By: Juan Carlos Zuleta *
There has been a great deal of discussion in the comment stream created around my latest article entitled “ Battery Recharging: Why Is Tesla Not Going Wireless? ” published a few days ago on Seeking Alpha about inefficiency as a fundamental drawback of wireless EV charging. Some commentators have tried to give the impression that this is indeed an unsurmountable issue which makes wireless charging as applied to electric cars essentially meaningless.
While I can’t at this point put forward any technical arguments against this kind of reasoning, a task to be taken up in another contribution, I’d like to refer here to actual work being performed right now by Mojo Mobility and Hyundai-Kia America in this direction.
In effect, in a recent article originally published on GAS2 , it’s shown that these companies are talking about wireless fast charging – a similar concept to that I suggested almost two years ago in a blog posted on evworld.com – which could be used by taxi and bus drivers, as well as impatient motorists who have difficulties remembering to plug in.
What comes as a surprise to me is that as of now two out of three planned phases of the partnership would have already been completed. In Phase One, Mojo Mobility and Hyundai-Kia America developed a wireless power transfer system with more than 85% grid-to-vehicle efficiency “capable of transferring in excess of 10kW to the vehicle for fast charging”, allowing for “misalignment between the energy transmitter on the ground and the energy receiver on the vehicle”, to facilitate day-to-day usage.
In Phase Two, the association “collaborated to integrate a compact system optimized for the Soul EV and demonstrate full operation at a record 92 percent efficiency.”
Finally, in the Third Phase, real-world performance data of five Kia Soul EV will be gathered to “test systems’ durability, interoperability, safety, and performance.”
Overall, this news provides additional support to my contention that wireless charging companies “will soon be ready to take care of the recharging needs (with sufficient efficiency and wattage) of Tesla as well as those of other EV manufacturers.”
- Lithium Economics Analyst, based in Bolivia.
