Wireless Charging by BMW — an Impending Future. The majority of analysts in the automotive market claim that by 2040, electric cars will account for 50 percent of the market. However, before this happens, we need to develop and upgrade the entire infrastructure responsible for their replenishment. And switch to a wireless system.
For instance, the American company WiTricity asserts that they already have a ready technology for bidirectional wireless power transfer. Americans have developed a rather clever business model — instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars on producing their own «mats» for charging electric vehicles, they make their technology accessible to all interested parties.
Wireless Charging for Electric Vehicles — the Future
The first manufacturer to offer a car using WiTricity technology is BMW. Their model iPerformance 530e of this year is available with the option of wireless charging.
Read about our visit to the campus where autonomous BMW cars are being created in another article!
System Operation
Simply drive the car to have the wireless charging pad located under the car's hood. From the photos provided by the manufacturer, it can be inferred that BMW systems easily detect the wireless charging device. Thanks to this, when setting the car for charging, the driver will be aided by the 3D View system.
The BMW wireless charging system should have a power of 3.2 kW. This is sufficient to charge the batteries in the iPerformance 530e in about 3.5 hours. Additionally, the wireless pad works with the Digital Charging Service system.
Why is this so important? Imagine an intelligent system that starts charging your electricity during the hours when electricity is the cheapest.
And if besides connecting to the traditional power grid, we also have photovoltaic panels, the digital charging service can utilize only free solar energy. If we purchase the BMW Wallbox Connect for it. Of course, the whole system is managed wirelessly through a special application on your smartphone.
However, there is information that BMW electric cars are not profitable and production is being halted.
Principle of Operation of BMW Wireless Charging
The WiTricity system operates in two directions.
This means that vehicles compatible with this technology can transmit accumulated electrical energy back to the grid. Why is this so important? For example, because with the increase in electric car sales, the load on the power grid will also increase.
If electric vehicles are unable to support our power stations during peak hours (referring to energy consumption, not road conditions), we simply won't have enough electricity in the world.
Also, read about what the first electric SUV from BMW looks like.
WiTricity boasted that their wireless charging system features a loss of transmitted electricity ranging from 10 to 13 percent. With no cables involved — this is a very good result.
BMW Wireless Charging with a New Standard
Similar issues are currently being tackled by companies such as Nissan, Hyundai, Honda, and Toyota. I only hope that corporations will be willing to collaborate with each other, and the wireless charging technologies they develop will be compatible.
Such a unified standard would simply be the most convenient solution for end consumers, namely electric vehicle owners who wouldn't have to search for a parking spot with a charging device compatible with their car.
A unified wireless charging standard will also work in the era of autonomous cars.
Computer-driven cars could operate autonomously or after they have dropped us off at work, support the power grid during peak hours using the energy they have accumulated.
