Toronto, Ontario – Electric vehicles are pretty advanced, but they’ve always been missing one thing–a fancy hat. Thankfully, Ford is here to change that with its new patent, wherein the OEM outlines a battery pack that comes attached to a vehicle’s roof.
According to the patent, this “backup battery assembly is configured to recharge the traction battery pack through a charge port in the electrified vehicle” and can “include one or more battery modules within an enclosure.”
The pack, which looks like something that would be carried on the roof rack of a vehicle, would sit on the car’s roof, because of its portability, would be “particularly useful for vehicles that frequent areas lacking high numbers of charging stations, such as vehicles used for off-roading.”
The patent also notes that the pack doesn’t need to be permanent and could instead be “rented or leased prior to an off-roading trip.” The pack is also meant to be compatible with multiple EV models.
Because of concerns about the weight of batteries–which can reach the 1,000 lbs. range–reports speculate that Ford may opt for a smaller capacity battery pack such as “the original Prius plug-in hybrid’s 4.4-kWh battery,” which hits the scalers at approximately 176 pounds.