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Tesla Would Be Proud: Wireless Charging For Electric Cars Gets Closer To Reality
curtwoodward writes "For some reason, we're still plugging in electric-powered devices like a bunch of savages. But technology developed at MIT could soon make that a thing of the past, at least for hybrid cars. A small Boston-area company, WiTricity, is a key part of Toyota's growing experiment with wireless charging tech---something the world's largest car maker says it will start seriously testing in the U.S., Japan and Europe next year. The system works by converting AC to a higher frequency and voltage and sending it to a receiver that resonates at the same frequency, making it possible to transfer the power safely via magnetic field. Intel and Foxconn are also investors, and you might see them license the tech soon as well."
Whether or not it catches on will depend mostly on efficiency. If the losses are minimal, it makes sense to eliminate mechanical connections.
When I read Tesla in the title, my first thought was the car manufacturer. It wasn't until a few minutes later I realized it was referring to the inventor. If someone would kindly give me the proper address, I will hand in my nerd card. I'm sorry, everyone.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Italy has been using this for buses since 2003.
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/08/induction-charged-buses/
because they are energy efficient, and we're going to use wireless charging because it isn't? A wireless system will NEVER match the efficiency of plugging the thing in with wires.
Makes sense...the inability to bill for the supplied power was a major factor in Tesla's research not attracting funding. Hard to get investors when you can't charge for a charge.
"Murphy was an optimist" - O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law
It doesn't take a charging station everywhere.
If you drive 100+ miles a day to random locations, or to one specific location with no ability to charge, then electric cars aren't for you.
If you drive 100 miles a day, and you've got any flexibility in it, just having a spot or two along your route to top off probably means you're viable in a "basic" electric car like the Leaf.
All you do with public charging is top off a few miles here and there while you go about your day as normal -- except with better parking spaces :)
I also have a transformer. It's a car that can turn into a robot.
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Power transformers use inductive coupling; things like this typically use resonant inductive coupling. It's an important distinction. It's why the windings of a power transformer have to be very close together, whereas this sort of thing can tolerate much greater separation and still maintain a reasonable efficiency.
Nevertheless the article is amazingly short on information about how this tech is innovative, and why it's not just an application of something that's been in use for well over a century (e.g. Tesla coils). I'm not saying it isn't innovative, but you certainly can't tell that from the article.
True, but it can be like WiFi where the convenience trumps the inefficiency. Think public charging spaces - you park your car, pay the parking fee (which can include the cost of the charge) and walk away. You save yourself the hassle of bringing out your heavy charge cable and all that, saving it from potential theft (I haven't seen many that can lock to the car) and unplugging by activists (I haven't seen many with locking doors over the plug, either).
And yes, if it's wet and rainy, it's an added convenience.
(Yes, people do get offended by seeing an electric car plugged in and will often unplug them while charging).
Gee folks, the laws of physics pretty much govern how "wireless" transmission of energy works. Using magnetic fields to transfer power from here to there is not new, we've been doing it long before Edison and Westinghouse where fighting it out over AC verses DC over 100 years ago. Westinghouse used "transformers" way back then so transferring power from one coil of wire to another though a magnetic field is not new.
But they are using a different frequency! That's new right? Not so fast... Designers have been using higher frequencies in transformers for a long time now. Aircraft have routinely used 400 Cycle power systems so designers could use smaller (and lighter) transformers since before WWII. Further, we now routinely use frequencies in the Kilohertz in switching power supplies for the same reason. More efficiency, smaller size and weight by using higher frequencies.
But they really haven't solved anything or come up with anything new. They will suffer efficiency losses because their magnetic flux coupling is weak due to the distances involved, they will suffer from limited ability to transfer power because the maximum flux density of air is pretty low, and they will have to add significant weight to the cars being charged by adding large coils of wire with many turns to them.
Nothing new to see here..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
You should look up the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing rad.
YOU aren't familiar with the difference between power transfer by way of magnetic induction, and power transfer by way of *resonant* magnetic induction, so THEY haven't done anything new. :sigh:
There's a TED Talk where the prototype-level version of this technology was demoed. It's a few years old at this stage. It doesn't require minute distances, it has lower power losses than your typical 'wall wart' AC/DC converter, and transfer efficiency doesn't drop off with the square of the range.
Charging my car and my devices while driving down the road is extremely efficient. The cost of infrastructure required to support this gain in efficiency is another discussion.
sysadmins and parents of newborns get the same amount of sleep.
The bandwidth of a truck full of magnetic tapes goes to zero as everything is erased.
-- hendrik
why not line the freeway?
charge while you drive it.
Want a 300 mile range?
put 100 miles of chargers for every 300 miles of road..
Recreate the electric bus, powered externally.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
They have had wireless charging for a decade for larger vehicles. the Golf carts at the local golf course have done this for at least 10 years. you drive on a rubber mat and the golf cart starts charging, Exact same thing for a car unless they claim they can charge the car from dead to full in 20 minutes, then I highly doubt it as inductive charging cant handle that much power in a wide air gap transformer (This is what "wireless" charging is)
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but there are android and iphone apps that show you where the charging stations are in your random local area. You should look at the coverage maps, there are a huge number of stations. There are even a huge number of stations offering free power. (free as in free)
This means that an EV is only suitable as a second car. If you only own one car, forget it - you need to buy a universal, gas car that will take you anywhere.
I barely know where to start shedding light on your ignorance.
First, I'm absolutely certain that plenty of people get to and fro every day without a car to begin with, so this idea that you can't handle the big bad word without a gas car is as ignorant as the day is long.
Moving on...If you can afford a new car to begin with, you can deal with the sudden unexpected realities of the world that might require you to drive more than 100 miles into unknown territory. I went from Phoenix to Albuquerque a couple weeks ago in my electric...and by that I mean I went to the airport and rented a gas car for the weekend for $20 a day. It's rare that you're ever using your entire electric range unless you weren't a good candidate for an electric car to begin with. I can count on one hand the number of times my electric car has had a range below the distance to the nearest hospital. [The cost of that $20/day rental was perfectly offset by my gas savings for the rest of the week, so all was well in my wallet...]
You also need to own a house, with a garage, if you want an EV - this is where your home charger will be mounted.
Perhaps you don't understand this. Your charger isn't mounted anywhere except inside the car. That fancy plug on the wall is just a plug with a switch or two in it, man. But, yes, if you're stuck with a carport only, or you have to park away from where you live, you're probably screwed -- and not a candidate for an all-electric car. The rest of us can plug in our cars anywhere there's a 110 outlet (that we're allowed to use) with an extension cord.
You have this idea that nobody could ever live with a bicycle alone, or only have a motorcycle because their kid might get sick.
All-electric cars have caveats too, but with way fewer restrictions that just taking the bus.