Electric Vehicles
As mentioned above, Magne Charge inductive charging was employed by several types of electric vehicles around 1998, but was discontinued after the California Air Resources Board selected the SAE J1772-2001, or "Avcon", conductive charging interface for electric vehicles in California in June 2001.
In 2009, Evatran, a subsidiary of MTC Transformers, formally began development of Plugless Power, an inductive charging system they claim is the world’s first hands-free, plugless, proximity charging system for Electric Vehicles. With the participation of the local municipality and several businesses, field trials were begun in March 2010, on the system scheduled to be available in fourth quarter 2010.
Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed an electric transport system (called Online Electric Vehicle, OLEV) where the vehicles get their power needs from cables underneath the surface of the road via non-contact magnetic charging, (where a power source is placed underneath the road surface and power is wirelessly picked up on the vehicle itself. As a possible solution to traffic congestion and to improve overall efficiency by minimizing air resistance and so reduce energy consumption, the test vehicles followed the power track in a convoy formation. In July 2009, the researchers successfully supplied up to 60% power to a bus over a gap of 12 cm.
In one inductive charging system, one winding is attached to the underside of the car, and the other stays on the floor of the garage.
The major advantage of the inductive approach for vehicle charging is that there is no possibility of electric shock as there are no exposed conductors, although interlocks, special connectors and RCDs (ground fault interruptors - GFI) can make conductive coupling nearly as safe. An inductive charging proponent from Toyota contended in 1998 that overall cost differences were minimal, while a conductive charging proponent from Ford contended that conductive charging was more cost efficient.
In 2010 onwards, car makers are signalling their interest in wireless charging as another piece of the digital cockpit. A group was launched in May 2010 by the Consumer Electronics Association to set a baseline for interoperability for chargers. In one sign of the road ahead a General Motors executive is chairing the standards effort group. Toyota and Ford managers said they also are interested in the technology and the standards effort.
Daimler’s Head of Future Mobility, Professor Herbert Kohler, however have expressed caution and said the inductive charging for EVs is at least 15 years away and the safety aspects of inductive charging for EVs have yet to be looked into in greater detail. For example, what would happen if someone with a pacemaker is inside the vehicle? Another downside is that the technology requires a precise alignment between the battery and the charging facility.
In November 2011, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and Qualcomm announced a trial of 13 wireless charging points and 50 EVs in the Shoreditch area of London's Tech City, due to be rolled out in early 2012.
Researchers in Korea are working on an electric bus powered by a continuous inductive connection with a cable buried in the road.
Read more about this topic: Inductive Charging
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