Toyota will license WiTricity wireless charging tech for upcoming EVs

Wire charger needs to convert AC to DC before charging resulting in loss.

WiTricity is 90% efficient (including AC to DC) for PHV application (with ground clearance).

It seems to be a good technology, no wonder Toyota is licensing it. The continence out weights the efficiency loss.

 

Very informative video.

 

Agree that its unlikely to bother people about the electricity loss. I really doubt that 90% figure from plug to DC though, as many cars don't even do that wired. Here are some specs of the system

WiTricity Corp. — WiT-3300 Electric Vehicle Charging Kit
The question really is how much more than a 240VAC plugged system will this cost, and if they will go higher than 3.3kw (most cars are now doing 6.6kw ac, although 3.3kw is after the rectifyer and 6.6kw is before.)

 

Addition to previous post:

If I had an electric car, I would always have in the back of my mind that, for whatever reason, there might not be enough poop to get me home from work. Perhaps I took a client to lunch in the middle of the day, or want to take a side trip to the mall on the way home.

If wireless charging were available, I would rather park in a spot that allowed me to top off my battery while I worked, shopped, ate lunch, etc. Wirless technology would be especially convenient.

Here's how:

I would park anywhere there was a specially marked parking spot. Thats all I would need to do. My wireless equipped car would be programmed to automatically charge its battery whenever it detected a 'charging spot'. (I can disable this feature at any time with a switch or touch screen entry.) I always leave it on because I would rather have peace of mind over any extra cost beyond what I would pay when I charge the battery at home.

When a 'charge spot' is detected, my car would wirelessly authorize a charge to my credit card for the energy used (with a small 'convenience fee' added, a portion of which would perhaps go to the owner of the parking spot (city, county, private).

As a futher convenience, any time based 'parking fee' (street, public or private) would also be automatically charged to my account. (In otherwords, I would be charged by the minute or hour for the use of the parking spot as per usual, PLUS an additional charge to my account for the energy transferred to my battery.

Now...Someone occupying a 'charge spot' but did not charge battery would just pay for time spent parked. ( I imagine, initially, someone parking in these special spots that did not utilize charging feature might be charged a substantial premium for 'straight parking', this done in order to encourage folks to keep spots open for EV users. The premium might disappear in later years as these special 'charge spots' become more plentiful.

From covenience aspect, there would be absolutely no action required of user. Since all transaction is wireless, the driver would just park the car and leave. No meters to feed, no cards to swipe, cords to plug, etc.

The car would be charged as much as it could during the period parked. If battery just needed a little 'top off' charge, then it's 'energy bill' would be a small one. The 'convenience fee' could vary by time of day, by location, day of week, and be tweeked by agency involved to maximize income.

Now... If city parking, then local residents with no off street parking available (apartment dwellers) could be charged less or convenience fee waived for their car. (Many ways possible to adjust fees so not unfair to local residents and others.)

At any rate, I bet, for most folks, being able to drive home with the 'state of charge' meter even a little higher might be well worth the cost of parking in a 'charge spot' assuming, of course, the charge was a reasonable premium (assuming regulated by law or by competition, or both) for it's use.

Charge spot parking meters would never 'expire' since charges would accumulateon account until car actually leaves the spot. No more parking tickets either, unless car still parked there on street sweeping day or other period when public street parking is prohibited.

Companies with lots of commute workers could have 'charge spots' with no fees other than (a possibly discounted) energy used charge, perhaps deducted from pay check. Or a 'bonus' perk (or job incentive/reward) of free energy.

Stores/restaurants could even arrange with the parking entity to automatically pay for all or a portion of any parking or convenience fee for nearby 'charge spots' when customers 'validate' their patronage, perhaps by making a minimum purchase during the time period the car is parked.

All rates and fees would appear on my car's console screen when I first parked and total charges show on screen when I leave the spot. An email would confirm charge to my account, along with monthly totals, etc. Many ways to keep track of energy charges, though I imagine such fees and rates would have to be regulated.

The company that licensed the technology has it's work cut out, though, since they would have to convince a lot of auto mfrs, public entities, etc. to adopt their system. Mfrs: Toyota is a really good start. Public: Los Angeles? (California?), New York (City/State)? Etc., etc..

Gary...

 

It may not be good for public charger since it would be easy to steal electricity from magnetic field near it (see video).

 

Comprehensive Study of EV Drivers Reveals Plug-in Attitudes | PluginCars.com

You will note only 10% charge in public and 80% of that is free. I really doubt you can charge enough for public wireless charging to pay for a system.

Would you pay an extra $5 for a wireless charging space that gave you 6kwh in an hour? Costs of installation and electricity would likely be more than that. What if you could charge the same amount for $0.72 at home?

 

SAE set 3 speeds for the standard. 3.7 kW, 7.7 kW and 22 kW. A bit of buffer for the 10-15% transfer loss.

Price should come down since all should be working toward the same standard, in theory anyway.

SAE International -- mobility engineering

 

It is convenient, but will that out weigh the cost?

The automatic charging of any fees can be set up for wired chargers. Is the taking of the cord of a charger and plugging it into the car that much of an inconvenience? Enough of one that would prevent you from considering an BEV? The cord also service more cars. If the car that is plugged in is charged, the charger can have an alert letting another BEV that drives up that they can use the plug themselves, or for the first BEV owner to move the plug to the other when they leave.

It will require some courtesy, which may be a big hurdle, but it means a single cord has the potential of charging up multiple cars without anybody having to move. A wireless system will need more charge pads and thus further increased costs to even have a chance to do so.

That's the big hurdle for this. Even if it happens, more wire chargers can be installed than wireless ones for the same cost.

 

Good point.... Perhaps some sort of computer algorithm to detect such pilferage and report to authorities in real time.

Acknowledge other point in another reply...System would be expensive for widesfopread use in public areas. Even those simple loops of wire used to detect cars moving on street can fail for various reasons. Probably system would only work in controlled environment (home) or specialized locations (industrial, work, or private parking garages (apartment buildings).

Still the convenience factor of not having to get up in middle of night because could not remember if car got plugged in after that quick trip to the store to buy a mega lottery ticket. (I know that it is silly and a waste of money but I am on my way to do just that as soon as I post this, ...)

Too easy to imagine a futureistic 'utopian' environment where every high tech conveniance is universal and works all the time.

 

If there is any additional charge loss over plugging in, I would never use it.
From my point of view any way to lower the charging loss allows you to lower your GHG emissions.
I realize for some that isn't a consideration and so some may enjoy the convenience. But for me, it is not anything I would ever use.

 

Does this apply to magnetic resonance that the Witricity system uses, or is it just for magnetic induction systems?

 

Does the stealing electricity in this method reduce the charging rate of the primary car?

 

Since the system is supposed to be 90%+ efficient, any suitable theft would reduce the charging rate of charge. Cars are big and the systems require an RFID. I would think a simple camera would be able to catch any theft, as it would need to be close to the pad, in fact likely an object between the car and pad. The car/charger if linked should be able to detect such theft and send the picture to some enforcement angency.

 

Not sure but WiTricity is said to work in frequency between 100 kHz to 25 MHz. But their Prodigy product works at 250 kHz.

The standard is 85 kHz.

 

Of course, this is already how ChargePoint, Blink and others work. You setup an account with them. If you provide no credit card, then you can only use free stations. If you provide a credit card then you get a monthly bill with all your charges on it.

It truly is a "Charge" card.

Mike

 

Of course, you don't need a wireless charging system to do this. Many existing wired systems can wirelessly tell you if you are plugging in, charging, completed charging, how much you charge, etc.

And even with wired or wireless charging you could have (or forgotten to) set the charge timer. I don't see how the wireless charging change the convenience factor by much more than you don't need to plug in. Sure, if it is raining, it saves you from getting wet for an extra 10 seconds.

Having plugged in about 600 times now I don't really see the big attraction

Mike

 

Instead of thieves using hoses and a gas can to siphon gas from cars, in the future they will park next to you and siphon off your kilowatts with an induction coil on a stick.

Mike

 

Not sure what Nikola Tesla would have thought about this tech. Whether it was grossly underpowered because his dream, if acted upon, would have beamed enough electricity wirelessly to power the domestic uses of entire households, or he'd be proud or angry that it would have taken 100+ years for someone else to put to use what he envisioned.

Watching this second video, though, I'm wondering just how much electricity is really wasted by powering that field, which seems grossly huge for what it powers. Yes, people will steal power from this, the way it is designed now. Some have said 10% loss. I can't imagine it is close to that.

Let's say the power to the transmitter device has a Kill-a-watt meter between it and a 120 volt wall socket. That is measured while powering or charging. Then one measures the totalcharged output of the power cell that it is supposed to charge. IOW, how much energy in to how much usable out?

 

If you have read tesla, this is exactly the type of tech he wold have liked. Resonance transfer is part of the tesla coil. Powering far away devices is something different. I can see future homes having coffee tables that charge you remotes, laptops, and cell phones. On the timeline? Who knows. I think he would have been impressed by mri.

Efficiency has to do with the Q factor of the resonators (high inductance with low resistance and capacitance lead to high Q) and distance between them. The path of the field shouldn't matter.

You can be 95%+ efficient in transfer, but you need to create the high voltage high frequency signal from 120VAC60hz, and then convert the output to DC for charging. 240VAC would be more efficient. This is a high power device for charging a car, I would not use a killawatt device, but there are other devices to measure the efficiency. I would rather look at Power in versus power in the battery.