A Wireless Car Charger for the Chevrolet Volt

 
Excitingly, Momentum Dynamics Corporation has announced that it was able to wirelessly charge a Chevy Volt. The company also proudly noted that it provides the safety and all-weather automatic operation that wireless charging can offer. (The safety benefit is basically only outdoors, where the vehicle would be exposed to water.)

Momentum Dynamics was able to provide 20,000 watts of power to the vehicle. Typical 120-volt, 15-amp power outlets cannot provide more than 1,800 watts of power, and typical 240-volt, 13-amp outlets cannot provide more than 3,120 watts of power.

There are 240-volt power outlets that can be set up to deliver 50 amps (12,000 watts), though.

Charge time is limited by both the battery’s current handling capacity, and the power the charge can provide. The charger needs the current handling capacity to deliver the entire 24 kWh (for example) that a battery pack needs.

Improving Charge Time Is Key To EV Proliferation

Charge time is of paramount importance to widespread electric vehicle (EV) adoption.

If your electric car offers 73 miles of range, for example, and you find that you are about to run out of it, then you would normally have to plug in for hours to be able to drive much further again (assuming you are driving a 100% electric vehicle, not a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle like the Chevy Volt).

However, if you could charge the battery in 10 minutes, such as a Toshiba Supercharge battery, this would not be a major issue, and you could be on your way very quickly and easily.

If you could do so wirelessly, that increases the convenience even a bit more.

“Momentum Dynamics has surprised many people in the industry by the amount of power that can be safely delivered without the use of cables, and by its low-cost relative to plug-in chargers,” said company CEO and co-inventor Andy Daga.”

“We do for EV charging what systems like E-ZPass® have done for automated toll collection — except in this case it’s about more than reducing toll gate congestion — we are actually enabling the growth of an international industry,” said Daga.

This type of charger is probably most convenient in the parking lots at peoples’ offices, since they are sure to park there often but probably don’t have the ability to plug in like in their garage.

Another use for this type of charger is range extension. One concept is to place it on roads (especially at stoplights) so it charges cars at least partially to extend their range.

We’ll see where the company goes with this and if it is implemented in some of the above ways.

Source: ADVFN

A Wireless Car Charger for the Chevrolet Volt was originally published on: CleanTechnica

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