In this blog: A new breakthrough for the EV wireless charging – 20 kW @ 90% efficiency.
It's great to have a lot of EV charging stations around so we can all charge fast and convenient. There's even better way, though – the wireless charging – and there's a new achievement that boosts its power and speed considerably...
Oak Ridge National Laboratury (ORNL)'s power electronics team managed to achieve 90% efficiency for 20 kW wireless EV charging and is working on a 50 kW solution.
According to ORNL's team, this is the first successful 20 kW EV wireless charging attempt in the world. It took them 3 years to develop, test and make a working prototype. It has an unique architecture that includes an ORNL-built inverter, isolation transformer, vehicle-side electronics and coupling technologies.
To demonstrate it, researchers integrated the single-converter system into an electric Toyota RAV4 equipped with an additional 10 kWh battery. Project was supported by Toyota, Cisco Systems, Evatran и Clemson University.
The broader scope of this new tech is in minimization of the vehicle's on-board complexity as ORNL and partners pursue the long-range goal of connected vehicles, wireless communications and in-motion charging.
Next target is to get to the 50 kW territory which brings us to the very important matter with the safery.
ORNL tech is such that the high-frequency magnetic fields employed in power transfer across a large air gap are focused and shielded. This means that magnetic fringe fields decrease rapidly to levels well below limits set by international standards, including inside the vehicle, to ensure personal safety.
Indeed a big step forward for the EV wireless charging and here's video demonstrating the process.