Bach Seat

Thomas Lee at Xconomy reports that Delphi and WiTricity of Watertown, MA demo’d a wireless  electricity charging system for cars at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) annual World conference in Detroit. The demo was the result of a seven-month partnership between the firms to use WiTricity’s technology to wirelessly transmit electricity via magnetic waves to charge electric cars.

The charging system developed by Delphi and WiTricity would enable cars powered with electricity to reboot without having to plug into a power source via a cord according to Xconomy. It would only need cars to park over a wireless electrcity source on the floor of a garage or embedded in a paved parking spot, which would then transfer the power to the vehicle’s battery charger.

WiTricity, founded by MIT physics professor Marin Soljacic in 2007, has designed a transmission coil that connects to a small electronics module and converts the traditional electric current found in a home or office to a higher frequency and voltage, to create an oscillating magnetic field around the coil. The article says if a separate coil designed to resonate to the same frequency is close enough to the source, power is transferred between the two coils.

The article quotes Mr. Sumner who says the prototype generates about 95 percent efficiency, meaning only five percent of the power being generated gets lost in transmission. Delphi hopes all cars equipped with the technology will get at least 90 percent. The pad powering the Chevy prototype was transmitting about 2.6 kW, or 16 amps, of electricity, about the equivalent of Delphi’s current Level 2 wired chargers.

Randy Sumner Delphi’s director of global hybrid vehicle business development says WiTricity’s technology enabled Delphi to design much smaller coils and achieve greater distance between the bottom of the car and the charging pad. In theory, this could allow bigger trucks and vehicles to also use the technology. In an interview, Andrew Brown, Delphi’s executive director, and chief technologist says wireless charging will go a long way to boosting the popularity of electric cars. Wireless charging pads could be installed in home garages, parking lots, offices, shopping centers, he says.

“It will eliminate this range anxiety,” says Mr. Brown, referring to consumers who worry they will run out of juice before finding the next charging station. Also, he says, “The average consumer is not accustomed to electric cars. [They worry] ‘Am I going to get dirty?’ or “Will I get electrocuted?’” Wireless charging helps with both those issues. All consumers have to do is “park and charge,” Mr. Sumner says in the article.

The author notes that Delphi still faces a long road from lab prototype to mass production. The company needs to work with OEMs to figure out how to best integrate WiTricity’s technology into cars. Delphi envisions a car that can be charged both by wired and wireless charging stations. The company also needs to find ways to shrink the electronics and reduce overall cost. Delphi officials estimate the first cars using it will roll off the assembly lines in 2014 or 2015. “This is real,” Mr. Sumner says. “This works.”

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The idea of wireless electricity is not new. I have followed wireless electricity since 2008, here and here. Look Ma! No wires!

What do you think?

Can a car be wirelessly charged like an iPod?

Related article

• Wireless Charging for Electric Cars Is Cool but Totally Unnecessary (fastcompany.com)

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.