Enlarge / A rendering of a public wireless charging station. In fact, WiTricity expects most wireless chargers to be installed in homes. (credit: WiTricity)
In our recent explainer on electric vehicle charging, you might have noticed that we didn't mention wireless EV charging. Now common on smartphones, wireless charging works the same way on cars, just at higher power levels and with much bigger batteries. But after some demos and news releases during the mid-teens, the technology seemed to fall off the radar.
Behind the scenes, though, engineers were hashing out an industry standard, aided by industry consolidation along the way. That's now final, and the first EVs with factory-fit wireless charging systems are starting to appear, albeit not here in the US just yet. But given its ease of use, even for drivers who can't imagine life beyond the gas pump, the potential for adoption seems good.
Ars got its first look at wireless car charging back in 2015. Back then, chip-maker Qualcomm was developing what it called Halo, which it was demonstrating at Formula E races by recharging the battery in a safety car, a BMW i8 plug-in hybrid. It wasn't the only outfit developing wireless charging, however. In Massachusetts, an MIT spinoff called WiTricity started playing around with wireless car charging in 2010 after an investment by Toyota.
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