Japanese automaker Toyota is collaborating with wireless power company, WiTricity, to utilize wireless charging on its future electric vehicles. Together, hybrid and battery-powered vehicles will no longer have to utilize power cables to fill up their car’s battery panels. Specially-made electromagnetic-resonant mats can be placed under the vehicle and used to transmit energy to charge built-in battery panels through special power receivers.
The plan has been announced by Toyota back in August, and if true would be deployed as early as 2014 on next-gen Prius models. However, the wireless charging receivers will be placed on vehicles as optional which means that owners can still use standard power plugs if they want to.
Wireless charging/ inductive charging utilizes electromagnetic field to charge the device via a custom-made charging pad. It’s currently being utilized in mobile devices where it is standardized as “Qi” and uses the same principle – a base station to transmit energy and mobile device, acting as the receiver. Several manufacturers have adopted this standard for their own devices.
Unlike standard wireless charging technology, Toyota and WiTricity will use more tuned transmitter and receiver coils to produce more efficient power transmission – which means faster recharge of batteries. Hybrid and electric vehicle manufacturers have been struggling on how to reduce charging time to be at par with fueling gasoline-powered vehicles.
Full technical details about the wireless charging mechanism is yet to be revealed, apparently, so we may have to wait until next year. Other companies have been developing their own wireless charging systems including Qualcomm’s Halo and Mitsubishi.
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