Helios: Smart Electric Vehicle Fast Charger

by Alex Misoyannis

The white bodywork is designed to be contemporary and ready for a charging network operator’s decals.

Project Description

Electric vehicles are, by many accounts, the future of the automotive industry, and battery-powered passenger and commercial vehicles are growing in popularity at an increasing rate. However, to date the experience of recharging them at public fast-charging stations has been geared towards early adopters, with areas for improvement in usability – and over-complexity – which make it difficult for new users.

Helios is a concept for an electric-vehicle (EV) fast charger which is designed to be accessible, easier to understand, and more intuitive for all EV drivers, not just the experts.

It adopts similar proportions to existing electric-vehicle fast charger designs, but has been designed to solve many of their shortcomings. The charging cable is mounted on a reel which emerges from the top of the product, so it cannot be tripped over, and is never too short to reach the vehicle’s charge port. The small screen of existing designs is replaced by a 900mm-wide display presenting key information – time to 80% charge, and the charging speed – front and centre, and in a text-led form that is easier for new users to interpret.

Light strips wrapped around the product make it clear from afar how much charge the vehicle plugged-in has – rather than needing to look at a small screen – and the colour coding and closer spacing of the top two bars is intended to subtly encourage users to unplug at 80% charge, before the charging speed of most electric vehicles drops off significantly.

The large displays presents key information in a large format, but keeps more technical data points in a smaller font.

One-touch payment by tapping a credit card next to the charging plug handle.

Helios measures two metres tall, 900mm wide and 450mm deep.

Bio

Alex is a product designer passionate about creating beautiful design solutions that have a meaningful impact on users. His lifelong passion for cars drives his design direction, as well as an interest in the myriad of seen and unseen design choices that lead to intuitive products of all types. He has applied analogue and digital skills developed during his studies – from foam modeling and hand sketching to CAD and digital rendering – to various projects, which have been met with high marks and external awards.

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