Volvo Cars is trialing wireless charging for electric vehicles in Gothenburg.
Amongst the many issues associated with electric vehicle ownership is the need to plug it in and charge it regularly. Plug-in hybrids have similar charging apparatus to electric vehicles and many owners in Malaysia don’t bother to juice their cars up at home after a long day at work.
It’s so much more convenient to just fill up the fuel tank once a week and let the regenerative system do its work. Well, Volvo Cars is looking at eliminating the problem of periodic charging with wireless charging technology.
Here’s the press release with details.
PRESS RELEASE
Volvo Cars is integrating and testing a new wireless charging technology in a live city environment together with selected partners, evaluating its potential for future electric cars.
Over a three-year period, a small fleet of fully electric Volvo XC40 Recharge cars will be used as taxis by Cabonline, the largest taxi operator in the Nordic region, and charged wirelessly at stations in Gothenburg, Sweden.
The wireless charging test is one of many projects outlined within the strategic initiative Gothenburg Green City Zone, under which designated areas within the city are used as live testbeds for the development of sustainable technologies.
The charging stations used in the test are delivered by Momentum Dynamics, a leading provider of wireless electric charging systems. The charging starts automatically when a compatible vehicle parks over a charging pad embedded in the street, allowing drivers to conveniently charge without getting out of their car.
The charging station sends energy through the charging pad, which is picked up by a receiver unit in the car. To easily align the car with the charging pad, Volvo Cars will use its 360-degree camera system. For the fully electric XC40 Recharge cars, the wireless charging power will be more than 40 kW, making the charging speeds around four times faster than a wired 11 kW AC charger and almost as fast as a wired 50 kW DC fast charger.
In total, the Volvo cars will be used for more than 12 hours a day and drive 100,000 km per year, which also makes this the first durability test of fully electric Volvo cars in a commercial usage scenario.
Other partners involved in the wireless charging project include the company’s own Swedish retailers Volvo Bil and Volvo Car Sörred, Swedish energy company Vattenfall and its charging network InCharge, the city energy company Göteborg Energi, and Business Region Gothenburg, a municipal economic development agency owned by the City of Gothenburg.
Last year, Volvo Cars took part in launching the Gothenburg Green City Zone initiative, which aims to achieve emission-free transport by 2030. Using a real city as a testing ground will enable the company to accelerate development of technologies and services in the areas of electrification, shared mobility, autonomous driving, connectivity and safety.
