Electric car charging could about to be revolutionised

Wireless car charging is the same principle as wireless phone charging – park the car over the charging pad and the battery pad will be topped up.

Several manufacturers have trialled the technology in pilot schemes, with the latest involving Volvo and InductEVs in Gothenburg, Sweden.

In this project, InductEVs provides wireless car charging plates to support a taxi rank of electric Volvo XC40s.

In Nottingham, a similar scheme took place recently – the Wireless Charging of Electric Taxis (WiCET) project used 10kW charging pads to charge 10 Nissan and LEVC plug-in hybrid taxis while waiting for passengers.

The consensus between taxi drivers was that while it was convenient, charging speed was a little on the slow side.

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Because the relatively straightforward technology is in place for many smaller devices, why is induction charging not mainstream in the world of cars?

According to Dr Gavin Harper, a Faraday Institution research fellow at the University of Birmingham, “efficiency is a problem”.

He said: “Inductive charging results in energy losses during the charging process compared with a direct cable connection.

“This is because the energy is transferred wirelessly through an electromagnetic field, which can lead to heat dissipation and other inefficiencies,” reported The Telegraph.

There is also the practical issue of installing fixed charging plates into car parks, driveways or other road surfaces.

A spokesperson from BMW – which discontinued its induction charging offer after a two-year trial in 2018 – told The Telegraph that there are “no common standards for the communications (protocol) between the car and charging pads in public places”.

The spokesperson explained that common protocol across the board is crucial to allow cars from various brands to use induction charging facilities.

But while the mass introduction of induction charging clearly needs some work, ideas and schemes are bubbling away in the industry.

For example, Stellantis recently revealed the Peugeot Inception concept complete with wireless charging technology – although it has not yet confirmed if or when it will bring wireless charging to its products.

InductEVs and Magment GmbH are also looking into wireless charging, but more for commercial uses than for retail.

Munich-based Magment stated: “Dynamic charging is the future solution for charging electric vehicles, where devices installed in highway pavements will deliver electrical energy to battery electric vehicles on the road using a magnetic field.”

It is expected that this will be put to task in the USA this year, as well as China.

But Dr Gavin Harper suggested it might be a long way off for the UK and its car owners: “I am confident that wireless charging will be made available for use in certain static applications, especially around public transport infrastructure.

“I think that ‘dynamic’ wireless charging, where you charge as you drive along, is likely to be much further off, if at all, in the UK. The challenges with deploying this in any meaningful way are not insignificant.”