Echos Electric Charging Station by Riccardo Petruzzelli is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2024 Bronze A' Design Award in Energy Products, Projects and Devices Design Competition Category.
BronzeEnergy· 2024
Echos Electric Charging Station
Client: Riccardo Petruzzelli
Bronze A' Design Award Winner in Energy Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #158182The Design
About Echos Electric Charging Station
Electric charging On-demand Station was born from the desire to provide a robotic, autonomous and on-demand charging experience that is therefore not bound by a fixed position. This makes charging flexible, simple and accessible at any time. The goal is to push the creator to design a product that will help users and that could represent the future of electric vehicle charging. Echos exceeds the standards of the traditional fixed charging station and opens up new scenarios. For Echos, geometric lines have also been designed.
The Recognition
About the Bronze A' Design Award
Echos Electric Charging Station is a Bronze A' Design Award winner, a highly prestigious recognition granted to outstanding designs distinguished by creativity, ingenuity, and astuteness. Bronze winners are amply skillful and strikingly creative artifacts that authenticate the vast experience, imagination, and resourcefulness of their designers. Echos Electric Charging Station is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished object that is notably professional and innovative. This Bronze A' Design Award-winning design incorporates best practices in art, science, design, and technology, and is excellent for its attention to detail. Echos Electric Charging Station splendidly satisfies needs, touches desires, charms feelings, and appeals to curiosity.
Interviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
The core behind this project lies in the field of electric mobility, a sector with a huge development potential that, in the coming years, promises to radically revolutionize the way we move daily.
The term "revolution" is appropriate because we are facing a paradigm shift in social structures, driven by the transition to electric mobility.
This transformation is not simply limited to replacing traditional vehicles with electric ones, but will also profoundly affect the architecture of our homes and our approach to energy.
Electric mobility, therefore, is not only a matter of transport, but represents a real change of mentality that permeates different aspects of our daily life.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
The main objective is to satisfy a growing need found during the research: to guarantee and expand the charging network in a capillary and flexible way.
This would allow users to overcome the limitations related to the transition to electric vehicles and to support the ongoing electrification of the circulating car fleet.
The idea is to achieve a bold solution, which could even be innovative, by acting as a starting point for a series of crucial reflections regarding the switch to electric vehicles.
This would not only solve the current challenges, but could also pave the way for new ideas and opportunities in the field of sustainable mobility.
How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
The time devoted to the design of this concept has been structured into several stages that constitute the overall process.
The research started in November 2021, followed by the actual design phase, which was based on the information collected during the previous phase.
During the design process, a preliminary vision of the concept was developed, which was subsequently refined both aesthetically and technically. This finishing work led to the conclusion of the entire process in September 2022.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- Echos: electric charging on-demand station. It consists of a charging station, autonomous, mobile and on-demand that can be functional both for the user of an electric vehicle and for the urban context.
The idea stems from the desire to provide a robotic, autonomous and on-demand charging experience that is therefore not bound by a fixed position, all this making charging flexible, simple and accessible at any time. - Dimensions & Packaging
- Technical characteristics:
- Battery: Dimensions: L 363.3 mm x L 453.6 mm x H 210 mm (layout 8x2)
Weight: 2,09 Kg
Cell Type: Lithium Ferrophosphate
Number of cells: 32
Energy: 21,3 kwh
- Echos
Power supply: direct current (DC)
Dimensions: L 500 mm x L 900 mm x H 820 mm
Range: 280.8 Wh (about 20 Km)
Power supply: 3000 F supercapacitor
Motor: 250 W in front wheels
Connectors: Ccs Combo2 and chademo
Type of driving: autonomous
Charging type: wireless/ solar cells
Wheels: 10 inches with airless tires - Tags
- E-mobility, Electric car, Smart City, Decarbonisation, Smart Mobility, Autonomous Driving, On demand, Robot, Charging, Sustainability
- Production Technology
- The approach used is "Design Thinking": it researches and analyzes problems and intervenes in the processes that concern them, removing obstacles and finding new opportunities for improvement.
The materials were chosen according to Sustainability:
-Structure: aluminium, chosen for its many characteristics, one of which is recyclability.
-Shell: abs recycled, has strong toughness, impact and tensile strength. One of the transformation technologies of this material is thermoforming. - Design Challenge
- The most important difficulty faced during the design was to look for information and applications realized on autonomous vehicles and their technologies. The design has also led to define the use of technologies not yet tested but still being tested.
- Research
- The empirical research method focuses on observation and experimentation to understand and explain phenomena. The objectives of the research are to collect data and explain the behavior of users towards electric vehicles and the way to recharge them. The types of analysis used are: field analysis, an analysis of the electric vehicle market, a benchmark analysis and best practices. User profiles (personas) were also created that could use the product and service made.
- Inspiration
- The city of the future, is based on an innovative model with a "Smart" approach. One of the key issues for achieving sustainable urban development in smart cities is mobility. The project deals with analyzing this process of electrification, ie the progressive replacement of means of transport that use fossil fuels, with technologies that use electricity. The project aims to meet the need to ensure and expand the charging network not only in a capillary but also flexible.
- Project Duration
- Echos is a project that emerged in the context of the realization of my master's thesis. The research phase began in November 2021 and ended in September 2022. The whole work was supervised by the architect Alessandra Rinaldi and the engineer Alberto Reatti, who gave me technical, aesthetic and design support. The discussion of the project took place during the graduation in September 2022 at the University of Florence, on the Design Campus of Calenzano.
- Operation Flow
- The user can request an Echos device via the app and can proceed with the charging request. The app estimates Echos arrival time based on the location of the nearest hub. The robot will use gps data to locate the vehicle, and once in place it can be connected and start charging the vehicle. Once the reloading process is complete, a notification will notify the user of the completion of the process, and Echos, once disconnected, can return autonomously to the nearest hub.
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