Electric Avenue

We hit the road to try out the revolutionary new tech that charges electric cars wirelessly as they’re driven – and could spell the end for range anxiety.

- Martin Saarinen

THERE are many questions that electric cars still have to answer, but perhaps the biggest remains where and for how long must potential owners charge them?

Estimates from the Government’s Go Ultra Low campaign suggest that up to 90 per cent of current EV charging takes place at home. That’s fine for those with a garage or a driveway, but won’t convince every motorist considering making the switch from a conventional car. And while the charging station infrastructure is growing, the time it takes to top up a battery is still obviously a worry.

As it turns out, it may not be too long before we abandon plugs and charging cables altogether and look beneath the road surfaces for our next charge. Technology company Qualcomm has come up with a new way of charging electric cars wirelessly from beneath the roads at speeds of up to 70mph. It’s called dynamic wireless charging, and the firm says it will be the future for both electric and autonomous cars. To find out how it works, Auto Express headed to Versailles in France to drive on a road capable of charging an EV.

Wireless car charging isn’t a new concept for Qualcomm. It’s been working on the technology for nearly a decade, and has already come up with a way to wirelessly power up electric vehicles when they’re parked through an underground charging pad and a base plate attached to the bottom of the car that transfers power to the battery.

According to Qualcomm, the same technology is used for dynamic wireless charging, and to see it working firsthand we’ve come to an old military testing ground where the company and its tech partner VEDECOM have built a 100-metre test road. It’s one of the world’s only roads capable of charging an electric car, and Qualcomm’s staff engineer Steven Niederhauser explains to us how it works.