Together with some select partners, Volvo cars is currently integrating and testing a new technology, a new wireless charging capability in a live city environment to check its potential for future electric cars.
The test will run for a period of three years. There will be a small fleet of fully electric Volvo XV40 Recharge that will be used as taxis by the largest taxi operator in the Nordic region, Cabonline. This small fleet will be charged wirelessly at stations in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Gothenburg Green City Zone strategic initiative has outlined the wireless charging test as one of its projects. Live test beds for the development of sustainable technologies will be seen in designated areas in the city.
Volvo Cars Head of Research and Development Mats Moberg shared, “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. Testing new charging technologies together with selected partners is a good way to evaluate alternative charging options for our future cars.”
Momentum Dynamics, the leading provider of wireless electric charging system is tasked to deliver the charging stations that will be used in the test. Charging pads will be embedded in the street, when a compatible vehicle parks over it, the charging will conveniently start automatically so the driver do not have to get out of their car.
A receive unit in the car will receive the energy that the charging station sends out. To make it easier to align the car with the charging pad, Volvo cars can use the 360-degree camera system. The fully electric XC40 Recharge cars, there will be more than 40kW wireless charging power which is a charging speed that is roughly four times faster than a wired 11kW AC charger. It is also almost as fast as a wired 50kW DC fast charger.
The Volvo cars will be used for more than 12 hours a day and is expected to drive around 100,000 km a year. This is also a great chance to fully test the durability of the fully electric Volvo cars in their viability for commercial use.
A lot of other partners are involved in the wireless charging project which includes the company’s own Swedish retailers Volvo Car Sörred and Volvo Bil. A Swedish energy company Vattenfall is also involved as well as its charging network InCharge. Göteborg Energi, the city energy company will also be part of the project, as well as the City of Gothenburg’s municipal economic development agency Business Region Gothenburg.
Just last year, Volvo cars was part of the Gothenburg Green City Zone initiative launch. The initiative’s goal was to achieve an emission-free transport by 2030. To speed up the development technologies and services in shared mobility, electrification, connectivity, safety, and autonomous driving, they will have a whole real city to use as a testing ground, and this project is one of the first steps.
