Volvo has now started to test wireless charging for their cars, over a three year period they will test a small fleet of their Volvo XC40 Recharge taxis in a city in Sweden called Gothenburg. The Volvo SUVs operated by a taxi company in Cabonline, they will use a wireless charging pads that are made by a company called Momentum Dynamics and the charging pads will be installed into the pavements. The installed charging pads will automatically start charging when a compatible EV parks over the pad providing over 40 kW of power, which will be four times faster than a normal corded 11 kW AC charger. The Firm says this is enough for 60 miles of range in 30 minutes.
The charging pads that will be supplied to Volvo from the company Momentum Dynamics has already produced a system capable of charging a bus and previously used a fleet of 25 adapted Jaguar I-Pace models to test the technology in Oslo, Norway.
The brand new Volvo XC40 Recharge taxis will cover about 60,000 miles a year and will be operating for over 12 hours a day which Volvo hopes should certainly give the cars and the charging stations a workout. The purpose of the testing is to examine the durability of the systems for commercial vehicles. Their will be six vehicles that will be on the trial and will be working taxis and they plan to expand over the three years in the trial.
Gothenburg, the home of Volvo’s headquarters, is currently running a number of projects to research and develop sustainable technologies. The city uses dedicated areas for tests, known as the Gothenburg Green City Zone.
“Gothenburg Green City Zone lets us try exciting new technologies in a real environment and evaluate them over time for a potential future broader introduction,” said Mats Moberg. Volvo’s Head of Research and development. “Testing new charging technologies together with selected partners is a good way to evaluate alternative charging options for our future cars.”
The zone is targeting emission-free transport by 2030. Volvo said: “Using a real city as a testing ground will enable the company to accelerate development of technologies and services in the areas of electrification, shared mobility, autonomous driving, connectivity and safety.”
