ADVERTISEMENTElectric vehicles (EVs) are on the rise, yet charging remains one of the main hurdles for regular drivers.
In Gothenburg, Sweden, a bold experiment aimed to tackle it by eliminating plugs.
Since March 2022, the city has been testing wireless charging technology through a unique three-year pilot involving a fleet of 20 electric taxis.
Volvo Cars supplied the cars, the American company Induct EV integrated the inductive charging technology, and Gothenburg City provided infrastructure.
Over three years, 20 Volvo’s XC40 were used in taxi operations, covering over 4.3 million kilometres, according to a report published by Business Region Göteborg, the city’s economic development agency.
“We are doing this to create more learning about what the wireless charging usage will be, and it’s all about the people and how you will receive the technology,” Robert Eriksson, a senior technical leader at Volvo Cars, told Euronews Next.
The wireless charging stations over the test period covered 13.5 per cent of the total fleet energy supply.
“It’s a good project … you don’t have to worry about the cable. Just stand on top of those [pads],” Talal Maksassi, a local taxi driver, told Euronews Next.
How does it work?
The wireless charging technology, developed by InductEV, was built into test cars supplied by Volvo Cars.
Using a 360-degree camera built into Volvo’s XC40, drivers can see the receiver marked as a blue box on the ground and align the car on top of it to start charging.
Maksassi says it was tricky to align the car at first, but he’s gotten used to it since.
“You need to be in the exact place to charge the car. Otherwise, it doesn’t work. But you get used to it as well,” he said.
The technology works much like a giant wireless phone charger.
The in-ground chargers, connected to a charging station located about 20 meters away, transmit energy upward to a receiver mounted under the vehicle.
“What you have in the blue part here on the ground is a coil that is transmitting the wireless inductive energy into the receiver of the car. There is a similar pad placed under the car that receives the energy and then transports it through the wiring corners into the battery of the vehicle,” Eriksson said.
The in-ground chargers can deliver up to 75 kW.
‘Green City Zone’
The project was part of Gothenburg’s broader ‘Green City Zone’ initiative, which turns parts of the city into real-world testbeds for supporting the development of sustainable transport technologies, in an attempt to ensure emission-free traffic by 2030.
In the EU member states, all new passenger cars and vans sold must be zero‑emission from January 2035.
“We have found wireless charging to be attractive for taxi fleets and other transporters at key locations within the city, with great potential of supporting our city’s climate targets of lowering emissions from the traffic system,” Patrik Andersson, CEO, Business Region Göteborg, stated in the report.
“We are happy to foster further collaboration, and glad that an absolute majority of the project’s drivers are keen to continue using this innovative solution,” he added.
The study shows that the usage of plug-free charging can be improved with an increased number of charging stations.
Volvo Car said the project can easily be replicated in other European cities.
“You can scale almost anywhere where you have electric vehicles and where you have an infrastructure, electric grids available and so on,” Eriksson said.
“Of course, you need to find places to put the charging station, and so you need to interact with the city. This is not something you can do completely alone as a group. You need to act together with others,” he added.
The city has recently announced a new charging station with two inductive chargers in front of a massive international conference hall, in addition to the two charging stations with four in-ground chargers used in the trial.
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