The German car manufacturer Volkswagen claimed to have built a prototype of the electric vehicle charging robot shown for the first time, only on a conceptual level, at the end of 2019. The German company is convinced in wanting to carry on this idea and for now the prototype is practically identical to the concept version shown last year and characterized by bright “eyes” and sounds that will be much appreciated by fans of the Star Wars saga.

The operation of this robot is, at least at a theoretical level, quite simple: when parking an electric vehicle, the battery may be charged. At this point the robot comes out of its shelter, hooks a sort of accumulator to move it near the car. This accumulator is connected to the car, and the robot returns to its shelter to be able to respond to other charging requests. When the battery has been charged or the driver returns to his car, the robot returns to the accumulator and brings it back to the charging facility.

The principle of automated charging is something that Volkswagen has been exploring for some time and is one of the few companies to approach the concept also from a practical point of view. The road, however, is not clear of obstacles. A fundamental premise of such a system is that vehicles are connected to a network of some kind in a vehicle-to-everything setup in order for it to communicate with the robot. And vehicle-to-everything is still in the making, as the industry has yet to converge on several points, not least the standard to be exploited for communications.

Volkswagen meanwhile is building large fast charging networks in the USA and Europe (Electrify America and Ionity respectively) and in the company’s vision this robot could fit into the operating routine of these networks . The German carmaker is calling this robot a “prototype”, although a real working version has not actually been shown.