GreenBkk Auto | Delphi and WiTricity Developing Wireless Electric Car Charger

Delphi and WiTricity Developing Wireless Electric Car Charger

Delphi and WiTricity are developing a charger that will work efficiently with the car parked as much as a foot above an electricity-transmitting pad, without needing perfect alignment.

The auto supplier Delphi and a partner, the WiTricity Corporation, are developing a hands-free charging technology to transfer electricity over short distances without physical contact.

The technology is based on the same electromagnetic induction principle as electric toothbrushes.

It improves on existing inductive chargers that need to be in close proximity, and closely aligned, before they can transmit electricity. The result is a charger that will work efficiently with the car parked as much as a foot above an electricity transmitting pad, without needing perfect alignment.

According to Dave Schatz, director of business development and marketing at WiTricity, the principle is similar to that exhibited in the old “Is it live or is it Memorex?” commercials, in which Ella Fitzgerald shattered a glass with her voice.

“She sang a note that matched the natural frequency of the glass, and it broke,” Mr. Schatz said. According to WiTricity, a company founded in 2007 to commercialize technology developed by a team of physicists at M.I.T., the principle is this: “two properly designed devices with closely matched resonant frequencies can couple into a single continuous magnetic field.”

Mr. Schatz said the hands-free charger would transfer electricity at the same rate as a standard plug-in charger and could start automatically when the “power capture resonator” (about the size of a pizza box) mounted on the bottom of the car made contact with the “power source resonator” on the garage floor or parking space.

He said the chargers were intrinsically safe, so if a theoretical Chihuahua chased a ball through the magnetic field, “the Chihuahua would be unharmed.”

Randy Sumner, director of global hybrid vehicle development at Delphi Packard Electrical/Electronic Architecture, said there was “a lot of interest from the O.E.M.’s” in the technology, which could be available on second-generation electric vehicles in the 2014 or 2015 model years.

He declined to speculate on the eventual price of the power capture resonator, but added that the cost would be compatible with traditional charging.

Mr. Schatz said the system used no exotic materials and should cost “less than what companies charge for navigation systems or other electronics.”

Most people will not find it difficult to plug in electric vehicles, so what need does this new product meet?

According to Mr. Sumner and Mr. Schatz, the charger is likely to be useful for people who want the convenience of cordless charging, who worry about forgetting to plug in, have physical challenges or are concerned about leaving the cord attached and driving off.

Some electric vehicle advocates do not think cordless charging is needed.

“It’s not difficult to spend five to 10 seconds to plug in the car and to remember to plug it in,” said Felix Kramer, the founder of CalCars.org. “The Nissan Leaf will remind you to plug in your car with a cellphone application. I think cordless charging is a diversion from the main trend.”

Mr. Kramer also said that such charging could result in energy losses. But Mr. Schatz said those losses would be no more than 5 percent and added, “Using a wire is not 100 percent efficient to begin with.”

Another skeptic is Paul Scott, vice president of Plug In America. “Anybody who thinks it’s too hard to connect to an E.V. probably shouldn’t be driving a car in the first place,” he said.

If the cordless system catches on, electric vehicles are likely to be equipped to handle plug-in and wireless charging, so consumers will not have to choose between them.

Credit: The New York Times