Wireless charging is also known as conductive charging or cordless charging. Wireless charging is done by using an electromagnetic field to transfer energy between two objects or points through electromagnetic induction.
New York City-based HEVO Inc. was founded in 2011 by Jeremy McCool, a former U.S. Army captain who spent 14 months in Iraq witnessing the consequences of energy geopolitics before enrolling in Columbia University to study sustainable development. HEVO grew out of a school project.
“I started the company with no team, no technology and $800,” McCool said in an interview. “Probably the worst and more naive way to start a company, by all means.” In May 2012, HEVO officially became members and tenants of the NYC Accelerator for a Clean and Resilient Economy (NYC ACRE) incubator in SoHo.
Global Changing station market
Transparency Market Research released a new market report on September 4, titled “Electric Vehicle Charging Station Market – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2018–2026.”
There were about 582,000 public charging outlets worldwide at the end of 2017, and the market, fueled by increased purchases of electric vehicles is expected to grow over 10 percent during the forecast period.
However, a new report by Persistence Market Research presents some interesting facts and statistics on the global wireless car charging market for an eight-year forecast period 2017 – 2025.
The global wireless car charging market is estimated to reach a market valuation of $3,147 million by the end of 2025, up from $194 million in 2017. This is reflective of a CAGR of 41.7 percent in terms of value during the forecast period and a very impressive number.
The future of car charging
The process of charging an EV is really quite simple. HEVO’s technology utilizes magnetic resonant coupling that is a non-radiative mode of energy transfer relying on the magnetic near field. Drivers can pull their EV over a device that looks like a white plastic panel, then presses a button on a smartphone app.
After pulling into the parking space, blue dots flash under the windshield to indicate that power is now flowing into the car’s battery. There are about six inches of empty space between the charger and the car, which has been modified to receive power through an electromagnetic field.
The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) launched Task Force SAE J2954 for “Wireless Charging of Electric and Plug-in Electric Vehicles” to establish performance and safety limits for wireless power transfer for automotive applications while establishing interoperability requirements. Interoperability is the ability to allow two or more systems to work together to communicate and exchange data.
The Task Force recently issued 85kHz as the industries standard operating frequency. HEVO is an active member of the Committee and our pre-commercial units comply with the Task Force’s standards.
HEVO is in the manufacturing stage
“The equipment on the vehicle is cheaper and more lightweight than existing plug-in charging equipment by a factor of five to 10 times,” McCool said, in talking about HEVO’s technology. “We’re also future-proofing for autonomous electric vehicles. If you don’t need a human to park the car, you shouldn’t need to a human to charge the car.”
HEVO is moving ahead to the manufacturing phase and is setting up shop in a factory in New York where it plans to soon crank out its first 25 wireless chargers. The company plans on producing thousands of their devices in the next 18 months to meet supply agreements HEVO has signed with carmakers and energy companies.
City solution
One of the biggest advantages of wireless charging is that it is a solution to the issue of how to charge electric cars in densely-populated cities. Installing HEVO’s devices in apartment building parking lots and along residential streets could help open up new markets.
And HEVO stands among a number of big names in the wireless charging sector, including Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., Evatran, LLC (Plugless Power), WiTricity Corporation, Momentum Dynamics Corp., Toshiba Corporation, Mojo Mobility, Inc., Bombardier Inc., TDK Corporation, Denso Corporation, and ZTE Corporation.
