Toyota has announced that it is the latest automaker to begin testing new a wireless battery charging system for plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.
Today’s clunky and annoying charging cables that are needed to recharge electric vehicles may soon become extinct. Toyota has announced that it is the latest automaker to begin testing new a wireless battery charging system for plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.
The wireless charging system allows drivers to recharge their car’s batteries by simply parking it over a coil placed in the ground, which is much easier than today’s cables. Toyota’s system uses magnetic-resonance technology, which transmits electricity by utilizing the magnetic resonance resulting from changes in magnetic field intensity between a coil on the ground that transmits and a coil on the vehicle that receives. The system can reduce drops in power transmission efficiency that can be caused by misalignment or height differences between the transmitting coil and receiving coil.
The verification testing is scheduled to begin later this month in Japan with the testing process lasting at least a year. The tests will assess user satisfaction, system ease-of-use, misalignment rates, and charging behavior, such as charging frequency and the use of timer-based charging.
To help make it easier for drivers to be able to park over the coil, Toyota has developed a new parking assist function that shows the position of the transmitting coil in the parking space.
Toyota did not announce a time frame for when the technology would be available for the public.
Source: Toyota
