Grant: Idea to Innovation

We have developed a new technology for approach to wirelessly charging electric vehicles. In this project, we will focus on the small electric vehicle (EV) market, and specifically small EVs (SEV) intended for short-range use. We will demonstrate the use of the technology in a small fleet of EVs currently in use by UBC Building Operations. Our goal is to demonstrate the commercial potential of this technology in the sizeable SEV market. Technology adoption in this market will be a commercial success in its own right and, importantly, it will serve as a very effective platform for wide-scale commercialization in the general automotive industry. One significant barrier to widespread adoption of EVs is that the traditional method of charging an EV requires the driver to plug an electrical cord from a charging station into their vehicle, which is not only inconvenient but is potentially dangerous in some situations, for example, where exposed metal contacts may have been corroded by road salt. To provide a practical wireless solution, we will develop a new magnetic technology for transferring power wirelessly over an air gap, without any cords or physical contact between the vehicle and the charging unit. The unique advantage is that the transfer efficiency can be extremely high using a low magnetic coupling frequency of about 60Hz, in stark contrast to other large gap wireless transfer methods which use coupling radio frequencies (RF) in the range between 30 kHz and 10 MHz. The safety of using these high power RF emitters near people is questionable, making them less suited for charging EVs. Our method has the potential to dramatically improve the rate of adoption of electric vehicles by making them more attractive to the average driver, and thus could have a profound impact on sustainability, as well as boosting the Canadian automotive and manufacturing industry.