It is possible to charge when a car is parked or stopped without any chargers

Wireless charge skill is going to be applied on Korean commercial electric car, as early as in 2017 on Soul EV of Kia and other electric cars.

Ministry of Trade, Industry, & Energy(MOIE) and Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology(KEIIT) announced that they have chosen Greenpower Consortium (Kaist, Korea Electric Power Corporation, Korea Automotive Technology Institute, and BNS) to develop electric car’s wireless charging system (6.6 kW grade).

Consortium is planning to develop 6.6 kW grade wireless charging system, which can induce magnetic resonance that has 90% charging efficiency, and apply on Hyundai and Kia’s electric cars starting from 2017.

This technique turns a magnetic force that is induced by magnetic field of an electric wire on a street into electricity, and uses it as a power source for electric car. Although it takes about 4~5 hours to completely charge a car just like a regular charger, it doesn’t require a special charging cable when a car is parked or stopped. It can also reduce an electric shock or an accident since one doesn’t have to use a charger that is installed outdoor when the weather is cold or rain and a charging plug in a narrow parking lot. This is why WiTricity, BMW, Benz, Toyta, Volvo, Intel, and Qualcomm all enter into securing a wireless charging technique of 6.6 kWh grade.

Photo Image
<It is possible to charge when a car is parked or stopped without any chargers. Wireless charge skill is going to be applied on Korean automakers electric car, as early as in 2017 on Soul EV of Kia and other electric cars.photo=Greenpower Consortium (Kaist, KEPC, K ATI,BNS)>

Greenpower consortium is developing the technology based on stable and alrge scale data transmission and miniaturization for safe wireless charging. While focusing on personal safety (EMF and EMC standard criteria) and car’s safety, it is also focusing on interoperqability between electric transmission and car receiver, and miniaturization. Kia Soul EV is going to be used as the test car, and international wireless charging standardization work is going to be used at the same time during the developing process.

By having Greenpower’s basic wireless charging technology (3.3 kW grade) as its foundation, consortium is going to develop a technology that has an inter-operability of transmission and receiving unit, and a remote monitoring technology for selecting location for optimum charging. Korea Electric Power Corporation(KEPC) is going to provide a test bed for a wireless remote for a wireless car and a test environment.

“Wireless charging system has a great stability when charging a parked car. And a corporation like WiTricity is starting to convert individual technique into an Intellectual Property” Jungkoo Cho, who is a president of Greenpower said of wireless charging system.

He added that “It feels like we are late into developing this technique, but we are going to focus on securing a share of the market by developing a trusted and stable commercial technology.”

Totalsome of 6.3 million dollars funding, which includes 4 million dollars from government as well as some from private funding, is going to be invested in this development.

Staff Reporter Park, TaeJoon | gaius@etnews.com