Fast, Efficient Wireless Charging for Electric Cars Now Closer to Reality

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tenessee just announced good news for avid electric car owners: they recently invented a wireless charging system that charges thrice as fast as ordinary systems these days.

According to Discovery News, a team from the laboratory was able to achieve a high charging rate for their electric passenger vehicles. With this in mind, it seems that the test for these vehicles, have been successful. The lab started with the Toyota RAV4 with an extra 10-kilowatt hour battery and wireless 20-kilowatt system for their initial test.

A fellow from the lab named Omer Onar said in a press release that the technology is already highly efficient and that his team's experiments are becoming that much closer to deployment. If they are successful, the charging system will be able to charge a vehicle battery almost as fast as when it is plugged.

This plug-in charging for electric vehicles have been around for a while and has since been significantly improved. Being able to recharge batteries, however, will be very convenient, especially for fleet systems like buses that can be charged along their routes. ORNL's version now operates at 20-kilowatts for its charging system, although they are still looking into safety considerations.

Gizmodo noted however that wireless charging for cars may be more difficult than it is on phones, considering the high wattage that is necessary to run them. The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory showed that although wireless charging for cars may be possible in the future, it isn't ready for release yet. The concepts is still stuck a that stage, but it is likely that it is only the beginning of such an important step as far as electric vehicles are concerned.

This revelation also opens a more profitable market - with electronic vehicle recharging becoming as easy as plugging it in, the gap between using a fuel-powered car and an electrical one could finally be closed...but there might be a few more years for that desire to become a reality.