A century ago, Nikola Tesla illuminated a bulb without a wire. Now experts at Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are taking the concept on the road, developing tech to charge electric vehicles without a cord.
"The ORNL … research teams have set impressive world records for wireless charging," Department of Energy official Lee Slezak said in a lab report. "These achievements will further speed up the adoption of electric vehicles in the U.S."
It's fitting tech for a world with the ultra-modern Cybertruck and other advanced models on the prowl.
ORNL broke a record for transferring 270 kilowatts to a Porsche Taycan. The lab room where it happened sounds like a place where Tesla would be right at home. That's because it works by using electromagnetic coils with "rotating magnetic fields," per the lab summary.
The receiving coils were integrated into the EV's undercarriage. Power is delivered through a five-inch air gap. The setup reached a power density up to 10 times higher than already developed wireless chargers. Amazingly, the device can charge the EV by 50% in 10 minutes, according to an ORNL video clip describing the research.
The latest achievement improves on past innovations by making the setup smaller, lighter, and more effective. These are all important factors for the tech to go mainstream.
"Per kilowatt weight, this is also the most lightweight charging system in the world," ORNL's Omer Onar, leader of the Porsche demonstration, said in the summary.
Importantly, the lab report notes that there are safety protocols to protect against overheating and short circuits.
Charging infrastructure capacity is a hurdle for EV growth. A universal plug-in charger is being developed in India that would serve more types of EVs. Last year, the Biden administration announced plans to build a national network of 500,000 EV chargers so half of new car sales can be battery-powered rides by 2030.
Tesla already has a robust network of 50,000 Superchargers worldwide and figures to be a key part of the plan, though layoffs at the EV giant earlier this year are feared by industry watchers as a setback to the initiative.
The ORNL tech could change things greatly.
"This achievement gets us one step further to the reality of a future where an electric vehicle can pull into a charging station and recharge in the same time it would take to walk into a store and grab a snack. ... We're even exploring ways that this technology could be used to charge a vehicle in motion on the roadway," ORNL researcher Burak Ozpineci said in the lab report.
EVs are one of the best ways to save money on transportation while reducing thousands of pounds of heat-trapping air pollution each year, per the government. The Department of Transportation notes that vehicle smog is a leading lung troubler, aggravating asthma and other health problems.
Fortunately, steep tax breaks of up to $7,500 are available to cut the cost of the cleaner rides. And you can save up to $1,500 annually by nixing gas and certain maintenance.
If ORNL research continues at its current pace, your next EV may not even need a plug.
"We're working to reach much higher charge rates for other types of vehicles, including investigating achieving a significantly higher charge for heavy-duty freight and transport trucks," Onar said in the summary.
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