Future trends in wireless charging will mostly be based on dynamic electric vehicle charging (DEVC). This allows vehicles to continue charging while still in motion.
With this technology, we can see a more improved range for electric cars as the battery can be charged in the middle of driving. It also eliminates the need for large energy storage, making the vehicles lighter and more compact.
Let’s take a look at the future of wireless charging vehicles and what we can expect from them.
Wireless Charging And Distance
Distance is always going to be the key when it comes to wireless charging. And we do not mean distance as in how far the vehicle can travel. Rather, we are talking about how far the battery is from the charger itself.
Even if you have the battery sitting on top of the charger, you will still experience some power loss. This power loss can cause the battery to take longer to charge. A Level 2 charger, for example, takes 8-10 hours to charge a Tesla that is at 0% to full.
High Costs
When finding ways to improve the future of wireless charging, there are also skyrocketing costs that need to be considered. When you have power loss due to distance, the technology will need to be implemented directly and somewhere closest to the battery, which would be the concrete floor. That results in high costs.
Even if you only use this technology on highways, it will still wind up being expensive, and it might be hard to deal with the upfront costs. What can we do given that implementing direct technology into the roadways is not happening anytime soon?
Getting Over The Issues
Power loss is one of the biggest challenges we face when it comes to wireless charging vehicles. Once the problem with the distance is resolved, it is a concern that will ultimately disappear. Installing wireless charging into streetlamps rather than roadways may be a lower cost option to consider as this new technology continues to roll out.
The Development Of Systems
While wireless charging is not a new concept, in practice, it is difficult to develop systems with flexible enough operation for easy parking. They should also be able to adapt to a wide range of different vehicles.
Some of the current technology being developed involves the alignment of two charging pads. In many cases, the pads need to be close together and sometimes touching to achieve the power transfer necessary for efficiency.
New trends are focusing more on EV charging. Plug-in chargers were seen to be 100% efficient, but as is the case with most electrical systems, power loss still occurred. So the efficiency of those plug-in chargers is instead around the 85% rate.
Wireless charging needs to deliver power transfers at over 90% to be anywhere comparable to plug-in charging. The future of wireless charging vehicles depends on this technology and the improvements being made to combat power loss.
For more information on wireless charging, including in-car wireless charging, talk with those who have over a decade of experience in end-to-end turnkey automotive design solutions.