In nearly any office space, one of the best inventions as of late to clean up clutter is the wireless charging option for phones and tablets. It is a great way to save space, and immediately makes you feel as if you can be more productive, minus the mental commotion that bundles of wires on your desk can create. As many panels of engineers and designers have been meeting to decide which options for Kia vehicles would be the most helpful, they thought that it would be just as handy in the garage. Slated for the very near future, Kia now has a three-year plan to develop a fast-charging wireless system for vehicle models in the future.
As part of a joint venture with Mojo Mobility, and with appropriate backing from the Dept. of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the car brand field-tested its new wireless EV charging technology, on a new fleet of Kia Soul EV prototypes. With the prospect of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles being pushed at an all-time high, the allure of wireless charging is similar to what some compare to cutting the cable cord in the TV sector. The system puts to use an electromagnetic inductive field, to transfer electrons between two coils.
One transmitter is placed on the ground, and the other is planted on the bottom of the car. To activate the setup, the driver pilots the vehicle until it rests above the charging transmitter. Then, the battery begins the handy charging process. Even though this is not a 100% new idea, it clearly addresses a few of the faults that there are in functionality with EV charging systems currently in place. What makes the new system by Kia more practical is that it can still efficiently charge, even if the driver does not have the ability to perfectly situation and align the car when parking directly over the wireless charging station. This will make the system much easier to use, and convenient on a day-to-day basis for scores of St Louis and nationwide commuters.
According to Hyundai-Kia American Technical Center, this is a system that is also capable of providing more than 10kw to a properly equipped electric vehicle, while still achieving 85% grid-to-vehicle efficiency. One reason why this is so impressive is that most wireless systems suffer from extreme energy loss. It is not necessarily that the notion of wireless charging is new, but that efforts to increase efficiency will attract many more users. Since the feat of wireless charging still has a ways to go, traditional hard-wired charging cable won't be immediately replaced. Nonetheless, the ability to charge a vehicle from a wireless source would be a very major step forward in building infrastructure for the future, and making life easier on a very grand and cordless scale!
