One of the barriers preventing greater adoption of electric vehicles is the limited availability of charging ports compared with gas stations. No-one wants to get stranded when that battery range is exhausted.
There’s also the hassle of remembering to plug the car in every night and the awful realisation you’re going to be late for work if you forget.
However, imagine if recharging was as easy as parking your car in the garage or at the supermarket?
Wireless charging specialist WiTricity plans to make this a reality with its Drive 11 park and charge system, which is capable of wirelessly replenishing 7.7kw and 11kw charge rates and hence compatible with all EVs currently on the market.
The company partnered with GM to test the contactless method on the Chevy Volt hybrid and found it to work with a 90% efficiency, placing it on par with the current plug-in method in that respect.
Related: Is the Tesla Model S the ultimate rental car?
“GM is testing WiTricity’s prototype wireless charging system, which allows a driver to simply pull into his or her garage and automatically receive power from a source below the vehicle,” WiTricity wrote in a press release (via Boston Globe).
“The system design works across all plug-in electric vehicle platforms and can be deployed as a “floor pad” in a consumer’s garage, as well as installed under pavement to provide wireless charging in public and commercial parking lots.”
The system could also prove useful for autonomous vehicles, which don’t have drivers to pump gas or manually plug into a recharge station.
The WiTricity wireless charging system will be available to buy before the end of the next year. There’s no word of how much it may cost yet.
Unless Apple gets it act together with the iPhone it will suffer the indignity of falling behind automobiles, of all things, when it comes to wireless charging.
Related: Is Tesla Autopilot safe?
Will wireless charging push EV adoption into the mainstream? Share your thoughts below.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.