Wireless Charging

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$3,000 for a system limited to 3.3kW sounds a bit too much for me. If you go ahead with it please let us know how it goes.

Now Toyota seems to be jumping on the wireless charging bandwagon...

"Toyota is getting more serious about wireless charging for its electric cars, and a Boston-area company is benefitting."

"The world’s largest car-maker says it is licensing patents from Watertown, MA-based WiTricity, an MIT spinout that has developed technology to recharge batteries without using wires."

http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2013/12/05/toyota-licenses-wireless-battery-charging-tech-witricity/#disqus_thread" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

----- Sarcasm on -----
Personally I am very excited about creating an EMF field of that strength so that I don't have to bother with a vasectomy.

I mean bending over and plugging that cord in is sooo strenuous, and with the new self driving LEAFs I won't even need to be conscious when I drive. Pretty soon the only exercise I'll need to perform is breathing and maybe I can get a portable iron lung so I can skip that too...
--- Sarcasm off ---

I am against wireless because of the inherent inefficiency of wireless charging (compared to a cable connection). The only real convenience that I see is that copper thieves won't be able to swipe the cable while I'm charging (the GE charge stations have a retractable cable so the only time the cable is exposed is when it's plugged into the car and it's ~3ft). Wasting >10% of the power to charge for "convenience" just doesn't seem right to me.

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Yes, I agree with you - the convenience would outweigh the cost. My wife tends to forget to plug in (forgivable being 8 months pregnant), but she needs it to be charged in the morning. So if I don't remember to go plug in before heading to bed, she has to burn a bunch of gas the next day. It would be nice to take my memory out of the equation. Not necessary, but convenient.

SuperBlack said:

Yes, I agree with you - the convenience would outweigh the cost. My wife tends to forget to plug in (forgivable being 8 months pregnant), but she needs it to be charged in the morning. So if I don't remember to go plug in before heading to bed, she has to burn a bunch of gas the next day. It would be nice to take my memory out of the equation. Not necessary, but convenient.

Click to expand...

You know you can configure CarWings to text or email you if the car is parked at a charging station for more than 15 minutes without being plugged in? Not a substitute for cordless charging, but more practical short term.

Eyeresearch said:

Well, ask a question and all kind of "negative attitudes" come crawling out of the dumpster. Like I am hardly going to miss a dime per day it would cost me to use the inductive charger vs. the corded method, who cares, it's charged when me or the misses hops into it and that is the goal. I am sure some of the na sayers spend more for their coffee each week than I spend each month just to charge my car, gee wizz. I put about 45 miles on the car per day and I personally like the idea of "set it and forget it." Where ever I can streamline my daily routine I am going to, worked hard to get where I am today and I am enjoying the rest of my time here on out. :lol:

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You asked for opinions. Depending on your consumption and rates it won't be a dime. Some pay say $.35 per kwh, that would be at about $8.00 a full charge and the loss would be about $.80. Let's say it is $.50 per day that is a loss of $10 a month plus more than $3k so in three years $3300 / 720 charges is about $4.58 per charge extra for convenience. Divide it by two and it's still pricy and wastes power.

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I guess my over-the-top sarcasm negated my earlier message. My problems with wireless charging:

1) Safety. We're not talking about a some little phone charging pad, or even a microwave oven radiating here. We're talking a lot of juice (and heat) as much as 7.5kW worth (see math below). Yes that power dissipates quickly after a couple of feet, but it ain't zero. There's already enough radio wave energy in your house to power stuff as it is (see http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304243904579198090758959648) with all the other (lower power) radios floating around (mobile phones, wireless landline headsets, Wifi, WiGig, bluetooth, ZigBee,etc). I suppose as long the transmitter is far from the house I'm OK with it, but I work on stuff in my garage (so I wouldn't want it there) and certainly wouldn't want my pregnant wife anywhere near it.

2) Efficiency ">10% loss" it's actually ~14% loss, that means 920W lost to get 6.6kW into the car, that's enough to run a medium sized Toaster (small toaster if I'm only 3.3kW). That's not chump change, and certainly more than "a dime". I have a dedicated meter & my charges are around $1.50/day, so that's $75/year (14%*1.50*365) of electricity donated to the air. But more importantly its just plain not efficient use of energy. Do people really think its OK to run a empty toaster a couple of hours a day? I don't.

3) Expense. Pretty much everything I've read puts the cost for the receiver (on bottom of the car) & the transmitter (floor of garage) significantly more than conventional EVSE cable technology, e.g. $1500-$3500 vs a $75 J1772 just to connect.

Sorry. I've already learned to plug my car in every night like my phone and that works just fine for me.

I just love it when people don't get the answer they want the take their ball and go home....

Announced today at CES: $2098 Wireless Leaf charger:
http://www.powerpulse.net/story.php?storyID=29093;s=010620141" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I would like to know more about this! I need details about wireless charging.

There are several companies working on wireless charging. Qualcomm's Halo system is one of them, HAVO Power is installing systems in NY State for evaluation, there's another company which has it already deployed on busses, etc.

At one point, I got a survey from Toyota asking me several questions about wireless charging, so I really do think it's happening within the next 2-3 years.

keydiver said:

Announced today at CES: $2098 Wireless Leaf charger:
http://www.powerpulse.net/story.php?storyID=29093;s=010620141" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure I saw this system at Bosch's booth over in the North Hall @ CES.

From talking to the guy, unfortunately, this won't work well in commercial or business settings unless it's 1 charging pad per specific vehicle. Apparently, the stationary pad is paired to the unit installed on the car side w/1:1 relationship. The entire system (stationary bits + the parts that go on the car) are sold all as 1 unit. Vehicles that aren't paired can't charge.

It sounded like (but I'm not 100% sure) that 1 stationary unit can't be paired w/multiple cars.

I was looking forward to reading the posts in full to see how this works, pros and cons. Seems as though the methods do waste some energy, as all charging does. I was looking at this purely for my Wife's car because she forgets to plug things in and a car is very important to plug in when it's EV.

Looks like the OP removed his original posts, shame. Maybe he just thought to himself 'forget you guys' (replace 'Forget' with whatever you wish), and removed the posts since it was filling up with negativity.

I feel sad that people think it is ok to be mean to others online, civility ends when you are no longer face to face?

I would like to think that we are all grown ups and are part of a movement together. We are pioneers and ambassadors of this new wave of car ownership and should behave accordingly. It is very easy to be nasty to people online, through email, im, text or other social media, but more rewarding to be good to others.

Anyway, I've had my say. I don't think I'll be using this method of charging, just yet.