Wireless EV charging hits 90% efficiency in Swiss real-world trials
Wireless EV charging hits 90% efficiency in Swiss real-world trials
Wireless EV charging hits 90% efficiency in Swiss real-world trials
Bonus video of Swiss-German in the wild included. If you think German sounds harsh, you'll love the Zuerich dialect. At least it's all done in sing-song fashion, as is called for.
A real-world trial by scientists in Switzerland has demonstrated that wireless EV charging can achieve up to 90 percent efficiency compared with conventional cable-based systems, while offering far greater convenience.
Supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy and the cantons of Zurich and Aargau, the project, called INLADE, was carried out by researchers from Empa in collaboration with the electric utility Eniwa AG.
Through this first-of-its-kind initiative, the team tested wireless inductive charging under real-life conditions in Switzerland. They are certain that what has long been routine for phones and electric toothbrushes could soon become a reality for EVs.
“The aim was to test the existing technology in everyday use, clarify technical and regulatory issues and demonstrate its potential for the energy transition,” Mathias Huber, from Empa’s Chemical Energy Carriers and Vehicle Systems lab, said.
Cool, but 10% still seems like a lot for the small convenience of not having to spend 10-20s connecting a cable. Doesn't seem worth it to me.
More about finding a working charger that hasn't been vandalized.
Good point. Personally, I haven't actually encountered a charger that was vandalized to a point where it didn't work though. And I'm not sure whether these are more or less prone to have technical issues compared to regular cable chargers.
Wait until you hear about the efficiency of ICEs! (The cars, not the trains.)
Also, bold of them to assume that the same people who can't properly plug a cable will be able to park the car on the right spot.
With a 50 kWh battery, that's 5 kWh wasted per full charge or 90 cents at the average US electric rate just for being too lazy to plug in a cable.
90 cents per charge? And no cable that you discover after you’ve pulled up to the charger is broken?
Seems like this will pay for itself in short order at fast charging stations.
Not having a cable unlocks some interesting potential. Right now an inconvenience of driving an EV is that the chargers may be full and inconsiderate people may leave their car plugged in for longer than needed. Take away the need to plug in and add some self driving and you could have your car automatically charge then move itself to a regular spot once it's done. Could make a setup like this a lot more simple.
This is a wrong take. It needs to be normal to leave your car plugged into a charger.
Cars take too long to charge for us to consider it reasonable for someone to stand next to their car waiting while it charges (even worse - as I write this the temperature is -17C, but even when things are nice). We need to expect that people will be doing something else while charging and only come out sometime latter to move their car. If someone is at work they can't leave work until lunch time. If someone is at the symphony/theater it is impolite to leave when the car is done charging as it disturbs everyone else.
Of course if your car just as enough range to get back home so you don't need to charge for normal trips that is better. However when someone needs a charger it should be considered normal to stay there for 6 hours, there needs to be enough to handle that. (obviously people making a road trip will disconnect as soon as the car is charged so they can continue on, but if you make the trip to a distance city for an event you may need to charge during the event to get back home).
That does sound like an interesting scenario. I guess the big challenge here will be getting the actual self driving implemented and approved across manufacturers. Also, if we had that, couldn't the car just as easily connect to a physical docking port of some sort? But I guess a wireless charging pad would be more friendly to various car shapes.
I wonder about the costs though.
If you can just have a plate on the ground instead of a interface and cord perhaps it might be useful in parking lots, where EVs can just park and charge while they shop without having the have the space requirements of the charging infrastructure.