Electric Toothbrush | Qualcomm Halo: Wireless Inductive Charging For Electric Vehicles

One of the greatest problems with electric vehicles is charging them–you know how tough it is to find a block when your phone’s running out of juice, so you can usually suppose how hard it is to find a block for your car.

Qualcomm Halo Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging (WEVC) technology seeks to compromise this complaint with wireless preliminary charging for electric vehicles. Qualcomm Halo WEVC has essentially taken preliminary charging–which you probably already see in gadgets such as your electric toothbrush–to the next level, by creation it probable to send kilowatts “over an air hole of hundreds of millimeters whilst still progressing high-energy give electricity.”

Halo WEVC consists of two parts: a charging image that attaches to the bottom of the vehicle, and a charging pad that may be placed on or next the ground. Inductive charging uses attraction to give power, and a Qualcomm deputy tells PCWorld that Halo WEVC can give up to 3.5 kilowatts of power at larger than 90 percent efficiency–that’s as great as, or even better, than connected charging.

In other words, the automobile should assign as swift wirelessly as it would if it were wired. The deputy moreover tells PCWorld that the technology is really tolerant, so it’s not vital to playing field the automobile precisely over the mat, just “close enough.”

While Halo WEVC is still in antecedent mode, Qualcomm has voiced that it will launch a hearing of the antecedent in London. The hearing will camber two years and engage about 50 cars. If successful, you can design to see the technology in the consumer market. Qualcomm primarily skeleton to permit the technology to automakers, who will confederate the charging image on the bottom of electric vehicles and add a unstable charging mat.

Eventually, Qualcomm would similar to to see the technology in infrastructure (parking lots at offices, supermarkets, etc; road parking), and, ultimately, embedded in highways. The technology supports energetic charging, that means that the van may be charged whilst the automobile is in motion. Such integration, if it ever comes to fruition, will clearly compromise the complaint of electric van charging altogether.

For more blogs, stories, photos, and video from the nation’s largest consumer wiring show, examine out PCWorld’s total coverage of CES 2012 .