Electric car owners usually have to struggle with finding a place to charge their vehicles as the charging stations are not built anywhere. Volkswagen has made a strategy to resolve this issue by making a portable powerbank like charging station.

German automaker Volkswagen shared its new mobile charging strategy for electric cars that envisions mobile charging units to be delivered directly to electric cars in need of power, instead of owners having to look for charging stations. These are similar to the portable chargers people use to charge their smartphones on-the-go.

These movable power banks can be set up in a shopping center parking lot where, for example, they can supply power to electric companies while running completely with onboard batteries. It can be set up flexibly and independently wherever it is needed, with or without connection to the power supply. The charging locations can be easily found via the internet or certain apps.

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Up to 15 EVs can be charged at one station, which has a capacity of 360kWh, charging up to four cars simultaneously. Also, this future charging station has DC quick-charging capabilities where each vehicle only takes an average of 17 minutes to charge in speeds of up to 100kW. The station can also charge e-bikes if needed, said Volkswagen.

If the energy of the integrated battery set falls below 20%, the depleted charging station is simply exchanged for a charged one. However, if the mobile unit is permanently attached to the power supply with up to 30kW via alternating current, the battery pack ‘perpetually recharges itself’.

Also, the charging station can be recharged specifically with solar or wind energy, which is then transmitted to the electric vehicles during charging. “Our charging station is the first to offer the possibility of temporarily storing sustainably generated power,” said head of Technical Development at Volkswagen Group Components, Mark Möller.

“In case the charging process is based on renewable power supply, the charging station furthermore allows the temporary storage of sustainably generated power, such as solar or wind energy – and therefore CO2-neutral mobility,” according to VW.

The company plans to spend $2 billion over the next few years building up a global EV charging infrastructure. VW said that first station will debut in Wolfsburg, Germany during the first half of 2019 and will be expanded to other cities and communities in 2020, when it starts its regular production.