,

  • in favor of a less egalitarian

  • and more capitalistic system of energy transmission.

  • Today,

  • he's practically worshiped by the tech elite

  • and the Tesla coil remains the inspiration

  • for wireless internet connections

  • as well as charging solutions

  • like ElectReon's.

  • This charging can occur even when the car is moving

  • and comes with a holistic power management system

  • to maximize the process.

  • ElectReon's technology is made

  • up of four major components.

  • There's the copper coils directly

  • under the road.

  • There's the receiver unit,

  • which accepts the energy

  • from the copper coils under the road.

  • Then that relationship is managed

  • by a management unit at the side of the road,

  • which receives energy directly from the grid

  • and then safely transfers it

  • to the copper coils under the road.

  • These three components are managed

  • by cloud software,

  • which enables us to remotely

  • monitor the entire relationship,

  • make sure enough energy is being transferred,

  • and ultimately charge and bill for the energy.

  • The benefits of wireless charging are huge.

  • When we look at the transition

  • to electric mobility,

  • there are a lot of costs incurred

  • on the vehicle side

  • and on the infrastructure side.

  • Installing the technology

  • means a vehicle's battery capacity

  • can be massively reduced,

  • which can be up to 50% of the cost of the vehicle itself.

  • The vehicle never needs to stop

  • to charge again.

  • You can charge with different amount of energy

  • different vehicles on the same platform,

  • which is very unique to wireless charging.

  • Just as in the transition

  • from horses to automobiles,

  • public infrastructure plays a critical role

  • in enabling mass adoption,

  • but making major changes

  • to large complex systems

  • while they're in use isn't easy.

  • There is no standard

  • for wireless charging dynamically.

  • Ultimately,

  • in order to be able