Ford recently submitted a patent application for a device that might completely alter how electric cars are charged. the notion? incorporating electrically powered coils into the road to enable wireless power transmission to electric vehicles.
Stellantis and Saft recently unveiled a ground-breaking new battery; now it's Ford's chance to present its innovations for revolutionizing electric vehicle charging. In fact, the oval brand has recently submitted a patent application to the USPTO for a pretty ambitious technology (but one whose implementation is still extremely challenging).
In summary, this patent application describes a method for wirelessly charging electric vehicles on the road using coils buried in the road that are wired to a power supply. "Roadway Charging Coil Alignment and Monitoring" was the name of the patent, which was submitted on January 20 and published this summer.
CHARGING ELECTRIC CARS WITH COILS INSTALLED IN THE ROADWAY
According to the description, Ford is therefore proposing to equip electric cars with ground-penetrating radar (more commonly known as ground-penetrating radar) to detect coils installed under the roadway. In this way, the coils could automatically orient themselves towards the receivers installed within the EVs to maximize the charging power.
“The invention optimizes the inductive coupling between the vehicle-mounted receive coils and the pavement-integrated transmit coils to maximize the vehicle's charge rate when traveling at high speed on a road,” describes the American company. According to the statements of the company, the ground penetrating radar would therefore make it possible to detect and map the load coils, so that it would be possible for the vehicle to follow a path for having benefited from an optimal load capacity.
A PROMISING TECHNOLOGY, BUT UTOPIC FOR THE MOMENT
At first glance, this technology is promising, because it would first of all allow electric vehicles to carry smaller batteries (since they would recharge en route) and inevitably to lose weight on the scale. Nevertheless, its application obviously remains very complex and above all particularly expensive. We let you imagine the cost of installing these coils on all the roads of a country...
The present inductive charging technologies' insufficient power, which varies between 11 and 20 kW, is still a concern. Of course, some startups—like ElecReon—have already made inroads in this area. On a one-kilometer stretch of road in Sweden, this Israeli building successfully tested its wireless charging technology (reaching a power of 70 kW). This is still an experiment, though.
Recall that Ford has already submitted patent applications pertaining to the charging of electric vehicles. The company dreamed of a solar roof cover that would be placed in May 2020 and would recharge EV batteries.