Toyota Motor Corp will begin verification testing of its newly developed wireless battery charging system for vehicles with an electrified powertrain, such as plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, in late February in Aichi Prefecture.
The system can charge a vehicle parked in alignment over a coil on the surface of the ground, making the charging process simpler and more convenient.
The charging system uses magnetic-resonance technology, which transmits electricity by utilizing the magnetic resonance resulting from changes in magnetic field intensity between a coil on the ground that transmits and a coil on the vehicle that receives. The system can reduce drops in power transmission efficiency that can be caused by misalignment or height differences between the transmitting coil and receiving coil. Created with future market launch in mind, the system is designed to minimize electromagnetic interference on nearby equipment and the ground-installed transmitting coil is robustly structured to withstand a vehicle driving over it.
Furthermore, to enable the driver to park in an optimum charging position, Toyota has developed a new parking assist function that shows the position of the transmitting coil in the parking space. The new function is coupled with Toyota's Intelligent Parking Assist system.
The verification test will involve three plug-in hybrid vehicles in use in homes in Aichi Prefecture and is initially planned to last one year. The tests will assess user satisfaction, system ease-of-use, misalignment rates, and charging behavior, such as charging frequency and the use of timer-based charging.
The test results will be used to further develop the technology, with commercialization the ultimate aim.
© JCN Newswire
9 Comments
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Junichi
This really is wave of the future stuff right here. If this becomes proven tech and eventually catches on, paying for parking could provide added value with some charging included. Quite an interesting concept.
25psot
Idea is good but building and maintenance of paring systems would greatly increase parking fees.
sf2k
Sounds expensive. Maybe not enough electric vehicles to parlay the cost of a parking lot to have the coils. Is this only replacing a $1 plug which has no distance squared loss association?
gonemad
The systems will have to be standardized in order to be accepted in the market.
Tahoochi
Don't they already have this for cell phones? (wireless charging) Sorry to get off-topic.
To those commenting on expensive parking costs, I guess this is a legitimate concern that should be added to the "pros and cons" of going electric... of course, with one of the biggest "pros" being: no need for gas!
sfjp330
The main problem is isn’t who is building the stations, it’s what is powering them. In the case of countries like China, it is almost 100% certain that coal will provide the bulk of the energy, meaning electric vehicles will be more polluting than their oil based hybrid cousins, and more polluting than even some conventional cars.
The_True
something that japanese company are not good at it!
gonemad
True, but even under these conditions electric cars could be a useful means to reduce pollution in the urban centers.
ka_chan
Wireless charging means they they will re irradiating. It's nothing new, Tesla did in the 1800s. Still not sure I would want one at my house.