The system, which can charge a vehicle parked in alignment over a coil on the surface of the ground, will undergo verification testing involving three plug-in hybrid vehicles in use in homes in the Aichi Prefecture.
Toyota Motor Corporation is starting verification testing on its newly developed wireless battery charging system for electrified power train vehicles, such as plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles.
The system, which can charge a vehicle parked in alignment over a coil on the surface of the ground, will undergo verification testing involving three plug-in hybrid vehicles in use in homes in the Aichi Prefecture.
The test, which will span one year, will assess user satisfaction, the ease of use of the system, the misalignment rates, and charging behavior, such as frequency and the use of timer-based charging.
After the data has been recorded, the test results will be used to further improve the technology, with commercialization as its next step. Toyota believes that the system’s commercialization will help promote the use of electrified vehicles.
The wireless vehicle charging system can fully charge a vehicle in approximately 90 minutes. It uses magnetic-resonance technology to transmit electricity, changing the magnetic field intensity between the coil on the ground that transmits and the coil on the vehicle that receives.
And because the vehicle needs to be in alignment with the system’s coils, Toyota has developed a new parking assist function that shows the position of the transmitting coil in the parking space allowing for optimum charging position. – EcoSeed Staff
