There is no exposed connector for wireless charging of electric vehicles, which completely avoids potential safety hazards such as leakage and running. With wireless charging, the power supply and transformer can be concealed underground, allowing the car to charge at a special charging point on the parking or street.

Many electric vehicle manufacturers are actively exploring the possibility of commercializing this technology. BYD applied for a patent for non-contact inductive chargers as early as December 2005. They sold it to a 40-foot pure electric bus from the University of Utah in July this year, equipped with the latest WAVE wireless charging pad. This was developed by a leader at the Energy Dynamics Laboratory at Utah State University. The driver parked the bus on the charging pad and was fully charged after a few minutes of waiting. Germany, Japan and other countries are also very active. In Munich, Germany, testing of home wireless charging has been started. The Toyohashi University of Technology in Japan is studying road charging devices that can transmit electricity to cars through 20 cm thick concrete blocks. The two companies that research the next generation of wireless charging technology, Witricity and Fulton Technologies, have won many mainstream electric vehicle partners.

Witricity has developed an electric car charger that can be recharged. It was a half-meter-wide board placed on the garage floor—from the top, the car began to charge.

Witricity works with many companies to bring this technology to market. Many car manufacturers are interested in their technology, such as Audi, Toyota and so on. It signed a multi-million-dollar contract with Toyota to develop a battery-powered car charger and announced a partnership with Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Mediatek to develop products that charge mobile devices.

The technology of another startup, Fulton Technology, can wirelessly charge electric vehicles through a few centimetres of marble or garage floors.

These technologies are more practical than the inductive charging that is now available – now the technology allows you to wirelessly charge your car in your own garage, but you have to stop at a specific location and calibrate with the charging coil.

Fulton has been acquired by Qualcomm, a US chip design company. Since the beginning of this year, Qualcomm has cooperated with French Renault and British Delta Motor Company in commercial testing of street wireless charging in the East Side Technology City in London. Qualcomm envisages the construction of wireless charging facilities in the parking lot of public shopping centers and public road parking spots. Semi-dynamic charging, such as traffic warning lights, intersections, taxi stops and bus stops, can be set up at each charging station. It is necessary to be full and keep 40%-80% of electricity. The London government is considering building a construction network that covers the entire city.

At present, the bottleneck that hinders the large-scale application of wireless inductive charging technology is mainly due to radiation concerns, because wireless charging generates a strong magnetic field. When a person or animal is located between an electric vehicle and a charging device, it may cause electromagnetic damage. So ensuring the security of wireless charging systems is also a joint point. In this regard, companies also need a lot of testing and improvement related technologies.